"Well, the bank interest is now three per cent. When four rubles are paid on an investment of ninety rubles having a par value of one hundred rubles, then the valuation of Russian government securities is not quite seventy. And that may continue for a long time." "Do you consider that the real, intrinsic value?" "The stock exchange knows no intrinsic value. It only knows tendencies. One hundred rubles' worth of Russian government securities can always be disposed of at seventy, if all the strings do not break." "You are evading me. I asked for your personal opinion on the intrinsic value of the Russian bonds." "I will give you an answer. As long as our Russian peasant is able to starve and to sell his grain, as long as there are gendarmes to aid the tax-collector, and people who are willing to make further loans to us, so long is the payment of coupons assured. Beyond that the foreign bondholder has no right to inquire." "Please tell me whether in your opinion there is a hidden deficit in the Russian budget, or whether there is none." "I am telling you that as long as there are people who are willing to make further loans to us we shall pay the interest. Were our budget a real one, we should not need to contract new debts in order to pay the interest on the old ones." "That is what I wanted to know. And do you consider Russia a really insolvent country, that cannot really pay its debts, and cannot bear the burdens of modern national life?" "On the contrary, Russia is intrinsically so rich a land in uncovered treasures that it only needs another and a just régime to pay its debts and to assume still further burdens." "And this other régime?" The banker pointed to the east. "Our future is being decided there. If it goes hard with us there, it may become better here more quickly than is suspected." "Hence, worse for the bankers," said I, jokingly. "People accustom themselves to honesty when there is no other way," answered the banker, also jokingly. "And when universal honesty comes into vogue, it will no longer be a shame to be honest."