It turned out
worthless, and the foreigners have taken fright. It is all a fraud, at
best--or something very like it."
"What do you mean?"
"Tell me the truth, Don Orsino--have you seen a centime of all these
millions which every one is dealing with? Do you believe they really
exist? No. It is all paper, paper, and more paper. There is no cash in
the business."
"But there is land and there are houses, which represent the millions
substantially."
"Substantially! Yes--as long as the inflation lasts. After that they
will represent nothing."
"You are talking nonsense, Contini. Prices may fall, and some people
will lose, but you cannot destroy real estate permanently."
"Its value may be destroyed for ten or twenty years, which is
practically the same thing when people have no other property. Take this
block we are building. It represents a large sum. Say that in the next
six months there are half a dozen failures like Ronco's and that a panic
sets in. We could then neither sell the houses nor let them.
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