speaking, the profits are in proportion to the risks.  What does it matter to the State how money is set circulating, provided that it is always in circulation?  What does it matter who is rich or who is poor, provided that there is a constant quantity of rich people to be taxed?  Joint-stock companies, limited liability companies, every sort of enterprise that pays a dividend, has been carried on for twenty years in England, commercially the first country in the world.  Nothing passes unchallenged there; the Houses of Parliament hatch some twelve hundred laws every session, yet no member of Parliament has ever yet raised an objection to the system——­”

“A cure for plethora of the strong box.  Purely vegetable remedy,” put in Bixiou, “les carottes” (gambling speculation).

“Look here!” cried Couture, firing up at this.  “You have ten thousand francs.  You invest it in ten shares of a thousand francs each in ten different enterprises.  You are swindled nine times out of the ten—­as a matter of fact you are not, the public is a match for anybody, but say that you are swindled, and only one affair turns out well (by accident!—­oh, granted!—­it was not done on purpose—­there, chaff away!).  Very well, the punter that has the sense to divide up his stakes in this way hits on a splendid investment, like those who took shares in the Wortschin mines.  Gentlemen, let us admit among ourselves that those who call out are hypocrites, desperately vexed because they have no good ideas of their own, and neither power to advertise nor skill to exploit a business.  You will not have long to wait for proof.  In a very short time you will see the aristocracy, the court, and public men descend into speculation in serried columns; you will see that their claws are longer, their morality more crooked than ours, while they have not our good points.  What a head a man must have if he has to found a business in times when the shareholder is as covetous and keen as the inventor!  What a great magnetizer must he be that can create a Claparon and hit upon expedients never tried before!  Do you know the moral of it all?  Our age is no better than we are; we live in an era of greed; no one troubles himself about the intrinsic value of a thing if he can only make a profit on it by selling it to somebody else; so he passes it on to his neighbor.  The shareholder that thinks he sees a chance of making money is just as covetous as the founder that offers him the opportunity of making it.”

“Isn’t he fine, our Couture?  Isn’t he fine?” exclaimed Bixiou, turning to Blondet.  “He will ask us next to erect statues to him as a benefactor of the species.”

“It would lead people to conclude that the fool’s money is the wise man’s patrimony by divine right,” said Blondet.

“Gentlemen,” cried Couture, “let us have our laugh out here to make up for all the times when we must listen gravely to solemn nonsense justifying laws passed on the spur of the moment.”