ic funds,
in squeezing industry on a vast scale by buying up raw material, in
throwing a rope to the first founder of a business just to keep him
above water till his drowned-out enterprise is safely landed--in short,
in all the great battles for money-getting.

The banker, no doubt, like the conqueror, runs risks; but there are
so few men in a position to wage this warfare, that the sheep have no
business to meddle. Such grand struggles are between the shepherds.
Thus, as the defaulters are guilty of having wanted to win too much,
very little sympathy is felt as a rule for the misfortunes brought about
by the coalition of the Nucingens. If a speculator blows his brains
out, if a stockbroker bolts, if a lawyer makes off with the fortune of a
hundred families--which is far worse than killing a man--if a banker is
insolvent, all these catastrophes are forgotten in Paris in few months,
and buried under the oceanic surges of the great city.

The colossal fortunes of Jacques Coeur, of the Medici, of the Angos
of Dieppe, of the Auffredis of la Rochelle, of the Fuggers, of the
Tiepolos, of the Corners, were honestly made long ago by the advantages
they had over the ignorance of the people as to the sources of precious
products; but nowadays geographical information has reached the masses,
and competition has so effectually limited the profits, that every
rapidly made fortune is the result of chance, or of a discovery, or of
some legalized robbery. The lower grades of mercantile enterprise have
retorted on the perfidious dealings of higher commerce, especially
during the last ten years, by base adulteration of the raw material.
Wherever chemistry is practised, wine is no longer procurable; the vine
industry is consequently waning. Manufactured salt is sold to avoid
the excise. The tribunals are appalled by this universal dishonesty. In
short, French trade is regarded with suspicion by the whole world, and
England too is fast being demoralized.

With us the mischief has its origin in the political situation. The
Charter proclaimed the reign of Money, and success has become the
supreme consideration of an atheistic age. And, indeed, the corruption
of the higher ranks is infinitely more hideous, in spite of the dazzling
display and specious arguments of wealth, than that ignoble and more
personal corruption of the inferior classes, of which certain details
lend a comic element--terrible, if you will--to this drama. The
Governme