As in the case of the tenants and proprietors of houses in the Rue Vivienne, opportunity to even greater extent was afforded those who resided in the Rue Quincampoix to let their houses as dwellings or offices to the infatuated crowd of speculators. A house for which a rent of eight hundred livres per annum was paid secured without difficulty for its occupier a return of 5000 to 12,000 livres per month, single rooms in many cases returning as much as 1500 livres per month. Fortunes were made by many people who anticipated the demand for accommodation and secured a number of houses at little above their normal rent for the purpose of letting at these extravagant figures. Curious, too, were the methods adopted by some for the making of money. We read of a hunchback who converted his deformity to the original and profitable use of a writing-desk. In a very few days he had accumulated the sum of 150,000 livres from the fees he received from the speculators who took advantage of the novel purpose to which he put his hunch. The same eccentric occupation enabled a soldier, possessed of very broad shoulders, to obtain his discharge from the army and purchase an estate in the provinces to which he prudently retired before the fever of speculation had enthralled him. We read too of a cobbler who plied his trade in a very primitive manner under four planks secured to a wall. The crowds of ladies who were drawn to the Rue Quincampoix as interested spectators in its exciting scenes suggested to the cobbler the means of gaining in a short time more than the labour of a lifetime could secure for him. He furnished his diminutive stall with chairs, and these he let out to ladies at exorbitant charges gladly paid. He then added to his stock a supply of pens and paper which were taken advantage of by brokers and others who resorted to his stall to carry out their transactions. By these means he drew an income of 50,000 livres per month.
But these and other similar methods of acquiring fortunes were only incidental to the main business of the Rue Quincampoix. Great and unexpected fortunes were made by speculators in the Company’s shares, and these by no means were confined to the wealthy capitalists or even persons possessed of moderate sums available for operation. The methods provided for exchange were of the crudest description, and provided means of amassing wealth for those who were absolutely without capital but were unscrupulous enough to take advantage of the opportunities that were opened up to them. Innumerable instances are recorded where servants, the most menial, enriched themselves in this way. One shareholder desirous of disposing his holding was too unwell to carry out the sale himself and sent his servant to carry through the transaction. He was instructed to sell two hundred and fifty shares at 8000 livres per share. On arrival at the Rue Quincampoix, he found the shares had meanwhile risen to 10,000 livres. The difference of 500,000 livres he retained, and with it speculated further until he succeeded in multiplying it four times, when he retired from the scene of his good fortune to enjoy the fruits of his ill-earned money. Another, who had been entrusted with the realisation of two hundred shares, took advantage of the rapidly rising market to postpone the disposal of them until the price enabled him to obtain 1,000,000 livres beyond their value on the day upon which they were handed to him, and this he regarded as his own, only paying to his principal the price they would have brought had they been immediately realised.
Amusing too, are many of the stories of those who found themselves so suddenly raised from extreme indigence to excess of wealth. Carriages thronged the streets whose occupants were formerly coachmen and footmen, cooks and scullery-maids, butlers and valets. A footman who had established himself in a palatial residence betrayed his former station by mounting behind his own carriage instead of entering it, and when reminded of his mistake excused himself by the remark that he wished to engage more footmen, and desired to know if there were room for them. Another footman, according to the Regent’s mother, was in the habit of doing the same thing, but in his case intentionally, in order that he might the more experience the pleasure of the change his newly gained wealth had brought to him. Amongst menials none were more fortunate than those who were in attendance on Law himself. It is said that his coachman, having made for himself a competency, desired to leave the financier’s service, and on expressing his desire to Law was allowed to do so on condition that he provided a substitute. This was naturally easily complied with, and in a short time he returned with two suitable men, of whom he offered one to Law, mentioning that he intended retaining the other for himself.
DUC D’ORLEANS,
Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV.
