The merchant was silent for a moment, and then began the category of his financial proceedings:
“Neighbouring States which had heard of the powerful new methods I had introduced would approach me from time to time for financial assistance. To these I made the same invariable reply, that upon certain terms, which I myself would fix, I was content to ‘float their loans’; that is, the rich men of their country (or of any other) should pay into my office the sums they were prepared to lend to such a State, and I would pay back a part, but not the whole, of the amount so accumulated to the State in question. The enormous service I rendered by allowing my office to be used for this transaction was everywhere recognized, and by such operations my fortunes proceeded to grow.
“It was at this moment in my career that I married my wife, your dear aunt, who generally resides, as you know, in that one of my country palaces called Dar-al-Beida on the banks of the Tigris some four days’ journey from here. It is a delightful spot which I remember well though I have not seen it for years.... Some day, perhaps, I will visit it again, but not to sleep.
“Your dear aunt was, and is, my boys, a most remarkable woman: fit to compete with the master spirits of our time: yea! even with my own.
“Her birth—I need not conceal it—was humble. She was but a chance hireling in my offices, with the duty of sorting my papers and keeping indices of the same.
“Such was her interest in affairs that she was at the pains to take copies and tracings of many particularly private and important passages with her own hand, and keep these by her in a private place. I was struck beyond measure at such industry and preoccupation with business on the part of a woman (and one so poor!). I conceived an ardent desire to possess these specimens of her skill; but—to my astonishment, and (at first) confusion—she humbly replied that a profound though secret affection which she had conceived for me forbade her to part with these precious souvenirs of myself. I was so absorbed in their pursuit that, rather than lose them, I married this Queen of Finance—recognizing in her an equal genius with my own. Our wedding was of the simplest. I took comfort from the consideration that it proved me superior to all the nobles of the court and indifferent to an alliance with their families.
“Immediately after the wedding my wife, your dear aunt, asked me for money wherewith to travel, a request I readily granted. She traversed for her pleasure I knew not what foreign lands, always, and gladly, furnished with the wherewithal from my cash box; but on my returning later to Bagdad, my native place, she unexpectedly appeared at my door, and I was happy to build for her that country Palace of Dar-al-Beida to the charm of which I have alluded. Unfortunately its air suits me ill, while she (your dear aunt) suffocates in the atmosphere of Bagdad. It is often thus in old age....”
Mahmoud mused and continued:
“But let us return to my further activities in that far land:
“I next designed a scheme whereby every form of human misfortune, fire, disease, paralysis, madness, and the rest, might be alleviated to the sufferer by the payment of regular sums of money upon the advent of the disaster; weekly sums for his support if he were rendered infirm or ill, a lump sum to replace whatever he might have totally lost, and so forth. A short and easy survey of the average number of times in which such accidents took place permitted me to establish my system. I charged for 100 dinars worth of such insurance 110 dinars, and my benevolence was praised even more highly than my ingenuity.