author
John Law
1671–1729
A brilliant and controversial thinker, he helped reshape ideas about money, credit, and banking in early modern Europe. His dramatic rise in France—and the crash that followed—made him one of the most fascinating figures in financial history.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Edinburgh in 1671, he became known as a Scottish economist, financier, and gambler whose ideas about paper money and credit were far ahead of his time. Sources on his life agree that he is best remembered for the bold financial system he introduced in France during the Regency, where he promoted a national bank and linked finance with colonial trade ventures.
His career was as dramatic as his theories. After gaining influence in France, he oversaw a system that fueled intense speculation around the Mississippi Company; when the bubble burst, his reputation collapsed just as quickly as it had risen. Even so, historians still treat him as an important early thinker in modern finance because he argued that credit and circulating money could expand trade and economic activity.
He died in Venice in 1729. What makes his story so enduring is the mix of sharp economic insight, political ambition, and personal risk: few financial thinkers ever had such a sweeping chance to test their own theories in the real world.