It was, however, amongst the higher ranks of society that the greatest scramble for wealth took place, and amongst the entourage of the court that the deepest gambling in shares was indulged in. Peers, court favourites, ladies of fashion, judges, bishops, and practically everyone of standing in society or in the public service, were to be found day after day in the Rue Quincampoix, engaged in the purchase and sale of the Mississippi stock. The Regent himself was one of the most successful participants in the national gamble, and with princely and lavish generosity, marked his sudden and easy access of enormous wealth. Amongst charitable institutions he distributed several million livres, giving in particular one million each to the Hotel-Dieu, the Hospital General, and the Foundlings. The debts of prisoners to the extent of one and a half millions were discharged, and to many of his friends he gave gifts of varying, but extravagant, amounts. The Marquis de Nocé, the Count de la Motte, and the Count de Roie, were each recipients of 100,000 livres, and the Count de la Marche, a child of thirteen years, son of the Prince de Conti, had conferred upon him a pension of 60,000 livres. He also increased by 130,000 livres, the pension enjoyed by his mother, the Princess Palatine, who wrote in her letters that “we hear nothing but millions spoken of now; my son has given me two millions in shares, which I have distributed among my household. The King has also taken some millions for his household. All the royal household have received some, all the children of France, the grandchildren of France, and the Princes of the blood.”
The Duke of Bourbon, son of Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan, repaired his broken fortunes, liquidated his enormous debts, and in the course of several successful strokes of speculation, acquired a fortune of twenty million livres. He purchased large estates in Picardy, and acquired all the most valuable land between the Oise and the Somme. The castle at Chantilly was rebuilt on a scale of regal magnificence, and an extensive zoological collection was brought together as a feature of attraction to his territorial possessions. Anxious to improve the breed of horses in France, he also imported 150 race-horses from England, and thus established one of the finest stables on the continent of Europe. And then, “to pay his court to the Regent, who was passionately fond of his daughter, the Duchess of Berry, he gave that Princess, who was eager after pleasure, a superb festival, which lasted four or five days, and cost an immense sum of money.”
Among other nobles whose dilapidated fortunes were restored at this time, were the Dukes D’Antin, de Guiche, de la Force, the Marshal D’Estrées, Madame de Vérue and the Princes de Rohan and de Poix. But many foreigners were no less successful, and of one, Joseph Gage, brother of Viscount Gage, who had acquired an exceedingly large fortune, we are told that, having aspirations to kingly rank, he offered the King of Poland three millions if the latter would resign his crown in his favour, and meeting with an unfavourable reply, endeavoured to negotiate a similar transaction with reference to Sardinia, but with no greater success.
Fortune, however, did not shine on all the members of the nobility of France. Many were unable or unwilling to take advantage of the opportunities offered them for enrichment. Of the latter the most conspicuous were Chancellor D’Aguessau, the Duc de Saint-Simon, the Duc de la Rochefoucauld, Marshal de Villeroy and Marshall de Villars. For the former other means were discovered for acquiring wealth than direct speculation, means less creditable, if not more discreditable. The institution of marriage was utilized by the poor nobility to replenish their finances. Many of the nouveaux riches were only too pleased to endow a prospective noble son-in-law with wealth sufficient to enable him to live according to his station, so that they too might be able to number themselves among the aristocracy. Until the advent of Law, marriages of this kind were not only unusual, but so strict was the line of division which separated the nobility from all inferior ranks, that when they were celebrated, they invariably brought social ostracism. The charms of wealth, however, removed all scruples of caste, and we find, for instance, that the marriage of Mlle. de Sainte-Hermine, a near relation of the Duc de la Vrilliere, Secretary of State, whose consent was willingly given, to a parvenu of the name of Panier, was celebrated without any reflection on the ground of misalliance. But marriages of a very different class from these were brought into favour amongst this class of suitor during these days of financial excitement. These were known as marriages à réméré,—marriages with right of redemption,—the distinctive feature of which consisted in the right of the noble husband to cancel the marriage at a future date. Marais instances the case of “the Marquis D’Oise, of the house of Villars-Brancas, who entered into a proposal of marriage with a little girl of two years old, daughter of André the Mississippian. The betrothal was made with the consent of the two families. The Marquis was to have an annuity of 20,000 livres until the marriage took place, and even in case it never took place. If it took place, the dowry was to be four millions. Little girls would no longer have dolls, but asked for “Marquises of Oise to play with.”