IV. Ascending Wing of Bankrupts
"In a very depraved, very grasping century one would be a general laughing-stock if one declaimed in a schoolmaster's tone against the accredited vices, against bankruptcy. It is much more sensible to chime in the dominant tone and to see the funny side of social crimes. So I shall try to prove that bankruptcy is an even much more laughable villainy than it is believed to be by its promoters and protectors, who see nothing but well-behaved trifles in its mercantile plunder.
"Everything is relative, in vice as in virtue. Even robbers have their standards of justice and honour. It is therefore no wonder that among themselves bankrupts adrnit principles and degrees in rascality. I have sought to use these as a basis for my division. I have divided them according to the custom in three corps, the first of which contains the light, graceful hues, the second the imposing, lofty characters, and the third the rather inconspicuous, trivial genera. The right wing will open the march-past."
these greenhorn bankruptcies are always interlarded with amusing incidents: duped usurers, mystified skinflints,(1) etc.
"The bankrupt of this genus can risk masses of shabby affairs: appropriation of goods, scandalous Joans, thefts from relatives, friends, neighbours — everything is washed away by the argument of a relative who says to the irate creditors: 'What can you expect — he is a child without any knowledge of business; one must close one's eyes where young people are concerned, he will improve with time.'
"These child bankrupts have a strong support on their side, namely mockery. One likes to mock in trade; one is inclined to mock at those who are duped rather than to censure the villains, and when a bankrupt has the laughers on his side he is sure to see the majority of his creditors capitulate immediately and to win his composition by assault.
"2. Daredevil bankruptcy; that of certain beginners who play double or quits, people who gallop off at full speed, speculate and manage their affairs like mad, make ducks and drakes with huge sums of money and play the grand gentleman to achieve by storm a temporary credit which they manage to secure by some secret sacrifice. When these daredevils once get going they heap blunder on blunder and usually end up in flight. The affair will be excused as botch work and easily arranged, for it provides material for mockery like the preceding one.
"These daredevils are extremely common in France and are here honoured with the title of speculators. They are very sure of their game if they hasten the discovery so that they can turn their somersault at the very moment when they are believed to have hardly got going, when everybody is ready to grant them credit for a first deal and thinks: 'he will certainly not come a cropper in the very first year.'
"3. Stealthy bankruptcy, the type carried out underhand, is one in which the embarrassed debtor proposes 'a small arrangement', a rebate of 25 per cent or coverage in goods to be over-assessed by 25 per cent. The mediator remarks to the creditors that this is very advantageous for them, for if they press the debtor and oblige him to go bankrupt they will lose at least 50 per cent.
"This kind of relative calculation is very much insisted upon in trade. One often comes across villains who, after they have robbed you of 30 per cent, try to prove that you are making an enormous profit because they are not fleecing you of 50 per cent. Others maintain that they have to bear heavy losses because they are earning no more than 40 per cent on you and actually should be earning 60 per cent. This apparently ridiculous way of reckoning is recognised everywhere in commerce; it has its greatest triumph in underhand bankruptcy. People insist that this small rebate of 25 per cent is a clear net profit compared with the 50 per cent that bankruptcy would cost. Shaken by the force of this argument, the creditors agree to the 'small arrangement'. He who was to*receive 4,000 francs gets 3,000, and that is by no means called bankruptcy.
"4. Posthumous bankruptcy, which is adjudicated after the hero's death; it becomes a plea in defence of the deceased who hoped to set his business in order again and would certainly have been a credit to it if he had but lived. After that his excellent qualities are praised and his poor orphans sincerely pitied. Surely the creditors will not wish to worry a tearful widow! If she is beautiful that would be altogether barbaric! Meanwhile, the widow, with the help of a few persons of trust, has managed some sizable defalcations before the sealing. The deficiencies will be charged to the deceased, who did not have time to put his affairs in order and who will not come back to disprove this little fib. If there was a deficit of 25 per cent it will easily be increased to 50 per cent, it does not cost any more once one has made a beginning; besides, how stupid it would be to go bankrupt with a 25 per cent deficit when people with one of 50 per cent are still considered honest — especially when the fault lies with a highly respectable deceased person, whose memory it would be abominable to discredit!"
The Honourable
"The four species mentioned are those of fictitious innocence. We now let those of real innocence pass in review. It would be unfair to brand bankrupts en masse because nine-tenths of them are scoundrels. I shall adduce three truly excusable classes. We shall have but too many guilty ones to accuse; so let us first seek some honest people among this confraternity, which has become so numerous since the revolution[3] that in some towns one no longer asks who has, but who has not gone bankrupt.
"5. Goose bankruptcy is that of an unfortunate one who does not peculate a mite, hands everything over to the creditors and throws himself on their mercy without any deception. The other bankrupts mock at him and declare him to be a simpleton for not at least feathering his nest; and in fact such a loyal man is unworthy of our century of perfectibility.
