The Murderer Who Ran France's Economy

How John Law's paper money bubble left France terrified of banks for nearly eighty years In January 1720, France put its finances in the hands of John Law, a Scottish gambler and convicted murderer who had escaped an English death sentence. This is the story of the Mississippi Bubble. After the wars of Louis XIV left the crown bankrupt, the regent Philippe, Duke of Orléans, let Law test a radical idea: a nation could grow rich on paper credit instead of gold and silver. Law opened the Banque Générale in 1716, watched it become the royal Banque Royale in 1718, and built the Compagnie d'Occident around a monopoly on Louisiana and the Mississippi basin, with New Orleans as its outpost. Renamed the Compagnie des Indes, it let people swap the king's discounted debt for shares that soared from 500 to 10,000 livres on the Rue Quincampoix in Paris — the street where the word 'millionaire' was coined. When people began to count, the loop collapsed: notes were halved, a crowd was crushed at the bank, and shares lost nine tenths of their value. A Federal Reserve economist, François Velde, later mapped the machine. France distrusted banks until Napoleon founded the Banque de France in 1800. Chapters: 0:00 France's Convicted Murderer Banker 1:40 Who Was John Law 3:13 The Louisiana Company Scheme 4:24 Debt Swapped Into Company Shares 6:36 The Money Printing Loop 7:39 When People Started Counting 8:54 The Deadly Bank Crush 11:17 Eighty Years Without Banks Sources: John Law and the Mississippi Bubble: 1718–1720: https://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/... The Mississippi Bubble: https://www.winton.com/news/the-missi... Government Equity and Money: John Law's System in 1720 France: https://www.chicagofed.org/publicatio... John Law: Economic Theorist and Policy-maker: https://www.moaf.org/events/2012-06-2... John Law and the Compagnie d'Occident: https://heritage.bnf.fr/france-ameriq... Mississippi Dreaming: On the Fame of John Law: https://newleftreview.org/issues/i210... Financial Collapse of the John Law System: https://www.ebsco.com/research-starte... When France Tried to Make Infinite Money: https://readon.substack.com/p/when-fr... Money and Why There Was Never Enough… / The Rise and Fall of John Law: https://hnoc.org/virtual-exhibitions/... Part of the Long History of Child Trafficking: 18th-Century French Louisiana: https://www.bunkhistory.org/resources... John Law biography: https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.u... Unpacking the Truth about the Founding of the Bank of France: https://www.cato.org/blog/one-sentenc... Le 17 juillet 1720 … Banque Royale (rue Vivienne), ~15 morts: https://x.com/financepourtous/status/... The Banque Royale Ceiling and the Imagery of Finance in the Age of Absolutism: https://www.journal18.org/issue10/the... Maps: Natural Earth (public domain). Music and narration produced for Cracked Empires. For education and entertainment only, not financial advice. Independent documentary: not affiliated with or endorsed by any company or brand mentioned. #history #economics #financialhistory