"Honorable Your Majesty!"
The President of the Bank of France, Count Algou, said with a serious expression to Jerome Bonaparte, offering a deferential greeting before tactfully advising, "The role of the Bank of France is to backstop other banks in case of bankruptcy. Hastily lending to the market might lead the French market into a temporary state of prosperity. But once the tide recedes, the French market might face an even greater threat."
Although Count Algou hadn't systematically studied Keynesian theory, based on his keen financial intuition honed through years of managing the Bank of France, he felt that what Mr. President suggested—using financial means to stimulate industrial methods—was essentially akin to injecting opium into a weakened person. The patient would become excited due to the influence of opium for a short time, but after the stimulant of opium wore off, the originally ill person would become even sicker.
