“Bravo,” said Guido. “I remember it too now. It is odd that I should
have forgotten!”
We began explaining to Luciano in great detail that it was no longer
the custom to use coins in dealing either in large or in small sums of
money. People are accustomed to doing all their business by cheque,
whatever the amount may be. Our victory was complete, and Luciano was
silenced.
He was to learn a great deal from Guido. Our office-boy has now become
a highly respected man of business in Trieste, but he still greets me
with a deferential smile. Guido spent a part of each day in teaching
Luciano, then me, and finally the lady member of the staff. I remember
that for some time past he had entertained the idea of doing business
on commission, so as not to risk his own money. He explained the
essentials of that sort of business to me, and as I grasped it too
readily he proceeded to explain it to Luciano, who would listen to him
as long as he liked with the keenest attention, his great eyes lighting
up his boyish face. No one could say that Guido wasted his time with
him, for Luciano is the only one amongst us who has made a success in
that kind of business. And yet they say that science always wins!
Meanwhile the _pesos_ began arriving from Buenos Aires. That was a
serious matter. At first I thought it would be quite simple, but the
Trieste market was not accustomed to that exotic coinage. We had to
call in young Olivi again who showed us how to get our money changed
into the native currency. But at a certain point Olivi thought he had
taught us enough, and left us to our own devices; and Guido remained
several days with his pockets bulging with kronen, till at last we
found our way to a bank and were able to exchange our uneasy burden for
a cheque-book which we soon learned to make use of.
Guido felt it his duty to point out to Olivi that in helping him he was
running the risk of being cut out by him.
“But I promise I will never compete against my young friend’s firm,” he
added.
The young business-man, who had quite a different conception of trade,
replied:
“My God! I should be only too thankful if there were more people
dealing in our particular goods. We should be much better off.”
Guido listened open-mouthed, at once grasped the idea with his usual
facility and proceeded to propound it to anyone he could get to listen
to him.
In spite of the Higher School of Commerce, Guido had no very definite
idea of credit and debit. When I opened our capital account and entered
our expenses, he watched the proceedings with the utmost astonishment.
Later on he became so versed in book-keeping that the first thing he
did when any business proposition was put before him, was to analyse it
from a book-keeper’s point of view. It really looked as if a knowledge
of book-keeping had made him see the world in quite a new light. He
saw debtors and creditors everywhere, even when two people were only
fighting or kissing each other.
On his first entry into business he used the utmost caution. He turned
down many business propositions, and continued to do so for six months,
with the calm air of one who knows better.
“No!” he would say; and the monosyllable always appeared to be the
result of careful calculation, even though he had never set eyes on
the goods in question. All his meditations were directed towards
discovering exactly how a certain transaction would figure in the
accounts, whether successful or unsuccessful. As book-keeping was the
last thing he had learnt it filled his whole horizon and coloured all
he saw.
I am sorry to have to speak so ill of my poor friend, but I must tell
of things as they were, if only to understand myself better. I remember
the intellectual effort that went into lumbering up our poor little
office with a mass of worthless stuff which entirely prevented any
proper work being done. Once when we were about to start business on
commission we sent out by post about a thousand circulars. Guido argued
as follows:
“What a lot of stamps we should save if we could know beforehand how
many people will take any notice of them!”
The remark was in itself quite harmless, but Guido was much too pleased
with it, and began throwing the sealed circulars up into the air, and
would only send those which fell with the address uppermost. This
experiment reminded me of something rather like it which I had done in
the past, but I don’t remember having carried it to such a pitch. I
naturally did not pick up or post the ones he rejected for I could not
be sure that he had not really had an inspiration, and in that case it
would be wrong to waste stamps which he was obliged to pay for.
It was my good fortune not to be ruined by Guido, and the same good
fortune prevented my taking too active a part in his affairs. I
proclaim it aloud here, because there are some in Trieste who do not
believe it; during the whole time I was with him I never intervened
with any inspiration, such as that of the dried raisins. I never urged
him either to go in for anything in particular, or to avoid it. I was
only there to admonish him to further activity and prudence. I would
never have ventured to speculate with his money.
All the time I was with him I did nothing at all. I tried to put him
on the right path, and perhaps I should have succeeded if I had been a
little less passive. But when two people are working together it does
not rest with them to decide who is to be Don Quixote and who Sancho
Panza. He did all the work, and I, like a good Sancho, followed him at
a leisurely pace in my account-books, after first submitting everything
to a searching criticism.
Our sales on commission ended in complete failure, but without any loss
to us. The only firm who sent us any goods was a stationer in Vienna,
and part of what he sent was sold by Luciano, who gradually got to
know how much commission we expected and managed to persuade Guido to
give most of it to him. Guido finally agreed, because it was only a
small amount and because the first stroke of business we had done was
sure to bring us good luck. We stored the remainder of our stock of
stationery and office requisites of all kinds, which we were obliged to
keep and pay for, in the lumber-room. We had enough to keep a much more
flourishing firm than ours supplied for a number of years.
Our bright little office in the heart of the city provided us with a
delightful retreat for several years. Very little work was done there
(only two business deals, I think, in empty packing-cases which we sold
the same day that we acquired them, making a small profit), but there
was a great deal of conversation in which Luciano joined; he got as
excited talking about business as other lads of his age do about women.
At this time I found it pleasant enough to wile away the time with
those two innocents, because I had not yet lost Carla. I remember every
hour of those days with pleasure. When I got home in the evening I had
a lot to tell Augusta, and I had no need to hide from her any single
thing that went on in the office, nor to falsify it in any way.