Strange Physics in the Banking World

I've remarked in the past about the abuse of scientific terms by certain professions, such as microbiologists thinking that multiplication and division are the same.

I ran across a new example yesterday in the novel "Victory" by Joseph Conrad.

"The Tropical Belt Coal Company went into liquidation. The world of finance is a mysterious world in which, incredible as the fact may appear, evaporation precedes liquidation. First the capital evaporates, and then the company goes into liquidation."