Originally posted on Tuesday, April 30th, 2013
“Napoleon … called the attention of the representative of the Bank of France to the fact that the success and permanence of that institution were of equal or even greater consequence … to the people of France than the victories he was achieving on the field of battle.”
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
From SENATOR NELSON W. ALDRICH BEFORE THE ECONOMIC CLUB OF NEW YORK NOVEMBER 29, 1909 ON THE WORK OF THE NATIONAL MONETARY COMMISSION (p.28):
Now, the Bank of France has always been from that day to this the Bank of France indeed—the bank of the people of France—sustaining her credit, upholding her honor. No ministry and no party could afford to ignore for a moment this great fact. It would result in the dismissal of any ministry or the overthrow of any party which undertook for a moment to influence the action of this great institution adversely to the public interests. The Bank of France has gone on under emperor, under king, under revolutionary government, and under the Republic—always the bank of the state and the bank of the people of France. Why, in the time of the Commune notes of the Bank of France were current, and the premium on gold in Paris was less than the premium on currency in New York in 1907, showing something of the character of this great institution, which has a place in the heart of every Frenchman that is absolutely unique.
When I was in Paris last year I met a grandson of one of Napoleon’s great marshals, who was then investigating the early history of the Bank of France, and who had in his possession a dispatch sent by Napoleon from the field of Austerlitz, just after the battle, in which he called the attention of the representative of the Bank of France to the fact that the success and permanence of that institution were of equal or even greater consequence, in his opinion, to the people of France than the victories he was achieving on the field of battle.
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