{
  "schema": "https://archive.neruda-archives.org/files/context/public-context-v1.schema.json",
  "identifier": "NRA-L-000061",
  "language": "en",
  "status": "published",
  "title": "Six hundred and twenty-two francs in a banking crisis",
  "deck": "A private letter written while the failures of Clermont-Ferrand were still unfolding",
  "reviewed_on": "2026-07-30",
  "version": "1.0",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "A private account from June 1843",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "text": "Mollie wrote from Clermont-Ferrand on 5 June 1843 to his relative and fellow notary Courdoux in Thiers. He asked Courdoux to collect more than 1,300 francs from Mailhas and send the money by stagecoach so that the stockbroker Groisne, who had advanced it, could be repaid. The request sits beside news of bank failures that had afflicted the city.",
          "sources": [
            1
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "The reference to Comitis",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "text": "Mollie said that he had withdrawn from the banks in good time, while his father-in-law had been less fortunate. He still had 622 francs tied up with Comitis, a loss he treated as small enough to serve as a lesson. A contemporary legal memorandum records that the banking house Comitis et Marche entered bankruptcy in April 1843, only weeks before Mollie's letter.",
          "sources": [
            1,
            2
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "A wider shock to local credit",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "text": "A January 1844 report in the Gazette des tribunaux described numerous failures in Auvergne during the previous spring. It named the suspension of payments by Comitis et Marche after the collapse of another Clermont banking house, and reported the alarm among merchants and capital holders as creditors sought repayment. The same report concerned criminal proceedings and allegations of fraudulent and simple bankruptcy; those allegations belong to the later judicial record, not to Mollie's own letter.",
          "sources": [
            2,
            3
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "evidence_limits": [
    {
      "text": "The identification of the letter's Comitis with the house Comitis et Marche is strongly supported by the exact place, date and bankruptcy context. The surviving evidence reviewed here does not establish what Mollie ultimately recovered, the extent of his father-in-law's losses, or independent identities for Mailhas and Groisne.",
      "sources": [
        1,
        2,
        3
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "source-1",
      "kind": "Primary source · manuscript",
      "citation": "Neruda Archives, NRA-L-000061, letter from Mollie to Monsieur Courdoux, 5 June 1843.",
      "url": "https://archive.neruda-archives.org/NRA-L-000061",
      "link_text": "View the archive record",
      "support": "Supports the payment request, relationship between the correspondents, references to recent failures and the 622 francs with Comitis."
    },
    {
      "id": "source-2",
      "kind": "Contemporary legal publication",
      "citation": "Mémoire pour la maison Duché-Dumay-Boyer, Bibliothèque numérique de l'Université Clermont Auvergne, BCU_Factums_G3011, p. 8.",
      "url": "https://bibliotheque-numerique.bu.uca.fr/files/original/377306/385175/BCU_Factums_G3011.pdf",
      "link_text": "Open the legal memorandum",
      "support": "Records that the house Comitis entered bankruptcy in April 1843 and describes the resulting creditor claims."
    },
    {
      "id": "source-3",
      "kind": "Contemporary press",
      "citation": "Gazette des tribunaux, 9 January 1844, report on the Comitis et Marche bankruptcy proceedings before the Cour d'assises du Puy-de-Dôme.",
      "url": "https://data.decalog.net/enap1/Liens/Gazette/ENAP_GAZETTE_TRIBUNAUX_18440108.pdf",
      "link_text": "Read the court report",
      "support": "Describes the spring 1843 banking failures, suspension of payments by Comitis et Marche and the wider crisis of confidence."
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "NRA-L-000061-claim-01",
      "statement": "Mollie wrote on 5 June 1843 that 622 francs remained tied up with Comitis.",
      "evidence_type": "stated_in_document",
      "certainty": "documentary",
      "source_ids": [
        "source-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "NRA-L-000061-claim-02",
      "statement": "The Clermont banking house Comitis et Marche entered bankruptcy in April 1843.",
      "evidence_type": "independently_confirmed",
      "certainty": "confirmed",
      "source_ids": [
        "source-2",
        "source-3"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "NRA-L-000061-claim-03",
      "statement": "The Comitis named by Mollie is the house Comitis et Marche.",
      "evidence_type": "scholarly_inference",
      "certainty": "strongly_supported",
      "source_ids": [
        "source-1",
        "source-2",
        "source-3"
      ]
    }
  ]
}