Okay, so I was wrong, he did not spend all his capital. Late in the novel he writes his will:
“I bequeath to Maximilian Morrel, captain of Spahis,—and son of my former patron, Pierre Morrel, shipowner at Marseilles,—the sum of twenty millions, a part of which may be offered to his sister Julie and brother-in-law Emmanuel, if he does not fear this increase of fortune may mar their happiness. These twenty millions are concealed in my grotto at Monte Cristo, of which Bertuccio knows the secret. If his heart is free, and he will marry Haydée, the daughter of Ali Pasha of Yanina, whom I have brought up with the love of a father, and who has shown the love and tenderness of a daughter for me, he will thus accomplish my last wish. This will has already constituted Haydée heiress of the rest of my fortune, consisting of lands, funds in England, Austria, and Holland, furniture in my different palaces and houses, and which without the twenty millions and the legacies to my servants, may still amount to sixty millions.”
So he figures he's worth eighty million francs in land, investments, and cash -- something like five times what Faria estimated the treasure to be worth. Either that treasure was a lot more than expected, or he's been making money like a bandit since his escape from prison.
Which! Could be literally how he made that money! We know that on his escape, he immediately fell in with smugglers. We know that he and a celebrated bandit do each other favors. We know he engaged in market manipulation to ruin Danglars, and the way market manipulation works, he could easily have profited at the same stroke.
So assuming he has increased his wealth fivefold even while spending money like water...
Where did he get all this financial acumen from?
Was that all intrinsically him? (He who entered prison too naive to recognize Danglars' and Villefort's schemes against him?) Are we meant to think he learned it all from Faria? (Faria strikes me as not worldly enough to be a finance bro.) Did he pick it up as he went, starting with the smuggling captain? Some unholy combination of all of the above?
Meanwhile, I still want an estimate of how much cold hard cash he spent on his schemes, from the stage when he was giving away boats right and left, through buying a title for himself, buying Haydee and his estates and horses and whatnot, right on through to the five million that ended up going to Vampa at the bitter end.
andulkaphoto
stormborns
theartofmadeline
turnnoffyourmind
titsay
2087
