Playing the Market in Amer ican Fiction

2 股票市場的起落提供了小說家一個 既寫實又戲劇性的情節轉折，其在美國文 學上的應用首見於十九世紀後半葉的寫實 小說。十九世紀的美國經濟多賴有價證券 支撐，但因金融恐慌與經濟衰退，股市經 歷多次劇烈震盪，在1837 年、1857 年、 1869 年、1873 年、1884 年、1893 年、1901 年和1914 年皆發生巨幅的股市崩盤。特別 是南北戰爭之後，因通貨膨脹，再加上農 產豐收、勞資關係穩定，市場上一副繁榮 的假象，因此民眾消費大方且勇於做投機 性的投資，很多人甚至借貸投資以求快速 致富。到了一八七三年時，多家銀行因鐵 路開發公司的呆帳而惡性倒閉，終於引發 十九世紀最戲劇性的一次股市大崩盤。 可以想像當代作家們對於此一事件 應不陌生。郝渥斯寫於一八八五年的《富 賈滄桑》一向被視為美國的首部商業小 說；在本書中，主人翁即因股市投資失利， 又被債務人以投機股抵債，終至拖垮了原 本體質健全的油漆產銷事業。華頓夫人在 以一八八○年代為背景的《快樂之家》中， 也安排女主角試圖以股市投資減輕經濟壓 力，卻因不諳市場運作，為股市老手所欺， 終至身敗名裂。郝渥斯在小說中藉股市炒 作諷刺南北戰爭之後急功近利的心態，與 新英格蘭傳統的勤儉實幹美德相違，更嘲 諷了中產階級的短視價值觀。華頓則以不 當得利暴露社交圈的偽善勢利，更以投機 性投資對照上流社會的金錢婚姻。 本計畫蒐集整理十九世紀後半葉美 國經濟活動的歷史資料，以期瞭解作品背 後的大環境，特別是南北戰後的賭博性投 資狂熱與商場股市醜聞，以及這些現象所 顯示的商業行為、商業道德與資產管理上 的變化。以此為基礎，再接著探討兩本作 品中的投資行為，並特別關照美國的傳統 價值觀與工商社會的矛盾，和社會階級、 社交生活和婚姻擇偶背後的現實考量。The volatility of the stock market provides novelists with a convenient and realistic means of depicting the dramatic rise and fall of a character’s fortune. In W. D. Howells’ The Rise of Silas Lapham, famed as the first business novel in American literature, the title character loses his newly accumulated wealth for a great part because he speculated in the stock market and took “wild-cat stocks” as security for a bad loan. The author implies that speculation in stocks is a deviation from the Protestant work ethic, which values hard, honest work and expects proportionate, just earnings. Mrs. Lapham, the voice of moral consciousness and practical sense in the first half of the novel, further denounces it as “gambling,” and the author uses it to characterize the paint merchant’s excessiveness and pompousness and later metes out proper punishment. On 3 the other hand, the Brahmins of the novel abhor the fluctuations of the market as proof of the transient value of all things bourgeois. Edith Wharton likewise finds self-made money vulgar and the stock market dangerous in The House of Mirth. The refined heroine, Lily Barth, who has “the gambling passion,” unwittingly accepts money from a married male friend under the misunderstanding that he was investing her allowance in stocks. The financial blunder results in moral lapses and social errors, until she descends into economic and spiritual despair. The winners of the stock market, on the other hand, are vulgarians with no moral scruples and dubious business ethics. Yet fashionable society must pay homage to people who have inside information on Wall Street, as the unpopular social climber Simon Rosedale trades his “tips” for invitations to parties and receptions. Furthermore, the speculative nature of stock investments echoes the same nature of the marriage market, in which a calculating girl must gather informative “points” as she lies in wait of her target young man, and Rosedale, with his “stock-taking eyes,” will choose his bride after a shrewd estimation of her social value and potential. The project investigates the economic activities of the latter half of the 19th century in the United States to first place the novels in a historical context, to understand 19th-century scandals of speculative frenzies and stock manipulation, and changes in business practices, business ethics and the way wealth is made and preserved. Next I examine the references to the stock exchange and the commodity market in the three novels, paying special attention in my study of Silas Lapham to the conflicts between the Puritan work ethic and the industrialist economy, and between middle-class values and patrician convictions. The reading of The House of Mirth, while expanding on the earlier discussions, will further look into the imagery of stocks, investment and speculation as metaphors of society life and marriage. Together, the two novels provide a glimpse of the moral, social and cultural impact of speculation on American society as it enters the modern age