A Windfall Along the Way

Joseph, however, was not alarmed. He merely frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "Lazar, it's not convenient to talk here. Let's go to my office."

Joseph then went into the office with Carnot.

Carnot sat down at the table next to Joseph's desk, and Joseph went to close the door first, then sat down opposite Carnot.

"Lazar, has anyone already bought Clavière Bank's certificates of deposit at a discount?" Joseph asked.

"You know about this? Yes, someone is already buying up Clavière Bank's certificates of deposit at a 30% discount. Joseph, do you think I should sell some? To be honest, losing 30% for nothing is very hard to accept. But I'm also worried that if this continues, the losses might be even greater," Carnot said, frowning.

Joseph didn't answer, but instead asked, "Lazar, do you have any spare money?"

Carnot completely missed Joseph's train of thought. He assumed Joseph wanted to help him financially, so he said, "It's not much, but enough to support you for now. Joseph, I remember you have several brothers to support—of course, Napoleon can help you a bit now too..."

"Lazar," Joseph smiled, "Thank you for your concern, but I think perhaps you've misunderstood me."

At this point, Joseph glanced to both sides—the door was closed, and there was no one else in the office besides them. He then lowered his voice and continued:

"Lazar, what I mean is, if you have any money available beyond what you need to support your basic living expenses, including money in other banks that you can access, take it all out and try to acquire as many certificates of deposit as possible from Clavière Bank."

"Huh?" Carnot stared wide-eyed at Joseph, then finally reached out to touch Joseph's forehead. "Joseph, are you sick?"

"Don't worry, I'm not sick," Joseph said. "Lazar, if we're talking about which places the bank will be affected by the rebellions, is anyone more aware than us? Do you think we don't know the extent of the various rebellions, big and small, in different places? Lazar, have there been many more rebellions in various places recently compared to the previous few months?"

At this point, Carnot seemed to understand a little. "There have been a few more rebellions in the past few months, but not by much."

"Yes, this situation of ubiquitous rebellion has been going on for almost a year now, hasn't it? In that year, Mr. Clavière should be quite familiar with this market situation. While Mr. Clavière may not be the Alexander Great of the financial world, he is at least a Viscount Turenne (a French Army general during the Thirty Years' War, hailed as the sharpest sword of France under Louis XIV). Lazar, do you think it's highly likely that he would suddenly cause banks to face bankruptcy and be unable to redeem deposits due to a now common unforeseen risk?"

"Joseph, are you saying that these rumors are all false? Clavière Bank didn't encounter any crisis at all? Then why is Mr. Clavière doing this?" Carnot still didn't understand.

"Because a large portion of the people buying those certificates of deposit are Mr. Clavière's people! You wait, it won't be long before the purchase price of the certificates of deposit drops to 60% or even 10%. Mr. Clavière will buy back the certificates of deposit at that price, and then the certificates of deposit can be deposited and withdrawn normally, and then... need I say more?" Joseph said.

"This... this is allowed?!" Carnot trembled all over, clenching his fists tightly. He stood up and said, "This... isn't this robbing the people? Is there no justice? Is there no law?"

"Lazar ... Lazar, don't get so agitated. We...you know what, this really doesn't break the law." Joseph also stood up, trying to comfort Carnot.

"No! I can't just stand by and watch such a heartless thing happen!" Carnot said. "Joseph, let's go find the general. He should have a way to stop this."

Joseph, seeing Carnot's indignant expression, knew he couldn't stop him, but he was unwilling to go with Carnot to find Lafayette. Blocking someone's money-making efforts was as dangerous as blocking a train.

"Lazar, calm down," Joseph said. "Do you think the General doesn't know that things like this are happening all over Paris right now? Do you think the General would care about these things? Mr. Clavière is an influential and respectable man. To control the current situation, Your Excellency needs the support of Mr. Clavière and a large number of people like him in many areas. If the General were to stand up and stop this, he would be putting himself in opposition to this large group of people. If the General were to do so, he would offend many people and pay a heavy political price. Your Excellency, he cannot possibly stand up and stop this."

Carnot hesitated for a moment, clearly showing his reluctance. Finally, he said, "Joseph, what you said might be true. But I won't be satisfied unless I try."

"Then I'll go with you," Joseph said.

