ENTITLED _AL-FULÚS AL-MASNÚ MIN AL-QIRTÁS_, OR THE MONEY MADE OF PAPER
On the appointed day of the next week the little boys were glad to
observe that the number of public executions had fallen so far below
the average that their uncle’s entertainment of them could begin
quite half an hour before the usual time. They were most eager to
discover what further good fortune had befallen him by the Mercy of
Allah.
The amiable old man opened his mouth and spoke:
“Two million gold pieces is a respectable sum of money. It weighs
about thirty tons ... yes,” he calculated rapidly on his bejewelled
fingers, “about thirty tons. The city could just produce it after
scouring the country for miles around, searching all the more modest
houses and melting down sundry antique lamps, wedding rings, sacred
shrines and other gewgaws.
“The complete withdrawal of so much metal left them a little
embarrassed for coin in everyday affairs, but really that was not my
business. I packed a hundred strong iron chests with the bullion,
reserving a few thousands in a leather bag, set them in carts, added
to my retinue a hundred armed men, marked my cases plainly in large
white letters ‘SAND CONSIGNED TO THE SULTAN,’ and had all made ready
to set out: but whither?
“Until a man’s wealth has grown so great that he can command the
whole state, he is always in some peril. He is envied and a target
for vile taxes--nay for confiscation.... I had not forgotten the
dreadful lesson of the island! I pondered on what I had read of
various regions, and had rejected each in turn as dangerous, when
I heard by chance a man saying to his neighbour (with whom he was
quarrelling), ‘Remember! This is not the country of Dirak where
there is one law for the rich and another for the poor.’ As you may
well believe I deeply considered these random words, and within an
hour I was giving an excellent meal to a Learned Man who taught in
the University, famous for his knowledge of foreign constitutions.
I spoke of the Franks, of the Maghreb, of Rome. On all he was most
interesting and full: he spoke also with contempt of certain wild
tribes in the hills who have a strange custom of choosing a retired
Chief annually from among the less wealthy members, under the
barbarous error that modest means conduce to honesty and sharpen
judgment.
“‘As in Dirak,’ said I casually.
“‘In Dirak?’ he exclaimed astonished. ‘Why! Who can have told you
such tales? Dirak is the best administered, the most flourishing and
the strongest of all states!’
“‘No doubt,’ I answered, ‘but what has that to do with it?’
“‘Why,’ said he, in sudden anger (for this kind of learned man is
commonly half-mad) ‘it has everything to do with it! Such advantages
can only come from the secure rule of the rich.... A fool could see
that!’
“I soothed him by immediate agreement, professed my admiration at his
vast store of knowledge and pumped him all that afternoon on Dirak.
“It seemed that in this admirable region the Rich rule unquestioned
to the immense profit of the State. The Sultan is kept on a strict
allowance that he may be the puppet of the great merchants, bankers
and landholders who are the masters of the Commonwealth and him.
The middle classes are allowed a livelihood but no possessions,
and are proud of their small incomes, which usually put them above
the artizans; while the populace are content to swarm in hovels
underground, to work hard all day and all the year round for a little
food and to revere and acclaim the rich with frenzied cheers upon
all public occasions. Laws and proclamations are purchased, and
their administration is in the hands of the rich, of whom a select
few sit upon the bench and condemn a fixed number of the populace,
and a few of the middle classes, to imprisonment every year by way
of discipline and example. No man possessing more than a hundred
thousand gold pieces worth of land or stock can be punished, and if
a poor man tell any unpleasing thing of such a one he is beaten till
he admits his falsehood or, if he prove obstinate, slowly starved to
death.
“It is a model State. All is in perfect order. The palaces of the
rulers are the most magnificent in the world: all public office
is faithfully and punctually performed. It is the envy of every
neighbour, the pride and delight of every citizen however mean;
for--what is the basis of the whole affair--every man in Dirak is
esteemed by the extent of his possessions alone; writing and music
and work in metals and painted tiles are esteemed for the pretty
things they are: holiness is revered indeed, but confined to the
well-to-do; and a man’s virtue, judgment and wit are rightly gauged
by his property.
