Part 38 (2/2)
”Nathan Meyer Rothschild.”
”The devil.”
Old Skinner started sitting. ”Rothschild hanging back. Oh, master, for Heavens sake don't let us try to be wiser than those devils of Jews.
Mr. Richard, I bore up pretty well against your book-learning, but now you've hit me with a thunderbolt. Let us get in gold, and keep as snug as mice, and not lend one of them a farthing to save them from the gallows. Those Jews smell farther than a Christian can see. Don't let's have any more 1793's, sir, for Heaven's sake. Listen to Mr.
Richard; he has been abroad, and come back with a head.”
”Be quiet, Skinner. You seem to possess private information, Richard.”
”I employ three myrmidons to hunt it; it will be useful by and by.”
”It may be now. Remark on these proposals.”
”Well, sir, two of them are based on gold mines, shares at a fabulous premium. Now no gold mine can be worked to a profit by a company.
_Primo:_ Gold is not found in veins like other metals. It is an abundant metal made scarce to man by distribution over a wide surface.
The very phrase gold mine is delusive. _Secundo:_ Gold is a metal that cannot be worked to a profit by a company for this reason: workmen will hunt it for others so long as the daily wages average higher than the amount of metal they find per diem; but, that Rubicon once pa.s.sed, away they run to find gold for themselves in some spot with similar signs; if they stay, it is to murder your overseers and seize your mine. Gold digging is essentially an individual speculation. These shares sell at 700 pounds apiece; a dozen of them are not worth one Dutch tulip-root. Ah! here is a company of another cla.s.s, in which you have been invited to be director; they would have given you shares and made you liable.” Mr. Richard consulted his note-book. ”This company, which 'commands the wealth of both Indies'--in perspective--dissolved yesterday afternoon for want of eight guineas. They had rented offices at eight guineas a week, and could not pay the first week. 'Turn out or pay,' said the landlord, a brute absorbed in the present, and with no faith in the glorious future. They offered him 1,500 pounds worth of shares instead of his paltry eight guineas cash. On this he swept his premises of them. What a G.o.dsend you would have been to these Jeremy Diddlers, you and the ten thousand they would have bled you of.”
The old banker turned pale.
”Oh, that is nothing new, sir. _'To-morrow_ the first lord of the treasury calls at my house, and brings me 11,261 pounds 14s. 11 3/4d., which is due to me from the nation at twelve of the clock on that day; you couldn't lend me a s.h.i.+lling till then, could ye?' Now for the loans. Baynes upon Haggart want 2,000 pounds at 5 per cent.”
”Good names, Richard, surely,” said old Hardie, faintly.
”They were; but there are no good names in time of bubble. The operations are so enormous that in a few weeks a man is hollowed out and his frame left standing. In such times capitalists are like filberts; they look all nut, but half of them are dust inside the sh.e.l.l, and only known by breaking. Baynes upon Haggart, and Haggart upon Baynes, the city is full of their paper. I have brought some down to show it to you. A discounter, who is a friend of mine, did it for them on a considerable scale at thirty per cent discount (cast your eye over these bills, Haggart on Baynes). But he has burned his fingers even at that, and knows it. So I am authorized to offer all these to you at fifty per cent discount.”
”Good heavens! Richard!”
”If, therefore, you think of doing rotten apple upon rotten pear, otherwise Haggart upon Baynes, why do it at five per cent when it is to be had by the quire at fifty?”
”Take them out of my sight,” said old Hardie, starting up--”take them all out of my sight. Thank G.o.d I sent for you. No more discussion, no more doubt. Give me your hand, my son; you have saved the bank!”
The conference broke up with these eager words, and young Skinner retired swiftly from the keyhole.
The next day Mr. Hardie senior came to a resolution which saddened poor old Skinner. He called the clerks in and introduced them to Mr.
Richard as his managing partner.
”Every dog has his day,” said the old gentleman. ”Mine has been a long one. Richard has saved the bank from a fatal error; Richard shall conduct it as Hardie & Son. Don't be disconsolate, Skinner; I'll look in on you now and then.”
Hardie junior sent back all the proposals with a polite negative. He then proceeded on a two-headed plan. Not to lose a s.h.i.+lling when the panic he expected should come, and to make 20,000 pounds upon its subsiding. Hardie & Son held Exchequer bills on rather a large scale.
They were at half a crown premium. He sold every one and put gold in his coffers. He converted in the same way all his other securities except consols. These were low, and he calculated they would rise in any general depreciation of more pretentious investments. He drew out his balance, a large one, from his London correspondent, and put his gold in his coffers. He drew a large deposit from the Bank of England.
Whenever his own notes came into the bank, he withdrew them from circulation. ”They may hop upon Hardie & Son,” said he, ”but they shan't run upon us, for I'll cut off their legs and keep them in my safe.”
One day he invited several large tradesmen in the town to dine with him at the bank. They came full of curiosity. He gave them a luxurious dinner, which pleased them. After dinner he exposed the real state of the nation, as he understood it. They listened politely, and sneered silently, but visibly. He then produced six large packets of his banknotes; each packet contained 3,000 pounds. Skinner, then present, enveloped these packets in cartridge-paper, and the guests were requested to seal them up. This was soon done. In those days a bunch of gigantic seals dangled and danced on the pit of every man's stomach. The sealed packets went back into the safe.
”Show us a sparkle o' gold, Mr. Richard,” said Meredith, linen-draper and wag.
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