Observance II Soon after Baron James Rothschild made his fortune in Paris in the early 1820s, he faced his most intractable problem: How c...
Observance II Soon after Baron James Rothschild made his fortune in Paris in the early 1820s, he faced his most intractable problem: How could a Jew and a German, a total outsider to French society, win the respect of the xenophobie French upper classes? Rothschild was a man who understood power-he knew that his fortune would bring hirn status, but that if he remained socially alienated neither his status nor his fortune would last. So he looked at the society of the time and asked what would win their hearts. Charity?
The French couldn't care less. Political influence? He already had that, and if anything it only made people more suspicious of hirn. The one weak spot, he decided, was boredom. In the period of the restoration of the monarchy, the French upper classes were bored. So Rothschild began to spend astounding sums of money on entertaining them. He hired the best architects in France to design his gardens and ballroom; he hired Marie-Antoine Careme, the most celebrated French chef, to prepare the most lavish parties Paris had ever witnessed; no Frenchman could resist, even if the parties were given by a German Jew. Rothschild's weekly soirees began to attract bigger and bigger numbers. Over the next few years he won the only thing that would seeure an outsider's power: social acceptance. Interpretation Strategie generosity is always a great weapon in building a support base, particularly for the outsider. But the Baron de Rothschild was cleverer still
: He knew it was his money that had created the barrier between hirn and the French, making hirn look ugly and untrustworthy. The best way to overcome this was literally to waste huge sums, a gesture to show he valued French culture and society over money. What Rothschild did resembled the famous potlatch feasts of the American Northwest: By periodically destroying its wealth in a giant orgy of festivals and bonfires, an Indian tribe would symbolize its power over other tribes. The base of its power was not money but its ability to spend, and its confidence in a superiority that would restore to it all that the potlatch had destroyed. In the end, the baron's soirees reflected his desire to mingle not just in France's business world but in its society. By wasting money on his potIatches, he hoped to demonstrate that his power went beyond money into the more precious realm of culture. Rothschild may have won social acceptance by spending money, but the support base he gained was one that money alone could not buy. To secure his fortune he had to "waste" it. That is strategie generosity in a nutshell-the ability to be flexible with your wealth, putting it to work, not to buy objects, but to win people's hearts. Observance III The Medicis of Renaissance Florence had built their immense power on the fortune they had made in banking. But in Florence, centuries-old republic that it was, the idea that money bought power went against all the city's proud democratic values. Cosimo de' Medici, the first of the family to gain great fame, worked around this by keeping a low profile. He never flaunted his wealth. But by the time his grandson Lorenzo came of age, in the 1470s, the family's wealth was too large, and their influence too noticeable, to be disguised any longer. Lorenzo solved the problem in his own way by developing the strategy of distraction that has served people of wealth ever since: He became THE FLAME-COLOREIl CLOAK During the campaign of Cambyses in Egypt, a great many Creeks visited that country for one reason or another: same, as was to be expected, for trade, same to serve in the army, others, no doubt, out of mere curiosity, to see what they could see. A mongst the sightseers was Aeaces 's san Sylosan, the exiled brother of Polycrates of Samos. While he was in Egypt, Syloson had an extraordinary strake of luck: he was hanging about the streets of Memphis dressed in a flamecolored cloak, when Darius, who at that time was a member of Cambyses's guard and not yet of any particular importance, happened to catch sight of him and, seized with a sudden longing to possess the cloak, came up to Syloson and made him an offer for it. His extreme anxiety to get it was obvious enough to Syloson, who was inspired to say: "1 am not selling this for any money, but if you must have it, 1 will give it to you for free. " Darius thereupon thanked him warmly and took it. Syloson at the moment merely thought he had lost it by his foolish good nature; then came the death of Cambyses and the revolt of the seven against the Magus, and Darius ascended the throne. Syloson now LAW 40 341 had the news that the man whose request for the jiame-colored cloak he had formerly gratified in Egypt had become king of Persia. He hurried to Susa, sat down at the entrance of the royal palace, and claimed to be included in the official list of the king's benefactors. The sentry on guard reported his claim to Darius, who asked in surprise who the man might be. "For surely, " he said, "as I have so recently come to the throne, there cannot be any Greek to whom I am indebted for a service. Hardly any of them have been here yet, and J certainly cannot remember owing anything to a Greek. But bring hirn in all the same, that J may know what he means by this claim. " The guard escorted Syloson into the royal presence, and when the interpreters asked hirn who he was and what he had done to justify the statement that he was the king\· benefactor, he reminded Darills of the story of the cloak, and said that he was the man who had given it hirn. "Sir, "
