The Lady of Condé
We are in Condé-sur-Gartempe. Its train station hotel is renowned for its ortolans and its discretion ...! On a Friday afternoon, a young woman appears, seemingly suitable, although a little too cutthroat.
She reserves a room for the night and, since she has no luggage, she leaves a 100 euro banknote as a down payment. Then she goes to visit the old town.
The pastry chef who saw the scene said to the boss: "You have owed me 100 euros for six weeks for the assembled piece that I delivered on the occasion of your daughter's communion." The boss gives her the ticket good grace.
As this scene has been seen by others, it happens five more times, because the pastry chef also owed 100 euros to the miller ... who owed the same amount to the mechanic ... himself who owed this amount to the butcher. who had to pay 100 euros to the representative of the house Erlida ... who in turn had to pay for his room at the Hotel de la Gare for 100 euros.
So he gives the ticket back to the hotel manager.
Notre Dame returns from a walk. She announces that having met, she cancels her reservation. Which suits the hotelier who, in the meantime, had a request from one of his old customers. The hotelier therefore gives her back her ticket which she burns immediately.
"It was wrong," she said, smiling.
Morality of this story
Why was a counterfeit ticket able to catalyze so many exchanges?
Because a banknote is fiat money (from the Latin fiducia: confidence). It is exclusively a “value of trust” between the members of a community. In another country it would not have been accepted. A counterfeit note loses "its value" only when it turns out to be false and is no longer accepted by the person who receives it. The one who holds it last bears the loss. In this story there was no loss except for the Lady of Condé who knew anyway that it was false.
Could it be that there is a lack of purchasing power in our society?
Indeed, the Lady of Condé, by reserving her room, increased the village's money supply by 100 euros, which enabled six people to reciprocally extinguish their debt for a total amount of 600 euros. The "quality" of the currency used, good or bad, does not matter.
Troubling ... Isn't it?