“My many adventures had somewhat blunted me to new sensations. But I
confess (my dear nephews) that as I heard this tale an ecstasy filled
my soul. I masked my emotions and simply said, ‘An interesting place!’
“‘It is reached by a plain road from here,’ volunteered the Learned
Man, ‘though at the expense of a long journey: for it takes a caravan
quite a month to reach the capital of Dirak from this place. You go
up the river to its source in the hills, a week’s travel to the east;
then the well-marked road leads you over a pass to a most singular
cup or natural cauldron, with a flat, highly cultivated floor,
formerly the bed of a lake and surrounded on all sides by precipitous
limestone cliffs, down which the road descends by artificial
cuttings in their surface. This strangely isolated spot, famous for
its gardens and simple happiness, is called with its chief village
Skandir, and strangers are there most hospitably entertained.
“‘The only issue thence, on the far side, is by a narrow gorge
leading through the mountains, beyond which again are vast plains
of grassy lands, the grazing place of nomads: well watered and
provisioned at reasonable distances by simple but well furnished
villages. The great road goes through all these, still eastward.
“‘These prairies get drier and drier as they rise eastward until,
for the last day of your progress, at the wells of Ayn-ayoum you must
take a supply of water, for the next twenty-four hours are desert.
You reach a crest of the slow ascent and see below you from the
summit of the road some half a day’s going across the plain below,
the magnificent capital of Dirak.
“‘This noble city, whose name is Mawazan, was founded by the
enormously wealthy----’
“‘Yes! Yes!’ I interrupted in a bored tone--for I knew all I wanted
to know, ‘some day I must go there. A very amusing journey no doubt.
But meanwhile business is business and I must start very early for
the north to-morrow morning to look after some purchases I have made
in grains; and I must not waste any more of your time.’
“The learned are slow to take a hint, so I locked my arm in his after
a friendly fashion and led him genially to the door, where he tried
(unsuccessfully) to detain me for further remarks on yet another
country famous for its enormous bats.
“When I had got well rid of him--it was already dark--I beat up my
quarters without delay, aligned my caravan, added to the inscription
on my iron treasure chests the words ‘of Dirak’ (so that the labels
now ran ‘SAND FOR THE SULTAN OF DIRAK’), marshalled my armed troop
and set out in the night by the northern road. But, long before
daybreak, I ordered a deflection to the right, struck the great road
along the river and so proceeded eastward into the hills.
“It was as the Learned Man had said: a week’s marching to the sources
of the stream led to a pass, and we saw below us at evening a
splendid spectacle: that small oval plain of Skandir all girded with
enormous precipices, a garden of fruit trees and grain with great
prosperous villages in its midst, and the road picking its way by
cuttings in the living rock down to the valley floor, and thence
making straight for the main town.
“We reached it under a new moon in the second hour of darkness. Its
hospitality had not been exaggerated. The good peasants received us
with every kindness and I was lodged in a most comfortable house,
my chests and grain in the courtyard and my numerous retinue under
lesser roofs around.
“Next day--as luck would have it--a wretched accident befell me! I
was taking the air at the door of my house, preparatory to ordering
the start of my caravan, when I heard the ring of metal on the flat
stones of the street. A child running past had dropped a small silver
coin. I marked the gleaming spot as the child ran on unheeding, and
naturally rushed to put my foot on it before it should be noticed by
any other, intending to stoop gracefully at my leisure and pick it up
when the coast was clear. But the Evil One, who is ever on the watch
to undo the servants of the Most High caused me, in my eagerness, to
slip upon a greasy piece of mud and I fell heavily upon the stones
with a crash. My leg was broken!
“In the agony I suffered I quite forgot the silver coin (the void
still aches); I know not who acquired it. I cannot bear to think that
it was trampled in and lost to the world.
“At any rate, I was carried to my couch half fainting, the bone was
set with excruciating pain, and I lay for many days unable to rise
and eating my heart out at the added expense of my large company
which was dipping deeply into my store of loose coin.
“My main treasure, stored in the hundred iron boxes, I dared not
touch; for the Chief of Skandir (who daily visited my sick-room) told
me that he had affixed seals to the sand consigned to the Sultan of
Dirak, his powerful neighbour, and taken it for safe keeping into his
castle.
