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Millionaire

Millionaire

Janet Gleeson
2000
T3 304 pages · about 5h 4m to read Open Librarygoodreads

John Law, the Mississippi bubble and the invention of paper money in France.

Summary

Janet Gleeson wrote this popular biography of John Law, the Scottish gambler, duellist and monetary theorist who took control of French state finance and created the Mississippi System that collapsed in 1720. It is narrative history for general readers.

The story covers Law's early life in Edinburgh, his killing of Edward Wilson in a London duel and escape from prison, his years on the continent as a gambler and student of banking, his failed proposals to the Scottish parliament, and his eventual success in Regency France. Gleeson then covers the System itself: the Banque Generale founded in 1716 and converted to the Banque Royale, the Mississippi Company's acquisition of French trading monopolies and tax farms, the conversion of government debt into company shares, the speculative rise in the share price during 1719, and the collapse through 1720.

Gleeson is a narrative writer rather than an economist, and the book concentrates on personalities and on the spectacle of the Rue Quincampoix rather than on the monetary mechanics. Readers wanting Law's economic thought should read Antoin Murphy's biography, which treats him as a serious theorist. Gleeson's contribution is accessibility and the social detail of the speculation, including how ordinary Parisians participated and what happened to them.

Key takeaways 7

  1. Law's System converted French government debt into shares of a company holding trading monopolies and tax farms.
  2. The Banque Royale issued notes that were used to support the Mississippi Company's share price, linking the currency to the equity market.
  3. Speculation reached ordinary Parisians and produced fortunes and ruin outside the existing financial classes.
  4. Law held effective control of French state finance as controller general, which gave one man both the note issue and the equity promotion.
  5. The collapse discredited banks and paper money in France for generations and shaped the country's later financial development.
  6. Law died poor in Venice, having lost the fortune the System had made him, because he held his wealth in its own shares.
  7. Gleeson argues that Law's gambling background gave him both the probabilistic insight and the risk appetite that produced the scheme.

Who should read it

General readers who want a narrative account of the first great paper-money and equity bubble before turning to the economic treatments.

Similar books 6

Chosen by shared topics, the entries that hold them, and the people who recommended both.

John LawJohn Law
T3 John Law
Antoin E. Murphy · 1997
Open LibraryGoodreads

The scholarly treatment of Law as economic theorist and policymaker.

The South Sea BubbleThe South Sea Bubble
T2 The South Sea Bubble
John Carswell · 1960
Open LibraryGoodreads

The standard account of 1720.

TulipmaniaTulipmania
T2 Tulipmania
Anne Goldgar · 2007
Open LibraryGoodreads

The Dutch tulip episode of 1636 and 1637 from archives, and how its legend arose.

The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family
T1 The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family
Ron Chernow · 1993
Open LibraryGoodreads

Two centuries of a Jewish banking family from Hamburg to London and New York.

Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai

Corporate Ownership in France
T4 Corporate Ownership in France
Antoin E. Murphy · 2004
Open LibraryGoodreads

Cross-holdings, the state and who actually controls French companies.

The First Crash
T4 The First Crash
Richard Dale
Goodreads

The South Sea Bubble re-examined from investors' side: were they rational?

Recommended by: Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Where it sits in the reference 3

France
Geographies
John Law
Biographies
Tulips, the South Sea and Mississippi bubbles
Financial panics

Topics

Biography and MemoirFinancial HistoryGeneral HistoryFinancial History