Note 681 — Chapter V · : PROUDHON AND THE SOCIALISM OF 1848

Mazel gave an exposition of his scheme in a series of pamphlets written in very bombastic language, but only of very slight interest to the economist. Another bank known as Bonnard’s Bank was established at Marseilles in 1838, and afterwards at Paris. The ideas are somewhat similar, but much more practical. Both branches are still in active operation. Proudhon refers to this bank in his Capacité politique des Classes ouvrières. Courcelle-Seneuil gives a very eulogistic account of it in his Traité des Banques, and in an article in the Journal des Économistes for April 1853. The modus operandi is explained in three brochures, which may be seen in the Bibliothèque Nationale. One of these is entitled Liste des Articles disponibles à la Banque; the other two describe the mechanism of the bank. Darimon, one of Proudhon’s disciples, in his work De la Réforme des Banques (Paris, Guillaumin, 1856), gives an account of a large number of similar institutions which were founded during this period. Several systems of the kind have also been discussed by M. Aucuy in his Systèmes socialistes d’Échange (Paris, 1907). But we cannot accept his interpretation of various points.

Bonnard’s Bank differs from the others in this way. The client of the bank, instead of bringing it some commodity or other which may or may not be sold by the bank, gets from the bank some commodity which he himself requires, promising to supply the bank with a commodity of his own production whenever the bank requires it. The bank charges a commission on every transaction. Its one aim is to bring buyer and seller together, and the notes are simply bills, payable according to the conditions written on them. But they cannot be regarded as substitutes for bank bills. Cf. Banque d’Échange de Marseille, C. Bonnard et Cie., fondée par Acte du 10 Janvier, 1849 (Marseilles, 1849).