With a carefully calculated balance of pride and power projection, sobriety and restraint, Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, the governor of Banque de France, presented his plans for the institution's bicentennial celebrations yesterday.
Financial journalists were told to be in the baroque Galerie Doree "at 11:00 o'clock precisely". Several of the eight volumes recounting the history of the bank, the notes it has issued and its magnificent, gold leaf-dripping 17th and 18th century headquarters were on display.
Mr Trichet recounted the bank's founding by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte on January 18th 1800, with the purpose of rescuing the French economy from revolutionary era recession. Mr Trichet held up a parchment signed by the great Frenchman himself, exhorting the new central bank "to fill itself with its power".
At least three times in the past two centuries, the French, left and right, had together reconfirmed their trust in the Banque de France, Mr Trichet boasted. He called the legal independence of the central bank in 1993 an event of "absolutely essential" importance - not mentioning that it coincided with his own arrival there.
The best metaphor for the 11 euro zone central banks and the European Central Bank in Frankfurt was a team of 12 athletes, Mr Trichet said. "This team plays together. We function well as a team . . ." No one - especially Mr Trichet - has forgotten that he is the permanent coach in waiting. When I asked whether he still believes he will take over Mr Wim Duisenberg's job in 2002, the French central bank governor replied in English, "No comment, no comment." A Franco-German confrontation over the central bank presidency still simmers, with the French claiming they have a deal for a mid-mandate switch-over, and the Germans denying any such understanding.
Meanwhile, the bicentennial will provide Mr Trichet with a showcase for his bank governor's talents. The celebration will begin en famille next January 18th, with receptions for staff at Banque de France headquarters and its 211 branches. A three-day historical colloquium, to be attended by 300 French and foreign banking historians, will examine "the historic construction of monetary identity in Europe from the 18th through the 20th centuries". A later exhibition of bank notes at the Carnavalet Museum may make some Frenchmen sad, for the French bank note - first printed in colour in 1862 - is doomed to extinction when the euro becomes the only legal currency in 2002. There will be a European bankers' sporting competition in La Rochelle, and six international meetings will be held in Paris to honour the Banque de France.
But the high point of the celebrations will be the "solemn session" on May 29th 2000, to which the governors of Europe's and the world's central banks have been invited. Recent celebrations by the Portuguese and Italian central banks (both younger than the Banque de France) and the 300th anniversary of the Bank of England were well attended. Does this mean that Mr Duisenberg will be present? "Of course. He will be in the very front row! He is at home here!" Mr Trichet exulted.
But will Mr Duisenberg attend Mr Trichet's monetary colloquium the following day? In view of their competition to be Europe's top banker, the choice of title seems provocative: "Independence and responsibility: the evolution of the central banker's job" in which a scheduled sub-theme is to be "the European Monetary Institute - European Central Bank: a ready-made central bank".