“The physician assured me that even when I might venture out on
crutches it would be fatal, in view of certain complications which
had arisen, if I were to think of travel.
“So there I was, imprisoned in this charming valley, with no chance
of commerce, my spare cash dangerously dwindling, and a most
expensive three weeks’ journey ahead of me before I could reach my
beloved Dirak!
“What was I to do!
“My dear nephews, you will hear many harsh things said of those who
prosper as I have done. They are vilified through a base envy and
the most monstrous tales are told of them. But they are under the
protection of Heaven, and that Guiding Power supplements their humble
vows. None can deny their ready response to Inspiration. Hear what I
did.
“First I purchased out of my remaining free gold a fine house that
happened to be empty. Next I had painted on its front in beautiful
and varied colours ‘MAHMOUD’S BANK.’ Next I told the Chief what
advantage I designed for him and his during my enforced stay, by
way of repaying him for their exceptional kindness. Next I sent out
written letters to all the wealthier men (and women, my dear nephews,
_and women_), saying that I had begun operations in the buying and
selling of market produce and that any capital entrusted to me would
earn, for every hundred pieces, one piece a week, payed punctually at
a certain hour. To give colour to my scheme I sent my quickest-witted
servant (amply rewarded) to watch the markets in the valley, to buy
up fruit and grain at magnificent prices and to sell elsewhere as
best he could.
“‘Never mind,’ said I to him, benevolently, ‘at what loss you sell. I
desire to do these honest people a service.’
“The volume of my commerce grew (at a heavy charge!) and even the
timid thought there might be something in it. I started the ball
rolling by getting my confidant to deposit a hundred pieces of gold,
which I had privily furnished. At the end of the week I duly gave him
back one hundred and one in the presence of many; and the story went
abroad.
“Soon the Chief, his uncle and his mother-in-law deposited and were
as regularly paid one per cent a week. The thing began to buzz--but
I watched narrowly my dwindling hoard: it was a close thing!... When
I had progressed in this fashion for what I considered a sufficient
time, I judged it opportune to initiate my new Policy of An Expansion
of Exchange through Instruments of Credit.”
“Dear uncle----” interrupted the eldest nephew.
“Yes, yes,” said the merchant, impatiently, “I know that the term
is new to you, but you will shortly learn its meaning. When I had
occasion to buy articles for my private consumption or to make
an exceptionally heavy purchase of my wholesale wares, I would
frequently affect embarrassment, and approaching the vendor I would
beg him to accept, in lieu of immediate payment in cash, a note which
I had signed promising payment in gold at sight. ‘For,’ said I to
him, ‘in the rapid turnover of my business it is but a matter of a
few hours for me to be again in possession of a considerable sum of
ready money.’
“I went to work at first with caution. I never by any chance issued a
single note for more than ten pieces, and when ever any one of these
notes was presented for payment, even though that event should take
place within an hour of my issuing it, I promptly honoured it from
the reserve of metal which I had kept back for the furtherance of my
plan. I was careful to make these notes identical, to stamp them all
in the same place with my metal seal, and in every way to make them,
so far as I could, a sort of currency, which, as you may imagine,
they promptly became. When a man carrying one of these instruments
might find himself called upon to pay, at some distance from my place
of business, he would at first tentatively offer my note (perhaps at
a small discount) to his creditor. But as my integrity was by this
time a proverb (and never forget, dear boys, that integrity is the
soul of business) the Notes were more and more readily accepted as
time proceeded.
“The convenience of carrying such paper compared with the heavy
weight of metal they might represent, the ease of negotiation, and
so forth, rapidly increased their circulation; and in a short time I
was able to calculate with assurance what the experts in this amiable
science term ‘the Rate of Circulation’ which my notes had attained.
I found that, roughly speaking, for every five pieces to which I had
thus pledged myself upon paper two were sufficient to meet the claims
of those who presented them at any one moment. And this proportion is
known to this day in that happy valley as ‘the Proportion of Metallic
Reserve’ which must lie behind any Issue of Notes--but I hear that
since my departure they have got badly muddled.
