Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/305

Rh of Mexico, and, taking possession of the country through which he passed in the name of the French monarch, gave it the appellation of Louisiana. A celebrated merchant of the name of Crozat had obtained the privilege of trading with this newly discovered country, and had attempted, but without success, to establish a colony within it. Law's imagination, however, was fired at the boundless field of enterprise which he conceived was here presented; he talked of its beauty, of its fertility, of the abundance and rarity of its produce, of the richness of its mines outrivalling those of Mexico or Peru, — and in the month of August, 1717, within five months after his embarkation in the scheme of the bank, our projector had placed himself, under the auspices of the regent, at the head of the famous Mississippi scheme, or West Indian company. This company was invested with the full sovereignty of Louisiana, on condition of doing homage for the investiture to the king of France, and presenting a crown of gold, of thirty marcs, to each new monarch of the French empire on his accession to the throne. It was authorised to raise troops, to fit out ships of war, to construct forts, institute tribunals, explore mines, and exercise all other acts of sovereignty. The king made a present to the company of the vessels, forts, and settlements which had been constructed by Crozat, and gave it the monopoly of the beaver trade with Canada for twenty-five years. In December following, the capital of the West Indian company was fixed at 100,000,000 livres, divided into 200,000 shares; and the billets d' etat, were taken at their full value from those wishing to purchase shares. Government paper was at this moment vastly depreciated on account of the irregular payment of the interest; but although 500 livres nominal value in the public funds could not have been sold for more than 150 or 160 livres, the billets d' etat, by this contrivance, soon rose to par. It was evident that these fictitious funds could not form stock for commercial enterprise; nevertheless, the advance of the government debts to a rate so advantageous to the holders, increased the value of the government securities that remained in circulation, and the depreciated paper rose to full credit with the astonished public, who now began to place implicit confidence in Law's schemes. The council of finance, however, looked with mistrust on these proceedings; and its president, the duke de Noailles gave in his resignation, and was replaced by d' Argenson, a man far less skilled in matters of finance. The jealousy of the parliament, too, was excited by the increasing influence of the Scottish financier, who had been heard imprudently to boast that he would render the court independent of parliamentary supplies. By an arêt of the 18th of August, 1717, the parliament attempted to destroy the credit of the notes of the bank, by prohibiting the officers of the revenue from taking them in payment of the taxes; but the regent interposed, and Law was allowed to continue his operations. He, however, encountered another formidable rival in d' Argenson, who now proposed, with the assistance of the four brothers Paris, men of great wealth and influence in the commercial world, to form a company which, with a capital as large as that of the West Indian company, should advance large sums of money secured on the farms, posts, and other branches of the public revenue. This anti-system, as it was called, soon fell to pieces for want of the same energetic and fearless direction which characterized the schemes of its rival.

Law now prevailed on the regent to take the bank under royal guarantee, persuading him that it was quite possible to draw into it the whole circulating specie of the kingdom, and to replace it by the same amount of paper-money. The notes issued by the royal bank, however, did not promise, as those of Law's private establishment had done, to pay in specie of the same weight and fineness as the specie then in circulation, but merely to pay in silver coin. This opened