Chapter 5 The Gamester by Rafael Sabatini
EXTREME-UNCTION
The cards for which Mr Law waited were not dealt him until a few months later. But dealt him they were at last, and the deal supplied a climax to the exasperation of Monsieur de Noailles and his friends.
Ever since the days of Richelieu and Colbert, the monopoly of maritime commerce and colonial exploitation had been granted for a term of years to such companies among others as the Compagnie de Chine, the Compagnie du Sénégal, the Compagnie du Canada.
In the autumn of this year 1717 Crozat, who had controlled a company for the exploitation of Louisiana and the Valley of the Mississippi, finding it unprofitable, surrendered the concession.
At once Mr Law perceived the chance to begin to realize his dream. This comprised no less than the ultimate gathering into one establishment under his hand the banking, the administration of the public revenues and the direction of all monopolies, so that the State should become one vast commercial undertaking over which he would preside. It had all been foreshadowed in that system of his which the Council of Finance had rejected.
Already something of a power in the State by virtue of the rapid and phenomenal success of his Bank, accounted a magician in finance and reputed of inexhaustible wealth, he could now afford to ask, without circumlocution, to be accorded the concession relinquished by Crozat.
The Regent began by demurring. "You will not be aware of the sad account of the colony which Crozat renders. He reports it in a state of misery, the colonists idle and incompetent, the troops mere brigands without discipline, and all a prey not only to endemic fevers but to actual famine."
Mr Law had been aware of it all and was not dismayed. "I did not suppose that Monsieur Crozat would abandon a colony that is thriving. If it is not, that merely casts discredit upon his methods. Men should not set their hands to undertakings beyond their strength. I have been at pains to inform myself, and I find the land of Louisiana of an unparalleled fertility, its products of an abundance unknown in the old world, its minerals, including gold and silver, of a richness beyond those of Mexico or Peru.
"Give me the control of this colony, monseigneur, and I will undertake to rid France of all her debts in a very little time. If I promise confidently I may boast that Your Highness has not found me given to vain promises."
He went on to reveal the extent to which the enterprise was already plotted in his mind. The bait he dangled before the eyes of the Regent was again, as when he had won the Regent's sanction for his bank, the prospect of a further amortization of State Bonds; but he employed it now in far bolder measure. To finance the scheme he would require, he announced, a hundred million livres.
"God save us!" ejaculated the Regent.
Composedly, Mr Law explained. He would found a company, issuing two hundred thousand shares of five hundred livres, a price that would bring them within the reach of all. To initiate operations, however, twenty-five millions in cash was all that he would require. For the balance he would accept payment for the shares in State Bonds at their face value, which was practically twice their current worth.
The temptation to transfer depreciated capital at par into so golden an investment should, in itself, ensure the subscription of the shares, and so provide the necessary initial fund of twenty-five millions in cash. It would be for the earnings of the company, in a measure as it expanded under proper management, to produce the balance of the hundred millions represented by the issue.
In the meanwhile the public debt would thus be reduced by one hundred and twenty-five millions. In return for what, by this manipulation, amounted to an advance from the company to the State, the Treasury should pay the company an annual interest of three millions, which would be added to the company's profits for division among the shareholders.
"In short," Mr Law summed up, "the State will be surrendering to its creditors the property and trade of Louisiana in exchange for an additional twenty-five millions from them in cash for the establishment of the colony."
His Highness began by confessing that his senses reeled in their endeavour to comprehend a scheme of such complex and unparalleled audacity. But by the time his keen mind had fitted each of its component pieces into the design he was filled with wonder by its ingenuity and dazzled by its promise.
It was impossible to hesitate. Eager to see the plan at work, eager to gather its rich fruits, and more than ever confirmed in his belief in the genius of Law, the Regent, without even troubling to lay the matter before the Council, granted the concession by an edict in which the company was named the Compagnie des Indes Occidentales.