“Oh! dear, dear!” said the eldest nephew. “I am getting muddled
myself, Uncle.”
“Don’t listen to him!” said his brothers in chorus.
“Yes! my children,” answered the old man vividly, “it is indeed a
difficult subject. Only a few experts really understand it ... and I
am one ... anyhow, you all see that I could now make new money as I
chose out of nothing?”
“Oh! yes, uncle!” they all agreed, including the eldest. “We quite
see that!”
“Well,” said their revered relative in a subdued tone, “that is a
great advantage. But to proceed.
“After some weeks of these practices I found myself the master of the
fruit and grain markets, to which I added certain adjuncts naturally
suggested by it, such as catering for public meals, the erection
of mosques, the undertaking of marriages, funerals, and divorces,
the display of fireworks, and the charging of fixed fees for the
telling of fortunes. This last soon became a very flourishing branch
of my business. I employed in it at the customary wage a number of
expert soothsayers, and these, with the rest of my staff, amounted
to perhaps a quarter of the inhabitants; nor were they the least
contented or the least prosperous of the population.
“In a word, my dear nephews, when my operations were concluded I
found myself in possession of 200,000 pieces of gold, while my
notes, which were everywhere received throughout the State, stood
for 300,000 more. A simple calculation,” said the worthy old man,
smiling, “will show you that my total new fortune was now no less
than half a million pieces, when signs of economic exhaustion in
the public and the complete healing of my leg reluctantly decided
me that the time had come to seek fresh fields of effort and other
undeveloped lands.”
As the merchant now puffed at his pipe in silence the fifth nephew
begged leave to ask him two questions which had perplexed his
youthful mind.
“Ask away, my little fellow,” said his uncle, kindly, “and I will
attempt to explain any difficulty you have in simple terms suited to
your age.”
“Well, uncle,” said the fifth nephew, humbly, “I cannot in the first
place see how the 300,000 pieces of which you speak, and which as you
say were represented by notes alone, constituted any real wealth.”
“My dear little chap,” answered his uncle, leaning forward to pat
him upon the head, “you will have the intelligence to perceive that
wherever such a note existed people thought of it as ten golden
pieces, did they not?”
“Ye-s-s,” answered his nephew, feeling that he was getting cornered.
“Very well,” continued the old man, merrily, “this attitude of mind
being common to the whole community, and all having come to regard
these pieces of paper as so much money, I had but to receive them
in payment of my debts and then to buy with them into the gold of
others. Thus all the gold entered my possession. Eh? On my departure
the outstanding notes were presented to the firm, I hear, and there
was then no gold to meet them with. A sad state of affairs! Many
clamoured and all sorts of trouble arose. But by that time I was far
away.”
The little chap still looked puzzled. “But, uncle” he said, “when the
people presented the notes after you had gone, they may have thought
they had wealth, but they hadn’t any, had they?”
“I don’t know,” said the old man, after a pause. “It is a most
difficult point in the discussion of currency.... I, at any rate, had
been bold in the story I told, and got hold of their gold.”
“But the wealth wasn’t _there_, uncle,” persisted the little boy. “It
wasn’t there at all!”
The merchant with a benign air replied: “The science of political
economy is abstruse enough for the most aged and experienced, and it
will be impossible for me to explain to you at length so intricate
a point. Let it suffice for you that so far as _I_ was concerned the
wealth _was_ there, it was there in fifty large leather bags.... You
had, I think,” he added in a severer tone, “a second question to
propound?”
“Yes,” said his nephew with a slight sigh, “dear uncle, it was this:
Why under such favorable circumstances did you think it necessary to
leave so early, seeing that your new trade was going so well?”
“That,” said old Mahmoud in a tone of relief, “is much more easy to
answer. My leg was healed. The resources of Skandir were limited.
Signs were apparent that the worthy populace, though unable to
unravel the precise nature of their entanglement, were already very
seriously hampered by my operations. Though I was able to prove by
statistics that prosperity had increased by leaps and bounds, and
though the Chief, who was now my partner, kindly printed pamphlets at
the public expense to prove the same, numbers who had formerly been
well fed were now reduced to a few handfuls of raw grain, the jails
were crammed, much of the land was going out of cultivation, and what
between the ignorant passions which such periods of transition arouse
in the vulgar, and the inability to get more water out of a sponge
when you have already squeezed it thoroughly dry, I am sure that I
was right in the determination I then took to retire from this field
of operations.
