Millionaire: The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist who Invented Modern FinanceOn the death of France's most glorious king, Louis XIV, in 1715, few people benefited from the shift in power more than the intriguing financial genius from Edinburgh, John Law. Already notorious for killing a man in a duel and for acquiring a huge fortune from gambling, Law had proposed to the English monarch that a bank be established to issue paper money with the credit based on the value of land. But Queen Anne was not about to take advice from a gambler and felon. So, in exile in Paris, he convinced the bankrupt court of Louis XV of the value of his idea. Law soon engineered the revival of the French economy and found himself one of the most powerful men in Europe. In August 1717, he founded the Mississippi Company, and the Court granted him the right to trade in France's vast territory in America. The shareholders in his new trading company made such enormous profits that the term "millionaire" was coined to describe them. Paris was soon in a frenzy of speculation, conspiracies, and insatiable consumption. Before this first boom-and-bust cycle was complete, markets throughout Europe crashed, the mob began calling for Law's head, and his visionary ideas about what money could do were abandoned and forgotten |
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according arrested arrived bank bank's banker banknotes brother Buvat Cantillon cards carriage century coins colony court crowd currency d'Argenson Daniel Defoe Daniel Pulteney death debt Defoe diamonds diplomat Duc de Bourbon Duc de Saint-Simon duel Duke Earl England English escape Europe feared fortune France France's French friends gambling gaming gold and silver goldsmiths Harsin Hautchamp Holland hope ideas investment investors issue John Law Katherine King King's later Law's letter loans London Louis XIV Marais Méjanes million livres Mississippi Company Mississippi shares months Murphy never Noailles notes numbers offered Orléans Palais Royal paper money pardon Paris Parlement Place Vendôme play prison profit regent Rosalba Carriera rue Quincampoix Saint-Simon scheme Scotland sent share price silver and gold South Sea Stair street tion took trade turned Venice Warriston William Wilson wrote