Joseph knew, of course, that Lafayette already held a grudge against him. If he went with Carnot now, Lafayette would most likely think he was instigating Carnot to set him up. But since he'd already offended Lafayette, and Lafayette didn't seem like the type to casually hang someone, he didn't care about offending him again. However, if he did this, Carnot would definitely see the pressure he was under— Carnot wasn't a fool who didn't understand social dynamics; he just hadn't thought about it that way before. Now that he realized the problem, he would naturally understand the value of friendship and support Joseph showed by going with him. In Joseph's view, gaining Carnot's friendship at the cost of further offending Lafayette was actually a worthwhile trade-off.

However, by this time, Carnot had calmed down. He thought for a moment and said, "Joseph, you shouldn't go. There are already some misunderstandings between you and the general. If you go now, the general might have even more misunderstandings about you. I'll go alone."

"Lazar ..." Joseph said.

"I'll be back in a bit, then we can discuss it further." Carnot patted Joseph on the shoulder, then turned and walked out.

Joseph sighed, then sat down behind his desk and began to work.

About half an hour later, there was a knock on the door.

"The door isn't locked, please come in." Joseph looked up from his work and saw Carnot push open the door and walk in.

Joseph stood up and went to greet him. After Carnot entered the room, he closed the door behind him.

"So? What did the general say?" Joseph asked.

"Just as you predicted. Of course, his reason is that I have no evidence." Carnot shook his head.

The two were silent for a moment. Then Carnot spoke up, "Joseph, you mentioned earlier that we could buy those certificates of deposit? Hmm, how much money do you have here?"

Lazar, you?

"Rather than letting those unscrupulous bastards take all the money, we should keep some. With the money in our hands, at least we can do something good. But in the hands of someone like Clavière, it will only harm more people," Carnot said. "I used to read in * L'Ami du peuple * that this guy named Marat was shouting about hanging every single banker from the lampposts, and I thought he was being too extreme. Now it seems he wasn't entirely wrong. Our current government is far too lenient with these people!"

To be honest, Carnot wasn't particularly skilled at making money. However, Carnot was very good at math, and once a problem was explained to him, he understood it quickly. Finally, Carnot said to Joseph, "Joseph, I can probably come up with four thousand Livre. But I'm too busy right now, so I'll leave the money to you. You can handle it for me."

"Lazar, you're busy, but am I not?" Joseph said.

"Come on, Joseph," Carnot said. "Your workload now is almost half of what it was when you were in charge of the Red Army. Back then you still had time to write papers, and now you're telling me you don't?"

"Maybe I'm pursuing some young girl?" Joseph said.

"Really? Hmm, what kind of girl is she?" Carnot believed it.

"No, no. I was just saying," Joseph quickly denied.

"Ah. How come you don't have time? Hmm, speaking of which, you really should find a girl. What, a young man as outstanding as you, hasn't a single girl fallen for you yet?" Carnot said, "Should I introduce you to one?"

"Forget it," Joseph said. "I don't think it's time to talk about love, at least not until the crisis in France has truly stabilized."

Joseph received four thousand Livre from Carnot, and then borrowed six thousand Livre from Lavoisier —well, the chemist Lavoisier, not his nephew—adding them to his existing five thousand Livre, making a total of fifteen thousand, which he then devoted himself to this speculative activity.

As Joseph predicted, things unfolded exactly as he had. In the following two weeks, Clavière Bank's certificates of deposit were rapidly discounted in the market, first to 20%, then 30%, then 40%, and finally, panic ensued, with prices even falling below 20%. At its lowest point, the certificates of deposit were worth only about 14% of their book value.

Joseph, not being overly greedy, jumped in when the deposit certificates were discounted by 20%, exchanging his 15,000 Livre for 75,000 Livre. A few days later, Mr. Clavière announced that he had weathered the crisis and could now fully redeem all the deposit certificates. Joseph's deposit certificate, which had initially been worth 5,000 Livre, had now truly become 75,000 Livre. After deducting the 20,000 livres given to Carnot and the 6,000 livres returned to Lavoisier (including interest), Joseph had quietly earned himself 44,000 Livre.

"In chaotic times, it's so easy to rob," Joseph sighed. "No wonder some people risk their lives to steal something."