“Before leaving I offered my business for sale to the public in
general. The shares, I am glad to say, were eagerly taken up. And
as I gave a preference in allotment (another technical term) to
those who paid in my own notes, I recovered all of these save an
insignificant fraction, and was able to negotiate them again for gold
in public exchange before my departure.
“Meanwhile the unscrupulous anxiety of the chaotic multitude to share
in so prosperous a commercial undertaking as mine had been, permitted
me to ask for my business more than four (but less than five) times
the sum which I would myself have been content to pay for it.
“I loaded 300 more camels with valuables of various sorts, including
nearly all the precious metals discoverable in the State; I purchased
a whole army of new slaves for the conduct of the caravan (paying for
them in new notes issued upon the new company), and amid the plaudits
and benedictions of a vast multitude, many of whom (I regret to say)
were now in the last stages of destitution, I regretfully took my way
through the gorge and bade farewell to the simple people of lovely
and lonely Skandir to whom I owed so much.”
* * * * *
“I proceeded from the people of the valley whom I had introduced to
banking, and went out through the gorge into the rising prairies
beyond the mountains. For at least four days’ march beyond the valley
my name was a household word to the villages through which I passed;
not only was I able to pay for all goods by a further Issue of Notes,
but I would even reward any special considerations shown me by
selling to the grateful inhabitants for cash such shares in my old
Firm remaining at Skandir as I had retained to amuse me in my travel;
and these, I am happy to say, went rapidly to a premium. These
shares passed at gradually lessening prices from hand to hand, and I
subsequently learnt that in a few months they had become unsaleable.
Those who suffered in the last purchases had only themselves to
blame, and indeed did not think of blaming any other, while the first
to sell at a high price still hold my name in reverent remembrance.
“When I had proceeded a few days further upon my travels I found that
the enlightenment and civilization to which I had led the people
of the valley was gradually dissipated, and within a fortnight
I discovered myself amid the very brutish nomad population who
absolutely refused to take paper in the place of cash, even when this
form of payment was offered by my own body servants. On the other
hand, the precious metals were so scarce amid that population that
prices were extremely low, and I was able at a very small outlay in
gold to feed the whole of my considerable concourse.
“Three weeks so passed in these monotonous grass lands among the
nomad tribes, the road went forward to the east rising all the way,
and the soil grew drier and drier. We reached the wells of Ayn-Ayoub
and filled our skins with water, we traversed the desert belt and
camped near the summit: at daybreak we came to the escarpment and
saw the wooded slopes falling away in cascading forests at our feet
to where, far below, lay the splendid plain of Dirak and in its
midst, far off and dark in outline against the burning dawn, the
battlements and mosques, the minarets and tapering cypress points of
its capital Misawan.
“What joy was mine to fall by gentle gradations down the declivities
of those noble woods into the warm fields of the Fortunate State!
At every hour of my advance new delights met my eye! Great Country
Houses standing in magnificent parks with carefully tended lawns
all about, poor men who saluted low as I passed and rich men here
and there who glanced a moment in haughty ease, fine horses passing
at the trot mounted by subservient grooms, and, continually, posts
bearing such notices as ‘Any one treading on this Lord’s ground will
be bowstrung.’ ‘No spitting.’ ‘One insolent word and to jail with
you!’: While at every few hundred yards an armed man, before whom the
poorer people cowered, would frown at the slaves at the head of my
column, and then, seeing my finely mounted guard and my own immutable
face and shining garments coming up behind them, would smile and bow
and hint at a few small coins--which I gave.
“In truth the Learned Man had not deceived me! This land of Dirak was
a Paradise!
“I rode into the city like a king (as I was--for my wealth made me
one in such a State) and took for the night a lodging in an Immense
Building, which called itself a Caravanserai, but was, to the
Caravanserais of my experience, as the Sultan’s Palace to a horse.
