“The measure of a thing’s worth is what you can purchase with it.” “Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Many believe that economics is the dismal science. Daniel Abraham, thankfully enough, did not get the message. In “The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics” Abraham builds a fantastic tale around a cambist, i.e., one who is an expert in foreign exchange, and a degenerate Lord who destroys anyone unfortunate to fall into the Lord’s orbit. This “fairy tale of economics” takes readers on a memorable journey of exchange and economics so as to discover that which imbues exchange between persons with true value.
Olaf Neddelsohn is the Cambist. His passion is the exchange of foreign currency. He is known, in the city in which he practices his trade, “as a man of few needs, tepid passions, and great kindness.” Olaf lives a modest life, working in the Postal Authority office exchanging currencies from one to the other. His home is a room in a boarding house where he entertains himself with “men’s adventure books.” On days off he visits the zoo, or a “fourth-rate gentlemen’s club that he could afford.” And “[o]n Sundays, he attended church.”
Edmund Scarasso, Lord Iron, could not be more different. Lord Iron’s estate and wealth rivals the king’s. He spends his time in a 200-room home in the city. He lives a debauched lifestyle and destroys lives without a thought. “Violence and sensuality and excess were the tissue of which his life was made.” When Lord Iron learns about Olaf’s exchange practice he decides, on a lark, destroy him.
Given a seemingly impossible task, to exchange notes that have no recorded monetary value, Olaf provides Lord Iron with a lesson in economics. Daniel Abraham’s description of how currency exchange works is masterfully brief and instructive. It is a pleasure to read the exchange between the simple cambist, devoted to his vocation, and the wretched nihilist, devoted to his animalistic passions. Unfortunately, it puts Olaf in Lord Iron’s sights and forces the mild postal authority employee to prove the exchange between things that should never enter an exchange system.
The story reminded me of Wilhelm Ropkë and Wendell Berry, and what Ropkë called the “Humane Economy.” It is an incredibly engaging tale that explores how market economies work, how value between disparate goods is determined through the interaction of one individual with another, and, in the end, how wealth is generated. The stories depth, however, comes from its exploration of the human persons engaged in trade and the “wealth,” or lack thereof, their individual trade generates. The final “exchange” moves the reader beyond the mundane trading of one good for another and into the realm wherein one discovers that which invests the most important “object” a person has with value.
The story can be read at the link above or it can be listened to at PodCastle.org. It is not often that one finds a story about economics imbued with such affection for vocation, a simple life, that which provides ultimate value. Please read or listen to the story and, above all, share it with your friends.
At a time when derivatives, which played a considerable part in the present economic crisis, in which investors bet on whether a stock, bond, or other security will rise or fall, are still the largest component of the financial markets, the questions you call attention to are well worth pondering.
I remember a British Finance Minister saying, with some pride, that his background was in manufacturing, not finance.
Candadai, your comments to my posts are most welcome. Thank you.
What struck me about the story was how well it dovetailed with stuff I’ve been reading lately – the Southern Agrarians, Nisbet & Wilhelm Ropke.
It is also nice to find popular fiction that doesn’t treat the market economy as inherently evil.