Law also has the dubious honor of having caused one of the first manias known to investors: Louisiana territory bubble as embodied in the Mississippi Company, a contemporary and rival to the British South Sea Company but with equally disastrous outcome for its investors. However, in his capacity of CEO, and with no insider deal legislation, Law amassed a fortune, gave meaning for the fist time to the word "millionaire", and as a side matter, made a lot of enemies in the process.

This book makes a thoroughly enjoyable reading. Law was by all accounts a remarkable person and his life and deeds are skillfully presented.
The author did a great job at researching the topic and makes extensive use of the writings of the day documenting the exploits of Mr. Law. If you enjoy adventure, a little bit of economic history, and colorful archaic language you will certainly like this text.

The moral: Law was good with theory but not even he knew that what goes up must eventually come down. Greed took the better of him. Vanity he already possessed in copious amounts, no issue there. Francis Galton enuntiated this about 200 years later in his famous and still valid "reversal to the mean" theory. I guess Law had to learn that one the hard way.


Another lost moment in history   December 21, 2003
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

In the 18th century, a Scotsman named John Law created a financial system using paper in place of coin with which to conduct business. He had come by the system not only through his unique financial acumen, but also through his talent for gambling. He was a man who could figure the odds, then turn them to his greater advantage.

An unfortuante duel in London prevented Law from introuducing his system to the English government, who hounded him for years over the death of Edward Wilson, a man with influential friends and family. Arrested and imprisoned, Law managed to escape to the continent. During his travels he met Katherine Seigneur, an Englishwoman of noble birth married to a Frenchman. True to his gambler's nature, he fell in love and she left with him, living as his wife for the rest of his life, in many cities on the continent. During their travels, Law tried over and over to convince heads of government that his financial system could be the answer to national money problems.

It was after the death of Louis XIV that he caught the ear and imagination of the Duc d'Orleans, regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. Starting fairly small at first, Law was allowed to institute a national bank and print paper money. Eventually he became the chief financial minister and head of the Mississippi Company -- a trading company whose very existence seemed to have disappeared from history. Although Law was remarkably intelligent about things financial, he seems, however, to have a flawed understanding of human nature. In the end, all of his creations tumbled over the edge, and the rise and fall of John Law was over and done in a flash.

For a career that affected most of western Europe, it seems that little is taught about him and his system. A book such as this adds much to one's knowledge of 18th century European history and the financial world of the time. It is a rare find and worth the read.


Lessons for Today's Economies in the Birth of Modern Finance   June 28, 2003
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

John Law was a middle-class Scotsman and fugitive from English justice who became the world's first "millionaire" and, in 1716, gave France the world's first national bank and paper money system. Law, with the cooperation of the Regent Duc d'Orleans, ushered France from oppressive debt to glorious wealth and introduced the world to the ideas of stock options, futures, conglomerate corporations, marketing, and an all-paper monetary system before his system crashed under the pressures of bad judgment, bad circumstances, and his enemies. Ironically, although John Law's ideas are as relevant today as they were 280 years ago, if not moreso, Law has been largely ignored in the 20th century by everyone except economic historians. To remedy this, Janet Gleeson has written a very readable biography of this economic visionary who did, indeed, invent modern finance, and who created the demand for transparency in banking matters and the concept of economic opportunity and upward mobility for all that we take for granted today. Because "Millionaire" is intended for the general reader, the author has simplified the details of Law's systems and kept numbers to a minimum, so you needn't be put off by the math. Far from tedious, John Law's story, his ideas about money, and his experience are as fascinating and revealing today as they were when he lived. John Law's life and legacy were no less than a quest to understand the ever-elusive nature of money, itself. His story has all the ingredients of a wildly entertaining novel... and all the lessons of a life that saw great accomplishment and equally great failure: politics, human nature, love, sex, violence, art, luck, greed and philanthropy, poverty and wealth, genius and stupidity, success and failure, and, most of all, Money, the currency of all those things. "Millionaire" is recommended reading for anyone living and investing an industrial economy.