The astuteness of a gesture which had the appearance of an altruistic endeavour to liquidate a part of the public debt was soon revealed in the enthusiastic response from the holders of State Bonds. These, as he had calculated, were ready enough to avail themselves of the heaven-sent chance he offered, and to provide the initial capital that he required.
In the rest of the public, however, the tales of fabulous riches, of inexhaustible mines of gold and silver, of precious stones of enormous size, even of a great rock of emerald, aroused little ardour.
The shares once issued were changing hands at less than half their face value, which was but natural, considering that by the terms on which they had been acquired, this was their actual cost.
Mr Law, however, did not intend this state of things to endure. With a clear perception of those arts, not yet understood, of manipulating markets, he worked diligently through his agents to create those fluctuations in value which are a lure to speculators. By this stimulation of interest, and by the timely invention of options and of that extension of credit known as a carry-over, he was contriving, if but slowly, to improve the value of the stock.
In the meantime he was active in other directions. He had taken over from Crozat the ships employed in the traffic with Louisiana, and he was adding to them so as to possess a fleet equal to the trade which he expected.
Simultaneously the end of that year 1717 provided abundant other matter to engage his energies.
The expansion of his financial position from the ever-increasing prosperity of his Bank and the launching of his company, now popularly known as the Company of the Mississippi, brought with it, as was to be expected, an extension of the jealous hostility of Noailles and his associates.
These included most of the members of the Council of Finance, all of whom felt that the growth of Mr Law's influence and power was diminishing their own.
They had further grounds for this in the lessening of the Regent's former easy-going amenability to their views, as a result of his increased esteem for Mr Law, who had relieved him of so many cares and was always ready now to provide supplies for his outrageous extravagances.
Drastic measures became necessary in the view of Monsieur de Noailles if this insolent foreigner were not to extinguish them completely.
Antagonism at last boiled over when Mr Law, by exposing the iniquity and sheer fruitlessness of the salt tax, known as the gabelle, urged its abolition so convincingly that the Regent was persuaded to carry this proposal to the Council.
Respect for the Regent's royal blood scarcely sufficed to prevent the indignation from exploding into uproar, and even if subdued, it was, nevertheless, so bitter that His Highness, shirking strife, did not insist. Instead, he retained the Duke of Noailles when the Council broke up.
"My dear Duke, I did not press the matter further today," he said, "because, to be frank, I do not feel myself able to do justice to the arguments in favour of this abolition."
"The arguments of Monsieur Lass, I presume."
His Highness refused to perceive the sneer. "I was about to say so, and to add that it is my wish that you should hear them from Monsieur Lass himself."
Noailles was all frosty dignity. "If you bring an advocate, monseigneur, permit me also to bring one, a man who will be equal to meeting the arguments of Monsieur Lass."
His Highness was more than usually gracious. If Monsieur de Noailles would offer him supper tomorrow night at La Roquette, he would bring Monsieur Lass, and they could discuss this matter amiably at table.
To that supper party at the Duke of Noailles' mansion of La Roquette his Grace invited not only the Chancellor, which was what the Regent had expected, but also Rouillé du Coudray.
It was not until the end of supper, of a quality to satisfy even the fastidious Regent, with a wine of Cyprus to mellow their moods, that His Highness begged them to hear the reasons of Monsieur Lass for the abolition of the gabelle.
The Scot was taking a moment to choose his words when, at an imperious glance from Noailles, the Chancellor smoothly interposed. "They must be weighty reasons, indeed, that would induce the King to forgo so profitable a source of revenue."
Mr Law's reply was prompt. "If the tax were that, I should not advocate its abolition." He turned to the Duke. "As head of the Council of Finance, your Grace will know what was the yield of the tax in the last year."
"Mon Dieu, Monsieur Lass, can you suppose that I carry such figures in my memory?"
Mr Law met this contempt with a polite smile. "In that case I have the advantage of you, Monsieur le Duc; perhaps an unfair advantage; for I carry them in mine. In the last year the gabelle yielded to the Treasury the paltry sum of twenty thousand livres."
