He wanted to know where all the types of money came from, why discounts were demanded and received, what the men did with all the money they received.

His father, pleased at his interest, was glad to explain so that even at this early age--from ten to fifteen--the boy gained a wide knowledge of the condition of the country financially--what a State bank was and what a national one; what brokers did; what stocks were, and why they fluctuated in value.

He began to see clearly what was meant by money as a medium of exchange, and how all values were calculated according to one primary value, that of gold.
He was a financier by instinct, and all the knowledge that pertained to that great art was as natural to him as the emotions and subtleties of life are to a poet.

This medium of exchange, gold, interested him intensely.

When his father explained to him how it was mined, he dreamed that he owned a gold mine and waked to wish that he did.