“There, in an apartment of alabaster and beaten silver, I eat such
viands as I had not thought to be on this earth, while well-drilled
slaves, trained by long starvation to obedience, moved noiselessly in
and out or played soft music hidden behind a carven screen.
“Oh! Dirak! Dirak!... but I must conclude.... The matter was not
long. With my gold I purchased my palace in the midst of this city
of Misawan, entertained guests who asked nothing of my origin,
bought (after a careful survey of prices) the excellent post of
Chief Sweeper to his Majesty (which carried with it the conduct of
The Treasury) and paid for a few laws which happened to suit my
convenience, such as one to prevent street cries and another for the
strangling of the red-headed poor: it is a colour of hair I cannot
abide.
“From time to time I paid my respects to that puppet called the
Sultan and bowed low in the Ceremonies of the Court.
“I had no occasion to hide my wealth since wealth was here immune
and the criterion of honour. I displayed it openly. I boasted of its
amount. I even exaggerated its total. I was, within two years, the
Chief Man in the State.
“Yet (such is the heart of man!) I was not wholly satisfied. Of my
vast fortune not a hundredth had been consumed. None the less I could
not bear to let it lie idle. I was determined to do business once
again!--By the Infinite Mercy of Allah the opportunity was vouchsafed.
“There lay on the confines of Dirak another State, called Har,
very different. In this the Sultan was the wealthiest man in the
community and a tyrant. Moreover it differed from Dirak in this
important particular, that whereas in Dirak all office was obtained
by purchase, in Har all office was obtained by inheritance, so that
between the two lay the unending and violent quarrel between trickery
and pride.
“One day--I had been the greatest man in Dirak for already two years
more--the Sultan of Har, wickedly, insolently, and not having the
fear of God before his eyes, demanded satisfaction of the Sultan of
Dirak for a loss sustained at dice by his Grand Almoner’s nephew at
the hands of that Noble in Dirak called the Lord Persecutor of Games
of Chance--which are, in Dirak, strictly forbidden by law.
“In vain did the Sultan of Dirak implore the aid of his Nobles: they
assured him that none would dare attack his (and their) Onmipotent
State.
“On the third day the Sultan of Har crossed the frontier with one
million, two hundred thousand and fifty-seven men, ninety-seven
elephants, and two catapults. On the tenth he was but three days’
march from Misawan.
“The unfortunate Sultan of Dirak, pressed by his enemy, was at his
wits’ end for the ready money wherewith to conduct the war. He had
already so severely taxed his poor that they were upon the point
of rebellion, while the rich were much rather prepared to make
terms with the enemy or to fly than to support his whim of honour,
patriotism and the rest.
“Musing upon the opportunity thus afforded, and recognizing in it
once more that overshadowing Mercy which had so marvellously aided
my every step in life, I came into the street upon a horse and in
my noblest garments. I was careful to throw largesse to the crowd,
at an expense which I had previously noted in a little book (your
father has, my dear nephews, trained you, I hope, to keep accounts?),
and riding up to the Palace I announced to the guard that I had come
with important news for the Sultan and his Council. After certain
formalities (which cost me, I regret to say, no less than fifteen
dinars more than I had allowed for) I was shown into the presence
of the Vizier, who begged me to despatch my business hurriedly as
the Sultan was expecting at any moment news of an important action.
I said with courtesy and firmness that my time was my own, that
perhaps I had been mistaken in the news conveyed to me, but that
the financial operations I was prepared to undertake would demand a
certain leisure before they could be completed.
“At the words ‘financial operations’ the Vizier’s manner wholly
changed; he was profuse in apologies, admitting a little shamefacedly
that he had taken me for a soldier, a priest, a poet, or something
of that sort, and that if he had had the least idea of my intent he
would never have kept me waiting as he had unfortunately done. He
proceeded in a hurried and conventional tone to discuss the weather,
the latest scandal, and other matters of the sort, until at my own
time I proposed to introduce the important subject.
