0 ‘Money never be taken at face value. And indoed the point of Machadis ‘commentary sotto desnonstrate his lack of knowledge offnancial ‘matters but se the opposite For Machado knows tat the mys- exes of finance reside not in any objective tru, but rather the ‘manipulation of perception and ele 18 thus that each sary of financial rss might hypothetically have atleast three “true” expla ‘tons, The assertion is immediately undercut bythe sgestion ‘hat lourth explanation might be false. Wi characeristic devious- ‘nos Macho exhorts ut "belleve everything” atherame teas the very taming of tis assertion eneaurages Uso belive nothing, “The biting ony offered by this newspaper column turns out to be ‘much more subversive strategy for responding ters than the sinoece outage ofered bythe realist nove. While La hola attempts to subdue thefts elements of roney, Machado falls prey t0 ho sue illusion. stead, he shows thatthe Bnanca ystem—con- ‘stuctd siti over the shay eile of peropson and beliet—con- tinues tobe subject to all Kinds of manipulations. "he realist tock market navel wants ost believe tha he “Bcitiousness” of wealth isan aberration under capaist economies and tat can be ban- lahod. Thi very act of banishing as we sa, rele onthe incroduc- tion of new ction: the ease of La Bola and other examples of ‘he stock market gone, these Beions are repackage through the realist novel Machado, on the other hand, recognizes a permanent ‘lement of tion in nazraves about mouey. The ruth of money, thats tion. is rath isnt grasped by banishing ts fantastic loments, bute in preserving chimera ait sate of ommaly. Chapter 4 MONEY IL Bankruptcy and Decadence Without exception iternatona debs aoa have summoned te specter of bankruptcy across the continent. laa Zune, Heontientefermo ATale of a Ghost Bank " hoyin this chapter by telling the stony a ghost that ran cross the Colombian nation at the end of nineteenth century: the ghost ‘af Colombia's First National Hank, el Banco Nacional By 109, tis National Bank had become virtually insolent, emiting far more paper currency tha it end secure fn metal reserves, When the National Bank's untenable financial stuaton became nove, the ‘country's small business elite demanded its tgaideuon. And #9, 11094, aI was pased to liquidate the bank. Buti kept operat Ing, and another law was pasted to liquidate i. Finally, on Jury 1, 1886, the Baneo Nacional offically ceased to ext. But then, and {his is where the gos story begins, he bank continued o print and ‘reulate money Asrelated by ecasomichisorsans Alejandro Lépez Moja and Adolf ise Roca inthe yearsfllowingthe banks iul- ason the insition printed anadionl,20900 pesos in bank notes, “inspite of the fact that tno longer existed (18%, 75). ‘he prospect of bank that doesnt exist plating milions of pesos In paper notes opens up a host of ontological questions: How can a fisancalfotation continue to operate “inspite of the fat that it no longer existed? altemately, how can a insti- ‘ution tht prints 2 precike quantity of banknotes, $2,990,000 to m1we ‘Money 11 be exact be sald nt to ext? Bat the story doesa't end her, The priming went on well beyond the $299,000 co each many more Irion in pesos, in what became the worst criss of hyperinflation ti Colombian history. While remaining na state of noneistence, the undead bank printed and printed paper notes unt iran out of paper Are o tone point n 1498, during the infamous War ofthe “Tnousand Days the bank began to print peso notes on paper that had been designated for chocolate wrappers: one side ofthe note read "Repblica de Colombia” with the denomination in pesos, tnd on the other, “Chaves Chocolates" (Bergaulst 1906, 200) (The ear might refer to chapter Ito seo an 1880s adverssement for ‘Chaves Chocolates} it snot difclt wo grasp the problems tis panknote causes: hyperialated tothe point of worthessnes, and ‘withthe unwilling endorsement by the choclate company, ea pote taken seriously, not even by self ‘But this ancl sation was no lnughlng mates, 8 runaway {aftaton, coupled with the destruction of ctl war and exppling foreign debt left Colombia in otal Gnanctal ruin at the begining ‘ote twentieth contury. The Canservatires who won the Werofthe “Thousand Days decided to pot an endt this money madness once sand forall Not by igudating the bank: thls ha been done befoxe tnd not made any diference-tesead the new govecamentordered fhe destruction of the printing preses atthe national mit. The teney monster, fequentl referred tas la esta negra the black toa) in antcpaper money tacts of te era, was nally dead! Or Sit seamed. Because everyone knows you can'tbur a ghost. 