rom the profits on the collection of the revenue and the
contingent profits of commerce. The whole operation was to pay the
creditors of the state 3 per cent. per annum, and the profits and
monopolies heretofore granted to farmers of the revenue and commercial
companies. This 3 per cent. interest, these profits, and these
monopolies, as we shall soon see, might easily amount to the sum of
eighty millions annually, which the creditors were formerly paid. Thus
far they were not defrauded by this forced conversion of securities; a
credit entirely new was substituted for one which was worn out; an
establishment had been created, which, combining the functions of a
commercial bank and the administration of the finances, must become the
most colossal financial power ever known.

The first subscription having been taken up in a few days, Law opened a
new one on September 28th, for the same amount and on exactly the same
conditions as the preceding.

The eagerness of subscribers was the same. The creditors passed whole
days at the offices of the treasury to obtain their receipts, and there
were some even who had their meals brought to them there, so that they
might not lose their turn in the ranks. The state notes were, of course,
much in demand, and had rapidly risen to par. They had even given rise
to a most reprehensible speculation. A confidential clerk of Law, the
Prussian Versinobre, having known in advance of the decree regarding the
payment, abused his knowledge of the secret, and caused to be bought by
brokers with whom he was associated a large amount of state notes at 50
or 60 per cent. below their nominal value, and employed them for the
subscriptions when they were received at par. When it is considered that
the subscriptions, already, were sold at a large advance, and that by
means of the state notes they were bought at about half price, it will
be understood what a profit this company of brokers must have realized.

Those who intended to subscribe had accomplished comparatively little by
obtaining receipts or state notes; it was still necessary to go to the
Hotel de Nevers, where the subscriptions were received. The entrances
there were crowded to suffocation. The hall servants made considerable
sums by subscribing for those who could not get through the crowd to the
offices. Some adventurers, assuming the livery of Law, performed this
service, charging and obtaining a very large fee. The most humble
employees