| Notes |
Baron James had befriended and assisted Louis Philippe before he came to the throne in 1830, and was the medium through which that astute monarch conducted his stock-exchange operations till his overthrow in 1848. In return Baron James obtained in 1846 the concession for the Great Northern Railway Company of France, having 300,000 shares, each of the value of 300 francs. His position in the social world of Paris is described by Balzac under the guise of "Baron Nucingen." In the year 1848 the Paris house was reckoned to be worth 600,000,000 francs as against 362,000,000 francs held by all the other Paris bankers |