"That is absurd," shouted du Coudray.
"Worse," said Mr Law. "It is ludicrous. Not even a thousand louis."
"You misunderstand me intentionally," Coudray resented.
"Of course," Noailles agreed. His handsome dark face was suddenly flushed. "You are not to suppose, Monsieur Lass, that we can accept your figures."
The Regent languidly interposed. He had thrust back his chair, and sat with an elbow on one of its arms, a hand held before his face as a screen to the glare of candlelight reflected on the polished table as in a brown pool.
One of his eyes had recently been damaged, by a blow, according to some, from a tennis racquet, according to others from the fan of Madame de la Rochefoucault, with whom he had made too free. Despite his doctors' efforts--or perhaps because of them--it continued inflamed, and his sight was impaired.
"If you say, my dear Noailles, that you do not carry the figures in your mind it does not seem to me that you are in case to reject those of Monsieur Lass. Actually I have, myself, examined them, and I am able to tell you that they are entirely correct."
Noailles sat back, biting his lip, momentarily baffled. D'Aguesseau, smooth and ready, came to his aid. "That sum, as Monsieur Lass has said, is ludicrous. But far from being an argument for abolishing the tax, it seems to me to be a reason for prosecuting its collection more vigorously, so that it becomes again the profitable source of revenue which it certainly should be."
"Of course," Noailles impatiently supported him.
"It is the only answer," said Coudray.
Mr Law looked from one to another of them. Slowly he shook his head. "A labour of Sisyphus. It is beyond accomplishment."
D'Aguesseau and Noailles spoke together, in a burst of indignation. "Beyond accomplishment!" to which du Coudray added his jarring laugh.
"Give me leave, sirs," said Mr Law. "I have still some figures for you. There are--the number almost defies belief, being the equivalent of a couple of armies--no fewer than eighty thousand men employed by the State in the collection of the gabelle." He gave them time to gasp their amazement and then went on: "These gabeleurs, these wretched Jacks-in-Office, are proving ruthless in the execution of their odious tasks; they do not hesitate, I am informed, at any horror when through the penury of the people they encounter difficulties in collecting moneys which have little purpose beyond providing their own emoluments."
"Monsieur Lass," cried Noailles, "you are permitting yourself to defame officials of the French Government."
The Regent interposed with a laugh so as to dispel what might be the elements of a storm. "Let me protect my good Monsieur Lass before you disembowel him with your irrelevancies. For myself, I hope I shall never regard honest criticism as ill-mannered."
"Your Highness' indulgence is notorious." Noailles' sarcasm was so manifest that it had a sobering effect upon the Regent.
"You should be thankful, Monsieur le Duc," he said, with a sudden hardening of his tone which served to recall Noailles to his duty.
It was left for Mr Law to attempt to soothe these ruffled spirits. "Let me confess to having said perhaps more than is becoming. It is the more unpardonable because unnecessary. It is only a bad case that needs to be urged intemperately. To return to it, we should remember that whilst the gabelle exists in most of the French provinces, it does not exist in all. This serves to aggravate the grievance felt by those who are the subjects of it."
Noailles was again impatient. "That is merely frivolous. To be aggrieved is the normal state of the taxpayer."
"That," said Law composedly, "is a reason for avoiding a tax that is not only unjust, but so futile that the tax-gatherers are the only ones to profit by it. You have, as I have said, eighty thousand of these. Eighty thousand, living by extortion upon their fellow-countrymen. Eighty thousand unproductive souls, who if driven, instead, to become productive by honest work, as artisans, craftsmen, mariners, agriculturists and the like, must contribute to the wealth of the State instead of merely preying upon it."
It was a long moment before any of his three opponents, taken aback as they were by so novel a point of view, could find an answer.
Then, at last, d'Aguesseau addressed himself to the Regent. "Admitting, Highness, that there may be some force in what Monsieur Lass has said, the remedy would seem to lie, as I have already pointed out, in more vigorous measures to collect the tax."