exclaimed Darius, "you are the most generous of men; for while J was still a person of no power or consequence you gave me a present-small indeed, but deserving then as much gratitude from me as would the most splendid of gifts today. J will give you in return more si/ver and gold than you can count, that you may 342 LAW 40 the most illustrious patron of the arts that history has ever known. Not only did he spend lavishly on paintings, he ereated Italy's finest apprentiee sehools for young artists. It was in one of these schools that the young Miehelangelo first eaught the attention of Lorenzo, who invited the artist to eome and live in his house. He did the same with Leonardo da Vinei. Onee under his wing, Michelangelo and Leonardo requited his generosity by beeoming loyal artists in his stable. Whenever Lorenzo faeed an enemy, he would wield the weapon of patronage. When Pisa, F1orenee's traditional enemy, threatened to rebel against it in 1472,
Lorenzo plaeated its people by pouring money into its university, whieh had onee been its pride and joy but had long ago lost its luster. The Pisans had no defense against this insidious maneuver, which simultaneously fed their love of culture and blunted their desire for battle. Interpretation Lorenzo undoubtedly loved the arts, but his patronage of artists had a praetieal funetion as weH, of whieh he was keenly aware. In F10renee at the time, banking was perhaps the least admired way of making money, and was eertainly not a respected souree of power. The arts were at the other pole, the pole of quasi-religious transeendenee. By spending on the arts, Lorenzo diluted people's opinions of the ugly souree of his wealth, disguising hirnself in nobility. There is no better use of strategie generosity than that of distraeting attention from an unsavory reality and wrapping oneself in the mantle of art or religion. Observance IV Louis XIV had an eagle eye for the strategie power of money. When he eame to the throne, the powerful nobility had reeently proven a thorn in the monarehy's side, and seethed with rebeHiousness. So he impoverished these aristoerats by making them spend enormous sums on maintaining their position in the eourt.
Making them dependent on royal largesse for their livelihood, he had them in his claws. Next Louis brought the nobles to their knees with strategie generosity. It would work like this: Whenever he notieed a stubborn eourtier whose influenee he needed to gain, or whose troublemaking he needed to squelch, he would use his vast wealth to soften the soil. First he would ignore his vietim, making the man anxious. Then the man would suddenly find that his son had been given a weH-paid post, or that funds had been spent liberally in his horne region, or that he had been given a painting he had long coveted. Presents would flow from Louis's hands. Finally, weeks or months later, Louis would ask for the favor he had needed all along.
A man who had onee vowed to do anything to stop the king would find he had lost the desire to fight. A straightforward bribe would have made him rebeHious; this was far more insidious. Facing hardened earth in whieh nothing eould take root, Louis loosened the soil before he planted his seeds. Interpretation Louis understood that there is a deep-rooted emotional element in our attitude to money, an element going baek to ehildhood. When we are ehil- dren, all kinds of complicated feelings about oUf parents center around gifts; we see the giving of a gift as a sign of love and approval. And that emotional element never goes away. The recipients of gifts, financial or otherwise, are suddenly as vulnerable as children, especially when the gift comes from someone in authority. They cannot help opening up; their will is loosened, as Louis loosened the soil. To succeed best, the gift should come out of the blue. It should be remarkable for the fact that a gift like it has never been given before, or for being preceded by a cold shoulder from the giver. The more often you give to particular people, the blunter this weapon becomes.
If they don't take your gifts for granted, becoming monsters of ingratitude, they will resent what appears to be charity. The sudden, unexpected, one-time gift will not spoil YOUf children; it will keep them under YOUf thumb. Observance V The antique dealer Fushimiya, who lived in the city of Edo (former name for Tokyo) in the seventeenth century, once made a stop at a village teahouse. After enjoying a cup of tea, he spent several minutes scrutinizing the cup, which he eventually paid for and took away with hirn. A local artisan, watehing this, waited until Fushimiya left the shop, then approached the old woman who owned the teahouse and asked her who this man was. She told hirn it was Japan's most famous connoisseur, antique dealer to the lord of Izumo.
