JOHN LAW. 
?79 
His father dvin^ about 1704, Law succeeded to the sriiaii estate 
of Laurieston ; but tlie rents being insufficient for his expense, he had 
recourse to gaming. He was tall and graceful in his person, and much 
addicted to gallantry ; and giving a sort of ton at Edinburgh, he went 
commonly by the name of Beau Law. He was forced to fly his coun- 
try, however, in the midst of his career, in consequence of his having 
fought a duel, and killed his antagonist. He escaped to Holland, 
thence proceeded to Venice, and wandered over Italy, studying the 
nature of banks, and making himself an adept in the mysteries ot 
exchanges and re-exchanges. 
At the close of the reign of Lewis XIV. when the French finances 
were in great disorder. Law having obtained an audience, the bank- 
rupt king was delighted by his projects : but the minister Desmarest 
menacing him with the Bastile, obliged him to fly from Paris. He 
next applied to Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, who told him he 
was not rich enough to ruin himself. 
At the death of Lewis XIV. the regent Duke of Orleans, in despair, 
called in our numerical quack. By an arret of the second of March, 
1716, a bank was established by authority, in favour of Law and his 
associates ; 200,000 shares were instituted, of 1000 livres each ; and 
Law deposited in it to the value of two or three thousand crowns, 
which he had accumulated in Italy by gaming. Many persons had 
at first little confidence in this bank ; but when it was found that the 
payments were made with quickness and punctuality, they began to 
prefer its notes to ready money. In consequence of this, shares rose 
to more than twenty times their original value; and in 1719, their 
valuation was more than eighty times the amount of all the current 
specie in the kingdom. Law was created Count Tankerville, and his 
native city humbly presented him with her freedom, in which appear 
these remarkable expressions : “ The city of Edinburgh presents its 
freedom to John Law, count of Tankerville, &c. &c. a most accom- 
plished gentleman, the first of all bankers in Europe, the fortunate 
inventor of sources of commerce in all parts of the remote world, and one 
who has so well deserved of his nation.'^ Law w'as idolized ; the proud- 
est courtiers were reptiles before this mighty man, and dukes and 
duchesses patiently waited in his ante-chamber. But in 1720, this 
mighty commercial meteor burst, and his immense fabric of false 
credit fell to the ground, and almost overthrew the French govern- 
ment, ruining some thousands of families ; and it is remarkable, that 
the same game was played by the South Sea directors in England in 
the same fatal year 1720. 
Law being exiled as soon as the credit of his projects began to 
fail, retired to Venice, where he died in 1729. 
Montesquieu, who saw him there, says, “ He is still the same man, 
his mind ever busied in financial schemes ; his head is full of figures, 
of agios, and of banks. Of all his more than princely revenue, he 
has only saved a large white diamond, which, when he has no money, 
he pawns.” 
The principles upon which Law’s original scheme of finance was 
founded, are explained by himself in “ A Discourse concerning Money 
and Trade,” which he published in Scotland. 
