The Fortieth Canto is a mixed bag. It dwells much on Pound’s interest in banking, but also contains those Greek references we all so enjoy. Overall, it is far more “poetic” (what does that mean? what do I mean when I say it?) than most previous finance-centric Cantos.

Early on, it has a quote (suitably broken up into lines) from the Scottish economist Adam Smith:

” Of the same trade, ” Smith, Adam, ” men
” never gather together
” without a conspiracy against the general public.”

This quote also contains the first instance of Pound putting the quotation mark directly next something else (see the placement of the closing quotation mark and look at where all the others are located).