"6. Ecstatic bankruptcy is the work of a man who is desperate, considers himself dishonoured and sometimes shoots himself or jumps into the water. It means one is well behind the times if one wishes to be an honest man in the 19th century, and moreover in trade!
"All the same it is a pleasure for me to have to say that one still comes across such people in trade, but they are few and far between—rari nautes in gurgite vasto.0 Everybody foretells them their fate, so well known is the fact that out of ten villains that plunge into trade nine make their fortune, whereas out of ten honest people nine are ruined.
"7. Unprincipled bankruptcy is that of a booby who lets justice intervene and pronounce sentence branding him and stripping him naked instead of doing as so many clever people do, who manage to emerge from this predicament with honour and profit.— These three honest knights are so little worthy of the exalted confraternity that I pass over them quickly. We now come to a sort which is more capable of earning the applause of experts."
The Seductive
"Why should one not let oneself be seduced by bankrupts as one is by so many other wicked classes? We shall now inspect a clique which possesses every kind of charm and is made to conquer all hearts.
"8. Amiability bankruptcy, economical bankruptcy, is that of a little man as sweet as honey who desires nothing but the good of his creditors, would be desperate if he had to put them out of pocket, and presses them to negotiate for 50 per cent in order to avoid the intervention of justice which would devour the lot. He has the creditors notified that he wants to treat them as friends whose interests are dear to him. Full of gratitude for the friendly services they have rendered him, he trembles at the thought of having to cause them lawsuit costs. These smooth words and other guiles seduce some while others yield for fear of justice swallowing up the lot.
"9. Bankruptcy de bon ton is that of people who are very much liked in refined society and maintain their household on an excellent footing till the last moment. As they are comme il faut in all respects, they have abundant protection and when they are not at more than 60 per cent in deficit they easily get a composition; especially when the lady and the daughters of the house can be used as pleaders and avail themselves of the decision of a Sanchez who allows them to wear a very transparent scarf when they go soliciting in important matters.
"10. Amorous bankruptcy is that of pretty ladies; it is not decent to complain about it, the fair sex is entitled to consideration. A pretty woman has a business, goes bankrupt,[3] robs you of a thousand talers ; if you pester her it only goes to show that you have no savoir vivre; she is right when she has no patience with the intractable. I heard one such lady say about a creditor: 'What a man! They even say he is still grumbling; I advise him, indeed, to complain about his fifty louis, I should have chalked him up for twice as much!' He had had certain intimacies with the lady, she had the right to treat him as ungrateful.
"11. Bankruptcy by favour, in the case of which it is obvious that the creditors derive profit — and how does that happen? When the bankrupt steals only a little, 40 per cent, and provides security, a very substantial caution, for the rest. This is considered so fortunate that the notary congratulates the assembled creditors, congratulates them on an excellent piece of business, a 'real favour'. To lose only four thousand francs out of ten thousand and to get six thousand paid back is a real advantage. Somebody not accustomed to commerce would be unable to appreciate this favour; he would want to have all of his ten thousand and would think he had been robbed of four thousand. What bad manners! To claim that a man robs you when he deducts 40 per cent discount and otherwise treats you in a friendly way!
"12. Sentimental bankruptcy occurs with certain people who deliver speeches to break your heart and pour out such floods of feeling and virtue over the creditor that he would be a barbarian if he did not instantly surrender, did not esteem himself happy to oblige such fine people who tenderly love all those whose money they cause to disappear. People of this kind pay with excellent excuses and very flattering eulogies, they catch the creditor by his feelings, converse with him only about his and their virtues; you feel so much improved when the conversation is over; you discover in yourself à multitude of virtues which amply outweigh the sum abstracted. You have a few thousand francs less but all the more virtues; it is a clear profit for beautiful souls.
"One of those actors(2) said to me one day: 'I was so sorry for the gentlemen, they are very fine, very respectable people'—and the good young man, as proof of his respect, robbed them at once in the first deal with a bill of exchange which he gave them as a present and a token of welcome. He had drawn the sum in order to come into contact with them, and a month later he went bankrupt. What a joy for these gentlemen to have received his respect as a security for ten thousand francs!
"I have kept my word, I had promised a seductive company. There is nothing but friendship, favour, bon ton, and tender feelings in all bankruptcies of this truly amiable series. But if it is calculated to win hearts, others will command wonder, give rise to brilliant upswings, transcendent characters, and represent the heroes of their genus."
Endnotes
[3] Here and elsewhere Engels quotes Reichardt's reviews of C. Briiggemann's book, Preussens Beruf in der deutschen Staats-Entwickelung, und die nächsten Bedingungen zu seiner Erfüllung, Berlin, 1843 and A. Benda's Katechismus für wahlberechtigte Bürger in Preussen, Berlin, 1843. Both reviews were published in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, Heft VI, May 1844.