CP 03097/en
Marcel Proust to Lionel Hauser Saturday 13 May 1916
(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the Corr-Proust digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)
Saturday 13 May 1916
My dear Lionel
I thank you for keeping such a close eye on things, and admire at the same time that your double mentality as a native of an allied country (Portugal)[1] and as an adopted Frenchman makes you look with care for opportunities to help M. Ribot, either by the subscription to the national loan (that the big banks advise, without facilitating it) or the loan of neutral stocks[2]. To get to the latter, I will remind you of something that I understand has not remained engraved in fiery letters among your keenest memories, that I have, on your advice, sold a few months ago Nord Espagne, Saragosse and Hollandais, stocks that you quoted me and that I no longer possess[3]. On the other hand I have the Suez and Egyptian (and even the Brazilian). If credit doesn’t prevent, or make the sale difficult, I’ll be in favour of it. But you know the Egyptian appears on my list of stocks the sale of which must be sufficient to reimburse my debts to the Crédit Industriel[4]. As on this list, excluding the aforementioned stocks and Interborough, the Crédit Industriel, perhaps weak, perhaps strong, has not yet been able to sell anything, I would not like to hand over my Egyptian securities to the Finance Minister, if that does not prevent me from selling them so as not to pay 8% interest, without accounting for quite obscure “bank charges” and “moratory” interests[5] (“Good Lord, what in gallant terms these things are phrased”) [6]. Don't trouble yourself replying to all this. If you tell me to offer the Minister of Finances my Suez and my Egyptians (I also have Crédit Foncier Égyptien), I will conclude that the loan does not prevent the sale and I will sign all that you send to me to sign. As for the substitution of securities, would not the 5% bearer bonds be more useful in case extinguishing my debt requires some sales later on? Once again don't reply to me on this point. If you have to intervene with Crédit Industriel in order to get this substitution accepted, you really should at the same time advise them to be satisfied, having earned so much at my expense, with 6% (but without calling the Director of the Agency into question. Otherwise I would prefer to pay 8%)[7]. When the opportunity arises I would like you to tell me if banks like the Banque Rothschild and the Crédit Industriel notify their clients when they earn dividends. I have property shares, municipal shares, a bond from La Presse, and I never watch the drawing of lots. Finally to conclude, my pharmacist [8] presenting me with an astonishing bill for the end of the month[9], it would be very kind of you to tell me what I am able to take out of your bank.
The mystery of the Caucasian persists: the day after I accepted Léon’s transaction he made 10 francs on a bond that has not moved since[10].
With much affectionate gratitude from your
Marcel Proust
Notes
- ↑ Le Figaro, 10 March 1916, page 2, announces: "Germano-Portuguese breakdown of relations: The German minister in Lisbon recalled." The following day the same newspaper announced: "Germano-Portuguese breakdown of relations: State of war declared." In his reply of 17 May 1916 Hauser corrects Proust's error: "I have never had Portuguese nationality. I was born a British subject having been born on British soil (that is to say Gibraltar)." (CP 03099; Kolb, XV, no. 35). [PK, FP]
- ↑ See Hauser's letter of 12 May 1916: "our Finance Minister has just addressed holders of neutral countries' shares, inviting them to loan certain of those shares to enable him to procure foreign exchange." (CP 03096; Kolb, XV, no. 32). [FP]
- ↑ It appears that Hauser had proposed to Proust, in October 1915, that he sell his stocks in Chemin de Fer Nord Espagne, Interborough and Hollandais, in order to substitute them for "more favourable purchases". On the 25 November following, Proust announced that the Nord Espagne and Sargosse were "already sold." The sale of "Hollandais" must have taken place a few days after 16 December. See Proust's letters to Hauser of [26 November 1915] (CP 03035; Kolb, XIV, no. 147) and 16 December 1915 (CP 03045; Kolb,XIV, no. 157), and also the letter from Hauser to Proust, 17 December 1915 (CP 03046; Kolb, XIV, no. 158). [PK]
- ↑ On the subject of the loan contracted by Proust with Crédit Industriel et Commercial, see letter CP 03096, note 2. Out of the 218,000 francs borrowed in 1912, he still owed 184,000 on 28 February 1916, according to the audit carried out by Hauser (see CP 03115; Kolb, XV, no. 51). [FP, FL]
- ↑ This refers to the fees due on the difference in the prices of shares forward purchased before the war, whose prices had collapsed because of the conflict and the closure of the Stock Markets. When the moratorium put in place at the end of July 1914 (see CP 02812, note 14) suspended all stock market activity and which prorogation made it seem that the liquidation of future liabilities would not be recovered until after the war, when market shares would have returned to their normal prices, a decree of 16 September 1915 had allowed the resumption of liquidations, by spreading the payment of "the differences", in tenths, from the end of September 1915 to the end of June 1916: "the settlement of differences [...] will be made in ten monthly instalments starting from the next liquidation [liquidation from the end of September 1915], the first instalment to be paid at the same time as the default interests." (Le Temps, 20 September 1915, "Semaine financière" [The Financial Week], p. 3.) Proust commented upon this situation in his letter of 22 October 1915 to Nicolas Cottin, p. 2-3 (see CP 03007, note 8; Kolb, XIV, no. 119). [FL]
- ↑ Molière, Le Misanthrope, act I, scene 2, line 325 (Philinte commenting on a sonnet by Oronte): "Ah ! qu'en termes galants ces choses-là sont mises !" [PK]
- ↑ Proust had already written to Hauser on [25 January 1916], on the subject of Gaston Roüillard de Kerivily: "I finally saw the Director of the Agency who has been very kind, and I wouldn't like to disoblige him" (CP 03071; Kolb, XV, no. 7). He insisted again [28 January 1916]: "... to cause a nuisance to someone so obliging would cause me deep pain, even if it were to reduce my debt" (CP 03073; Kolb, XV, no. 9). [FP]
- ↑ According to Céleste Albaret's recollections, this refers to "Leclerc's pharmacy, rue Vignon, on the corner of rue de Sèze", in the 9th arrondissement (Monsieur Proust, souvenirs recueillis par Georges Belmont, Paris, Robert Laffont, 1973, p. 84). [FP]
- ↑ In 1909 Hauser calculated that Proust was spending 6,000 francs a year in medications. See his letter to Proust of 26 February 1909 (CP 01944; Kolb, IX, no. 19). [PK]
- ↑ Allusion to the transaction that Proust had concluded with the broker David Léon at the end of January 1916 over stocks in North Caucasian Oil Fields. See Hauser's letter to Proust of 26 January 1916 (CP 03072; Kolb, XV, no. 8) and that of Proust to Hauser of [Friday morning 28 January 1916] (CP 03073; Kolb, XV, no. 9). [PK]
- ↑ Translation notes:
- ↑ Contributors: Yorktaylors