“This I did with becoming dignity. I informed him with the utmost
reluctance that the enemy had already approached me for financial
assistance. I would not be so hypocritical (I said) as to pretend
that I had refused them, or indeed that I had any sentimental
preference for one side or the other. As I thus expressed myself
the Vizier constantly and gravely nodded, as who should say that he
esteemed no man so much as one who showed himself indifference to the
feelings of the vulgar. I next asked of what sum the Government was
in immediate need, and on hearing that it amounted to about a quarter
of my total capital I put on a very grave look and said that I feared
the immediate provision of so large an amount was hardly possible, in
view of the poverty and embarrassment of his unhappy country.
“When I rose as though to leave, the Vizier, in a state of the utmost
excitement, implored me to reconsider so sudden a decision. He was
prepared (he swore) to take but an instalment of the whole. Ready
money was absolutely necessary. And if, with my profound knowledge of
finance, I could devise some way of escape for his master, the most
substantial proofs of gratitude would be afforded me.
“Upon hearing this I professed to be plunged into profound thought
for about a quarter of an hour, and ended by slowly laying before him
as an original and masterly plan the following proposal:
“The poor (he had admitted) were taxed beyond the limits of
endurance, and were even upon the point of revolt; the rich were
hiding their hoards, and many forms of portable wealth were leaving
the country. Let him abandon these uncouth and rapacious methods of
obtaining revenue, and ask the wealthier of the loving subjects of
the Sovereign to _lend_ him at interest what they would certainly
refuse to pay him outright. In this way a smaller annual sum by far
than was now raised to meet the exigencies of the war would suffice
to meet the obligations of the Government. The capital so raised
would be spent upon the campaign; the charge imposed upon the people
would, it is true, be perpetual; but it would be so much smaller than
the existing taxation as to be everywhere welcomed.
“The Vizier sadly responded that though he would be very happy to
undertake such a course he feared that the wealthy inhabitants
would never lend (knowing, as they did, the embarrassment of the
Government) save upon ruinous terms.
“I had been waiting for this confession, and I at once suggested
that I could act as go-between. I would, said I, stand guarantor. My
great wealth would at once restore opinion, the loan would certainly
be taken up, and I should only make the nominal charge of five gold
pieces every year for each hundred I had thus guaranteed.
“The Vizier was so astounded at my generosity that he almost
fell backward, but recovering himself, he poured forth the most
extravagant thanks, which were hardly marred by the look I detected
in his eye, a look certainly betraying the belief that such an offer
from a commercial man could hardly be made in good faith. To reassure
him I adopted what is known in the financial world as the Seventh,
or Frankly Simple, tone. I told him without reserve the total of my
wealth (which I put at a fifth of its real amount) and promised to
bring it in cash to offices which he should permit me to establish in
the city.
“Entering the next day with a million pieces of gold charged upon
a train of very heavily laden camels, I set up my bank in the most
crowded portion of the Bazaar, published news of my intention to
support the Government, inviting the public inspection of the metal
so lent, and at the same time proposing that any who desired regular
interest of four pieces guaranteed by myself annually upon every
hundred should come forward to take the loan off my hands. The hoards
of gold still remaining in the country reappeared as though by
magic--so much more delightful is it to lend voluntarily at interest
than to pay away under torture for ever--and at last there applied
at my office for the favour of extending a loan ten times as many
citizens as the situation required.
“My terms with the Government were simple, and, I am sure, moderate.
All that I asked was that the tax collectors should in future pay
their receipts into my chest, from which I pledged myself to hand
over to the Government whatever surplus there might be after I had
paid to the lenders their annual interest, four pieces, and kept
for myself a fifth piece, which formed my tiny and not unearned
commission.
“In this way I rapidly repaid myself and also took one piece on every
hundred _others_ had subscribed. The learned men of the place, who
had never before imagined so simple and practical a plan, treated
me with almost supernatural reverence. I was consulted upon every
operation of war, my guarantee was eagerly sought for in other
financial ventures, and I was able, I am glad to say, to secure other
commissions without touching a penny of my treasure--I had but to
hold it forth as a proof of good faith.
“The enemy was repelled. But victory was not won. The war dragged on
for a year and there was no decision. Gold grew scarce, and again the
Government was in despair.