The Regent's sidelong glance invited Mr Law to answer.
"My remedy is simpler and more remunerative. Of all commodities there is none in such universal use as salt. Since it is something that every man must have, it should be one of the most productive sources of revenue instead of a mere waste as at present. Let the King buy up the salt pans, equitably compensating the owners, and render salt a free, taxless commodity of which each may purchase what he will. These purchases would very soon produce the cost of the salt pans, after which there should be a substantial revenue. That is the remedy I suggest."
The Regent, pink-faced, benign, sat back, still shielding his eyes with his hand, and watched them with amused interest.
Slowly the Chancellor shook his head, his face grave, his tone quietly courteous. "Such a proposal could come only from one who is a stranger to our country. There is in France no law under which we can expropriate a man's possessions."
"It would not be impossible to make one," ventured His Highness blandly.
"Not impossible," d'Aguesseau agreed. "But, with submission, Highness, not easy. Too many principles would have to be jettisoned. The Parliament would be in its duty in resisting the registration of such a law."
"But if it is to benefit the State?"
"The Parliament may well hold that such benefit is outweighed by the dangerous precedent that would be established."
Noailles, still flushed, his voice shaking with annoyance, impatiently broke in. "So much for the legal aspect of the matter. But there is a graver side. The proposal amounts to this, that the King is to deal in salt. He is to become a tradesman. Is that the Baron's conception of royal dignity in France?"
Du Coudray was no less uncompromising.
"It is evident that whatever may be possible in England or in Scotland, Monsieur Lass is not aware that in France a simple nobleman may not, without derogating, do that which he proposes that the King should do."
Noailles came back to turn the knife in the wound. "As you say, Coudray, he does not understand. So we may at least acquit him of intentional offensiveness."
"Messieurs, messieurs!" The Regent removed his hand from his eyes to wave it in protest. "Here are too many words. Far too many. I think you forget, Noailles, that Monsieur Lass is your guest."
"I fear," said the Duke with an instant assumption of contrition, "that I have again been guilty of allowing my respect for the crown to carry me too far."
Mr Law, quite at his ease, permitted himself a laugh. "If that is an apology, Monsieur le Duc, I accept it freely." And whilst Noailles was inwardly writhing at the covert mockery, he went on: "You have no cause, Monsieur le Duc, nor you, Monsieur du Coudray, to visit your heat upon me. The profitable solution which I perceive to this matter of the gabelle had so far commended itself to His Highness that it is by his wish that I have explained it to you."
"Just so," said the Regent. "Just so. And the strictures you have passed become my affair, since mine is the responsibility. In the interpretation that it is proposed to make a tradesman of the King, I perceive some ingenuity, but nothing else. A displaced ingenuity. Almost, I might say, a disingenuous ingenuity."
His pleasant laugh took some of the sting out of his words. But enough remained to place Monsieur de Noailles under the necessity of defending himself. "Yet to me, monseigneur, it remains a fact and a matter for indignation."
"Let it so remain then. I am not to instruct you. Perhaps because my blood is royal it does not feel the need to boil so readily. What troubles me is the Chancellor's view of the legal aspect of the measure. I suppose, Monsieur d'Aguesseau, that you would account it the duty of your office to put that view to the Parliament."
"I fear so, monseigneur."
"At need, in fact, you would have to insist that the Parliament adopt it."
"Honestly holding it, myself, monseigneur, that would be my painful duty."
The Regent sighed, and rose from the table. "Eh bien! We must endeavour to avoid placing you under the necessity of performing a duty you find so painful." The Chancellor, suspecting ambiguity, looked up quickly, to meet only a bland smile. "I think we perfectly understand each other."
In the coach, as he drove away from La Roquette, with Mr Law, His Highness laughed softly. "I certainly think we perfectly understand each other, Monsieur d'Aguesseau and I. It is the bad faith of their arguments that has decided me, and I should think that they will be perceiving for themselves that what they have received from me is their extreme unction."