So soon as the coin was paid away, which was not a long operation, for it was over in less than a week; another _Arret de Conseil_, of the 11th of the same month of March, came out, declaring that, by the first of April, the coin was to be again reduced to 70 livres the marc, and on the first of May to 65 livres. Upon this, the coin, which had been paid away the week before, came pouring into the bank, for fear of the diminution which was to take place the first of April. In this period of about three weeks, the bank received about 44 millions of livres; and those who brought it in thought they were well rid of it. It was during the months of February, March, and April 1720, that the great operations of the system were carried on. We may see by the chronological anecdotes in the 36th chapter, what prodigious sums of bank notes were coined, and issued during that time. It was during this period also, that a final conclusion was put to the reimbursing all the public creditors with bank notes: in consequence of which payment, the former securities granted to them by the King, under the authority of the parliament of Paris, were withdrawn and annulled. Here then we have conducted this scheme to the last period. There remained only one step to be made to conclude the operation; to wit, the sale of the actions, which the Regent had in his custody to the number of 400,000. These were to be sold to the public, who were at this time in possession of bank notes to the value of 2 235 083 590 livres. See the foregoing table. Had the sale of the actions taken place, the notes would all have returned to the bank, and there have been destroyed: by which operation, the company would have become debtor to the public for the dividends of all the actions in _their_ hands, and to the King for all those which might have remained in the hands of the Regent. These proportions we cannot bring to any calculation, as it would have depended entirely on the price of the actions during so great an operation; and on the private conventions between the parties, the Regent and the company. But alas! all this is a vain speculation. The system which hitherto had stood its ground in spite of the most violent shocks, was now to tumble into ruin from a childish whim. In order to set this stroke of political arithmetic in the most ludicrous light possible, I must do it in Dutot’s own words, uttered with a sore heart and in sober sadness. He had said before, that the coin of France was equal to 1200 millions of livres at 60 livres the marc. This marc was now at 65 livres (in May 1720, as above) so the _numerary_ value, as he calls it, (that is the denomination) of the coin was now risen to 1 300 000 000; but the bank notes circulating in the month of May were carried to 2 696 400 000; then he adds,