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In the short novel Ferragus, Balzac tells of the rise and fall of the Desmarets couple. Their trajectory within the Parisian commercial bourgeoisie under the Restauration period illustrates three interwoven forms of symbolic capital: professional reputation, matrimonial trust and social honor. This social tale is a true sociological fiction about trust, and it makes it possible to analyze the social and historical emergence of a specific subset of Parisian bourgeois: the traders, i.e. ministerial officers and merchants who enjoyed a monopoly over the trade of stocks officially quoted at the Paris stock exchange.