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But even now we realize very imperfectly what a power in the world paper-money is; for we are apt to think of it only as a circulating medium in the form of bank-notes, or treasury-notes, or of somebody's currency which has the merit of making no pretensions to the theoretical idea of a currency which represents gold, the representative of everything else.
What is this enormous sum destined for, M. Chancellor? Why does the king suddenly need so many millions?" "You ask what the king needs so much money for? Sir, the clause ordering these treasury-notes at par would be a sufficient reply to your question.
When a government is unable to procure funds in any other way than by compelling its subjects to take its treasury-notes at par, it proves that it has no credit to negotiate a loan no property which it might render available; it proves that not only its treasury, but the resources of the country, are completely exhausted, and that it has reached a point where it must either go into hopeless bankruptcy or endeavor to maintain itself by palliatives.
Let the Government rent by the month or lease by the year every printing-press in the country let the machinery sweetly hum as the sheets of treasury-notes fall in cascades to the floor, to be cut apart, packed in bundles, and sent to any citizen who wants them on his own unendorsed note unendorsed, Pickles, and at two per cent.! Ever study logic, Pickles? No!
Prussia has come to this. Let us not examine by whose fault or by what accumulation of expenses and obligations, this condition of affairs has been brought about; but the fact remains, and, as the king is unwilling that the state should be declared bankrupt, he resorts to a palliative, and issues ten million dollars in treasury-notes.
These preparations, moreover, had to be made in so hasty a manner, because, as soon as the Russians advance farther into the interior of Prussia, of course both a conscription and the recall of the furloughed soldiers would be impossible." "But this is not all. The king yesterday authorized the minister of finance to issue ten million dollars in treasury-notes, to be taken at par.
The decision of the court protecting a trickster in paying treasury-notes worth but fifty cents for the gold loaned by a friend, savored to the plain miner of rank injustice. To avoid even this opportunity for a legal tender, sometimes notes promised to pay a certain number of ounces and pennyweights, with interest at a fixed rate.
It was the goodman's custom, like that of a great many country gentlemen, to drink his bad wine and eat his spoiled fruit. Towards five in the afternoon Grandet returned from Angers, having made fourteen thousand francs by the exchange on his gold, bringing home in his wallet good treasury-notes which bore interest until the day he should invest them in the Funds.
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