“I easily relieved them. ‘Write,’ I said, ‘promises on paper to be
repaid in gold.’ They did as I advised--paying me (at my request) a
trifle of half a million for the advice. I handled the affair--on a
merely nominal profit. I punctually met for another year every note
that was paid in. But too many were presented, for the war seemed
unending and entered a third year.
“Then did I conceive yet another stupendous thing. ‘Bid them,’ said I
to the Sultan, ‘take the notes as money. Cease to repay. Write, not
“I will on delivery of this paper pay a piece of gold,” but, “this
_is_ a piece of gold.”’
“He did as I told him. The next day the Vizier came to me with the
story of an insolent fellow to whom fifty such notes had been offered
as payment for a camel for the war and who had sent back, not a
camel, but another piece of paper on which was written ‘This _is_ a
camel.’
“‘Cut off his head!’ said I.
“It was done, and the warning sufficed. The paper was taken and the
war proceeded.
“It was I that prepared the notes, and on each batch I exacted my
necessary commission, my little commission, my due.
“It was not in my nature, dear nephews, however, in those days of
hard and honest work, to lie idle. When I had put the Sultan on his
legs it occurred to me that the _enemy’s Government_ was also very
probably in similar straits. I therefore visited the enemy’s capital
by a roundabout route, and concluded with the Vizier of that opulent
but agitated State a similar bargain.
“The war thus replenished at its sources raged with redoubled ardour,
for ten more years, and....”
“But, uncle,” said the fourth nephew, who was an athlete and somewhat
stupid, and who had heard of this double negotiation with round eyes,
“surely they must have both been very angry with you!”
The excellent Mahmoud raised his left hand in protest. “Dear lad!”
cried he, “how little you know the world! Angry? Why, each regarded
me in the first place as a genius whose ways it was impossible to
unravel, in the second place as a public necessity, in the third as a
benefactor arrived at a miraculous moment; and as for the fact that I
was aiding both sides, I have only to tell you that among the people
of that region it is thought the proper part of all financiers to act
in this fashion. I should have been treated with deserved contempt
had I betrayed any scruples upon so simple a matter. Nay, I am sure
that either party reposed the greater trust in me from the fact that
my operations were thus universal.... But to proceed:
“The Mercy of Allah was never more apparent in my career than in the
way these two Sultans and their subjects fought like raging dogs upon
the proceeds of those loans which the wealthy citizens upon either
side had provided, and upon the mountains of paper which I spent half
the day in signing.
“These loans increased ten, twenty, thirty-fold. It was always I that
guaranteed them; I had not to risk or expend one miserable dinar of
my horde, and yet yearly my commission came rolling in, in larger
and larger amounts, until at last the arduous but glorious campaigns
were terminated in the total exhaustion of one of the two combatants
(at this distance of time I forget which), and his territory and
capital were laid under an enormous indemnity (which I again financed
without the tedium of myself producing any actual metal of my own).
As the beaten State might have repudiated its obligations I was
careful to meet the patriotic clamours of the victorious populace,
and to see that the territory of the vanquished should be annexed.
You appreciate the situation, my dear fellow?” said the aged Mahmoud
conversationally to his eldest nephew.
“I think so, uncle,” said the lad doubtfully, screwing up his face.
“It is quite simple,” said the wealthy old man, clearing his
throat. “The peoples of both States (now happily united) were taxed
to their utmost capacity; the one strong and united Government
guaranteed a regular revenue; a proportion of this revenue was
annually distributed as a _fixed_ income to the wealthy few who had
subscribed my loans; another portion, amounting by this time annually
to considerably more than my original capital, was retained in my
coffers; and the mechanism of this was the more simple from the fact
that all the public revenues passed through my own hands as State
Banker before any surplus was handed over to the Crown.”
The old man ceased. His benevolent lips were murmuring a prayer.
At this moment the hideous call for prayer from the minaret would no
longer be denied, and the seven boys, plunged in profound thought,
retired slowly to the poverty-stricken home of the physician, their
father. They found him tired out with having sat up all night at the
sick-bed of a howling dervish, who in his last dying whisper (and
that a hoarse one), had confessed his total inability to pay the
customary fee.
النفس اطمئنان
ITMI’NÁN AL-NAFS
That is:
THE PEACE OF THE SOUL