The artisan ran out of the shop, caught up with Fushimiya, and begged hirn to seIl hirn the cup, which must clearly be valuable if Fushimiya judged it so. Fushimiya laughed heartily: "It's just an ordinary cup of Bizen ware," he explained, "and it is not valuable at all. The reason I was looking at it was that the steam seemed to hang about it strangely and I wondered if there wasn't a leak somewhere." (Devotees of the Tea Ceremony were interested in any odd or accidental beauty in nature.) Since the artisan still seemed so excited about it, Fushirniya gave hirn the cup for free. The artisan took the cup around, trying to find an expert who would appraise it at a high price,
but since all of them recognized it as an ordinary teacup he got nowhere. Soon he was neglecting his own business, thinking only of the cup and the fortune it could bring. Finally he went to Edo to talk to Fushimiya at his shop. There the dealer, realizing that he had inadvertently caused this man pain by making hirn believe the cup had great worth, paid hirn 100 ryo (gold pieces) for the cup as a kindness. The cup was indeed mediocre, but he wanted to rid the artisan of his obsession, while also allowing hirn to feel that his effort had not been wasted. The artisan thanked hirn and went on his way. Soon word spread of Fushimiya's pUfchase of the teacup. Every dealer in Japan clamored for hirn to seIl it, since a cup he had bought for 100 ryo must be worth much more. He tried to explain the circumstances in which he had bought the cup, but the dealers could not be dissuaded. Fushimiya finally relented and put the cup up for sale. During the auction, two buyers simultaneously bid 200 ryo for the teacup, and then began to fight over who had bid first. Their fighting never regret that yuu unce did a favur to Darius the son of Hystaspes. " "My lord, " replied Syloson, "do not give me gold or silver, but recover Samos fur me, my native island, which now since Oroetes killed my brother Polycrates is in the hands of one of our servants. Let Samos be your gift to me-but let no man in the island be killed or enslaved. " Darius consented to Syloson 's request, and dispatched a force under the command of Otanes, one of the seven, with orders to do everything that Syloson had asked. THE HISTORIES, HERODOTUS, FIFTH CENTURY B.C. M oney is never spent to so much advantage as when you have been cheated out of it;for at one stroke you have purchased prudence. ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER, 1 788-1860 LAW 40 343 A LIFT OF FISI I Kung-yi Hsiu, premier of Lu, was fond offish. Therefore, people in the whole country consäentiously bought fish, wh ich they presented to him. However, Kung-yi would not accept the presents. Against such a step his younger brother remonstrated with him and said: " You like fish, indeed. Why don't you accept the present offish?" In reply, he said: "It is solely because I like fish that I would not accept the fish they gave me. Indeed, if I accept the fish, I will be placed under an obligation to them. On ce placed under an obligation t() them, I will some time have to bend the law. If I bend the law, I will be dismissed from the premiership. After being dismissed from the premiership, I might not be able to supply myself with fish. On the contrary
, ;f I do not accept the fish from them anti am not dismissed the premiership, however fond of f ish, I can always supply myself with fish. " HAN-FEI-TZlJ, CHINESE PHILOSOPflER, THIRD CENTtJRY H.C. 344 LAW 40 tipped over a table and the teacup fell to the ground and broke into several pieces. The auction was clearly over. Fushimiya glued and mended the cup, then stored it away, thinking the affair finished. Years later, however, the great tea master Matsudaira Fumai visited the store, and asked to see the cup, which by then had become legendary. Fumai examined it. "As a piece," he said, "it is not up to much, but a Tea Master prizes sentiment and association more than intrinsic value." He bought the cup for a high sumo A glued-together work of less than ordinary craftsmanship had become one of the most famous objects in Japan. Interpretation The story shows, first, an essential aspect of money: That it is humans who have created it and humans who instill it with meaning and value. Second, with objects as with money, what the courtier most values are the sentiments and emotions embedded in them-these are what make them worth having. The lesson is simple: The more your gifts and your acts of generosity play with sentiment, the more powernd they are. The object or concept that plays with a charged emotion or hits a chord of sentiment has more power than the money you squander on an expensive yet lifeless present.
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