1 Monesis at bottom & system of zepeesentatlon bul on belief | snd east But inthe Financial anecdote 'v been recounting these representational qulites are stretched fo an esteme othe point “bore the banknote self becomes unbelievable, and hence hte an instrument of exchange. As indicated inthe ghost tale of theundeadbenk anditshypernfated paper hdren eliefeomes tuner such strain thats fica, inot impossible to repai. Ble ‘meno this breskdown in belle are already present in the choco- Tate wrapper combanknote. Asfarat Ihave been abe to gues 90 Money 123 specimen of this note remains is jus wel since ts sbsence Tends it an even more unreal, ghostly quality.The very aco imag ining the jntaposton of "Repsblica de Colombia’ and *Chaves ‘Chocolates on a lyperknlted near-worthles ote sa ae exer ‘sein furthering te tory have been telingin his book. As ave Sued unl now, the dream of atin American modernization was redeated on the production of export commonties forthe lobal fnavkt: in return, eountles woul import foreign manufactres in {he hopes of sparking industrial production in their own countries [atthe end ofthe 180s, Colombia was producing more coffe han it ever had forthe world markt, and asthe presence ofthe choco- Tate factory ates, some Industalzation wes beginning fo Buti the case ofthe absent banknote, the dream of domestic pro- ‘duction seas everaken by the uncontrollable proliferation ofthe money form "Te rel s @ challenge to belle nthe capacity of money to epeesen vale na stable manner. How torestore bei. for exam- ‘lina national financal system such as that in lav ineteenth- entury Colombia, in whieh the representational properties of honey have wholy overun any principle of realty, 1 such & degre that curency Helf baldly admits its own fetionsiy? Bary banknotes im Latin America (from the 1670s onward) bad feequently depicted allegories of agricultural and industrial pro- ‘duction ay vsua erent forthe nomial valu of the money. Ia Colombia, for example, one-peso banknote isued by a pevate ‘Dancin 188 shows a worn picking coffee as a reference the Commodity production that sought assure the value expressed omits ace. a the case ofthe paper money issued by the National Bank atthe end ofthe centiry, however, the accidental appearance of the chocolate factory diacupts the intended vision of production, ‘nansforming the note into essentially, “fanny money” The very fevistence ofthe cocelate factory atests that some kindof com rmodity production going on, but this production is teal eaten Up by dhe woraciousness of the money Zorn. On a anger scale, the banknotes own dream ofa smooth wansition between commodity |Money II {Sin From Horas Gararra (206) and money as forms of wealth breaks down ently An even more ‘fvtous cast belief pertains to the legitimacy ofthe sate that [sues ach money. Utinately te “Repiblica de Colombta"—and fot the Chaves chocolate fctory—promises to make good on the adored value of the banknote, « possibility that becomes more emote wth each banknote i lsaus, Paradoxically, tthe same Toment tho state exercises it power by issuing leyal currency, i fies tots own insolvency Syzabolicaly and materially, the state petforms the spectacle ofits own bankrupts. ‘By dhe en ofthe nineteenth century the Colombian sate was bankrupt, fate shared wk may other Latin Amerian eoun- Teles As ahoyed In de Inet chapter, he Argentine nation wont ppenkrupt i the Baring Cxss of 1890, a process that endod with aponsveseditanced loans ad the loss of easy al fis allways ‘Yet even worse fates wove suffered by countries that had never ‘enjoyed high rates of investment om abroad but were ronethe- {tvs caught in endless cycles of boom and bust, dependent oo tingle export commoles, Interest on dob, and unstable cucency equines, Colombia, togetier wih the counties of Cental America, Mexico, Veneruela, Per, and Bolivia, had all suffered economic Money It 125 catastrophe, with litle hope for recovery. The situation was one thin to what Walter Benjamin, writing ofthe crisis of hyperiaflation In 190% Germany, would ideal a8 conditions under which pre: Cfpitousdeclin, and not slse, Becomes the norm, and “rescue ‘lone [is] extraordinary, verging on the marvelous and incompr: ‘hensble” (1878, 70)? ‘Under increasingly desperate cumstances such as these, “which kinds of narativesaze possible? AS an initial approximation to the emergence of such narratives in Expor Age Latin Ameri ‘necan tum fo the words ofthe Coloma poitcal evonomls and vowed liberal Miguel Samper who wrote in 1884 shat national teeanuy eports“amostalays recorded good gues” while tthe ome time asthe binding ofthe volurae containing them “some: times serves tae function of a tombstone” (qt. in Deas [1982 S28) Here wear faced with the inversion of opeeism regarding oun” counties: deat and decay sein before the future imag ‘ned had a chance to lower Bankruptcy, Suicide, Decadence: José Asunclon Silva In 1896, the same year ashe Colombian National Bank was to have ben iguldated for the ist dane, che walter and import merchant José Asuncién Siva shot and ill hinself in his family home i ogo He was ust ome year old. Tintrodaced Siva to the reader fa chapter 2 as. double-sded ‘gure: as an ats who helped consolidate anew aesthetic la pre under the guise of Spanish American moderismo, and as Sn import merchant who used asia lingaaget promote mer Chhandige tn advertisements for his store Now L ant to take the Story ina diferent cretion. For ifthe commodity fantasies forged fy Siva the merchantarist corerponded broadly with a short moment of lite optimism sad enyinent, his sulldecomresponds twit dasker moment, one marked by ets and barkruptey. "Tee years before is iid, Silvana lost neat allhis prop ‘ny and personel possessions Ins high acstmoniows and public