"The People's Bank was to be the property of all the citizens who accepted its services, who for this purpose furnished money to it if they thought that it could not yet for some time do without a metallic basis, and who, in every case, promised it their preference in discounting paper, and received its notes as cash. Accordingly the People's Bank, working for the profit of its customers themselves, had no occasion to take interest for its loans nor to charge a discount on commercial paper; it had only to take a very slight allowance to cover salaries and expenses. So credit was GRATUITOUS!--The principle being realized, the consequences unfolded themselves ad _infinitum_."[198] "So the People's Bank, giving an example of popular initiative alike in government and in public economy, which thenceforth were to be identified in a single synthesis, was becoming for the _proletariat_ at once the principle and the instrument of their emancipation; it was creating political and industrial liberty. And, as every philosophy and every religion is the metaphysical or symbolic expression of social economy, the People's Bank, changing the material basis of society, was ushering in the revolution of philosophy and religion; it was thus, at least, that its founders had conceived of it."[199] All this can best be made clear by reproducing some provisions from the constitution of the People's Bank. Art. 1. By these presents a commercial company is founded under the name of _Societe de la Banque du Peuple_, consisting of Citizen Proudhon, here present, and the persons who shall give their assent to this constitution by becoming stockholders. Art. 3.... For the present the company will exist as a partnership in which Citizen Proudhon shall be general partner, and the other parties concerned shall be limited partners who shall in no case be responsible for more than the value of their shares. Art. 5.... The firm name shall be P. J. Proudhon & Co. Art. 6. Besides the members of the company proper, every citizen is invited to form a part of the People's Bank as a co-operator. For this it suffices to assent to the bank's constitution and to accept its paper. Art. 7. The People's Bank Company being capable of indefinite extension, its virtual duration is endless. However, to conform to the requirements of the law, it fixes its duration at ninety-nine years, which shall commence on the day of its definitive organization. Art. 9.... The People's Bank, having as its _basis_ the essential gratuitousness of credit and exchange, as its _object_ the circulation, not the production, of values, and as its _means_ the mutual consent of producers and consumers, can and should work without capital. This end will be reached when the entire mass of producers and consumers shall have assented to the constitution of the company.