The Doll - Bolesaw Prus [100]
‘You gentlemen know’, Wokulski began, ‘that Warsaw is a trading post between Western and Eastern Europe. Here part of the French and German merchandise intended for Russia is collected and passed through our hands…We might have certain profits from this trade…’
‘Were it not in the hands of the Jews,’ said someone in an undertone from the table where merchants and industrialists were sitting.
‘Not at all,’ Wokulski retorted, ‘the profits would accrue if our trade were properly handled…’
‘It cannot be properly handled with Jews…’
‘But nowadays,’ the Prince’s lawyer interrupted, ‘Mr Wokulski is giving us the opportunity of replacing Jewish by Christian capital…’
‘Mr Wokulski is himself bringing Jews into trade,’ muttered an opponent on the merchants’ side.
It became quiet.
‘I must decline giving anyone an account of my way of doing business,’ Wokulski went on. ‘I am putting before you gentlemen a way to establish Warsaw’s foreign trade. This is the first half of my plan, and should be one source of profit for Polish investments. The second source is trade with Russia. Goods in demand here, can be obtained there cheaply. A partnership which dealt with these goods might make fifteen or twenty per cent annually on invested capital. I would mention textiles in the first place…’
‘That would undermine our own industry,’ an opponent in the group of merchants cried.
‘I am not concerned with manufacturers but with consumers,’ Wokulski replied.
The merchants and manufacturers began whispering together in a manner not at all favourable towards Wokulski.
‘So we have come to the question of public interest,’ the Prince exclaimed in an emotional tone of voice, ‘and the problem appears to be whether Mr Wokulski’s projects would be advantageous for our country. You, sir…’ and the Prince turned to his lawyer, feeling the need for the latter’s aid in this somewhat awkward situation.
‘My dear Mr Wokulski,’ cried the lawyer, ‘pray be good enough to explain to us—with your own inimitable thoroughness—whether the importation of textiles from such a distance might harm not our own manufacturers…’
‘In the first place,’ Wokulski said, ‘the factories are not ours, but German…’
‘Oho!’ exclaimed someone in the merchant group.
‘I am quite ready’, Wokulski went on, ‘to enumerate for you factories in which the entire administration and all the better-paid workers are Germans, in which the capital is German, and the managing directors all reside in Germany; in which our workers have no opportunities of bettering themselves, but are badly paid labourers, badly treated and totally Germanised.’
‘That is important,’ the round-shouldered Count interposed.
‘Oh dear me, yes,’ the ‘English’ Count muttered.
‘Goodness me, it stirs me just to listen to you…’ the marshal exclaimed, ‘I never thought it possible to be so taken by a conversation…I will be back directly,’ and he left the room, the floor almost sinking under his weight.
‘Shall I enumerate them?’ Wokulski inquired. The group of merchants and industrialists hastily proved their moderation by not asking for any names.
The lawyer rose swiftly from his chair, rubbed his hands and exclaimed: ‘I think we may now pass from the question of local factories to the next point on the agenda. Now, Mr Wokulski, will you—with your inimitable brevity—be so kind as to explain what positive advantages your project will bring…’
‘Our unhappy country…’ the Prince interposed.
‘Gentlemen,’ said Wokulski, ‘if a yard of my calico were to cost only two pennies less than it does today, then there would be a general saving of ten thousand roubles for every million yards purchased.’
‘What does ten thousand roubles matter?’ the marshal asked. He had just come back into the room, but had not yet caught up with the course of the debate.
‘A great deal, a very great deal,’ the round-shouldered Count cried, ‘we must learn once and for all to respect profits in terms of pennies.’
‘Oh dear me, yes…a penny saved is a pound made,’ added the