vers for five thousand
francs was worth seven and eight thousand in the Rue Quincampoix. This
new issue at five thousand francs caused the rates in the Rue
Quincampoix to diminish: in an instant they were below five thousand
francs--even as low as four thousand--so blind were these movements,
and, so to speak, convulsive, during this period of feverish excitement.
There was no possible reason for selling in one place for four thousand
francs that for which they paid five thousand at another. But this
phenomenon lasted only a few hours; the rates rose again rapidly, and,
the subscription being taken up, the shares sold again for seven and
eight thousand francs. The crafty brokers had already had two
opportunities of making some profitable operations.

Having obtained the state notes at a very small price, they procured
shares at the most moderate rates, between five hundred and a thousand
francs; then they sold them for from seven to eight thousand francs; and
October 2d, the day of the decline, they repurchased them for four
thousand, to sell them again the next day for seven or eight thousand.
It will be seen how they must have made money with these opportunities.

It was no longer a few scattered groups which were seen in the Rue
Quincampoix, but a compact crowd engaged in speculating from morning
till night. The subscriptions had been divided into coupons,
transferable, like notes, to the bearer by an indorsement simply formal.
During the course of October the shares had already risen above ten
thousand francs, and it was impossible to know where they would stop.

The end of the month of December, 1719, was the term of this delusion of
three months. A certain number of stock-jobbers, better advised than
others, or more impatient to enter upon the enjoyment of their riches,
combined to dispose of their shares. They took advantage of the rage
which led so many to sell their estates--they purchased them, and thus
obtained the real for the imaginary. They established themselves in
splendid mansions, upon magnificent domains, and made a display of their
fortunes of thirty or forty millions. They possessed themselves of
precious stones and jewels, which were still eagerly offered, and
secured solid value in exchange for the semblance of it, which had
become so prized by the crowd of dupes. The first effect of this desire
to realize was a general increase in the price of everything. An
enormous mass of paper being put in