e fact that it could be
exchanged into money or the goods of the company upon presentation,
would become the great lever of its operations and the irresistible
instrument of its power. The company was to undertake banking and
commission business of all kinds, grant credit in money and goods, and
support industry, trade, and agriculture.

All objects deposited with this society, including gold and silver,
and especially all articles composing its balance, were to be arranged
in an exchange tariff, which would be continually changeable, and the
object of which was to secure the equivalence of values. "Certainly
every rise in the exchange of an article would be balanced by an
equivalent fall of exchange in one or more articles, if one regards
the existing total sum, one-tenth being allowed in fluctuations either
up or down. The differences in time in the balance would be entered in
a special balance book which would finally equalise itself from time
to time."

That is the project; and its author gives the following example: Since
the company carries on no business on its own account, and neither
acquires nor possesses products itself, and thus does not lose money
on the rise or fall, it is only guided in directing the course of
prices by one object, viz., to moderate one by the other, and to
create a permanent and a daily compensation; thus, if demand arises
for one product while it falls off for one or several others, the
company raises the price of the first 4 per cent., and at the same
time lowers, according to the quantity of the first, the price of the
other in such a way that the compensation is as exact as possible.
Because it is difficult to reach this mathematical exactitude, a
certain margin is allowed, which again, compensating itself from time
to time, never can amount to the assets of the society. If we assume,
for the sake of example, that the price of gold has fallen--that is,
that gold is freely offered, while silver has risen, that is, is more
in demand--the company, since its bills are discounted with its own
notes, will give 100 francs of its money for 105 francs of gold, equal
to 100 francs in silver; or, to express myself more exactly, for a
weight of gold which is only one-twentieth higher than five
twenty-five franc pieces, and the weight of silver which is only
one-twentieth lower than twenty-five franc pieces. From this
compensation no profit accrues to the company; it has only intervened
with i