Handre(@Handre):While Scottish gambler John Law printed the notes that wrecked France, an Irish banker in Paris watched from the inside and took notes of his own. Richard Cantillon was born in the 1680s into a landowning family from Ballyheigue, County Kerry, that fought for James II and lost its land for it. He spent time in Spain, then came to Paris in 1714 to work for a second cousin's bank, and when the cousin went bankrupt in 1716, Cantillon bought the bank with backing from Matthew Decker. He built a business moving money between Paris and London, serving exiles from the British Isles. That put him right next to Law's Mississippi Company, and he judged the scheme unsound. He bought shares early anyway and sold at a large profit, then collected on the Company's debt at high interest after the crash. Shares fell almost 90%, and the losers, including James Brydges, blamed Cantillon. His debtors chased him with lawsuits and even murder plots until he died in London in May 1734 under murky circumstances. Around 1730, he wrote the Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général. French censorship held it back, and it appeared in 1755, twenty-one years after his death. Economists consider it the first complete treatise on economics. Its sharpest idea came straight out of Law's wreckage. New money doesn't spread evenly. It enters the economy at specific points, and the first people to receive it get to spend it before prices rise, while everyone further down the line pays higher prices on wages that haven't moved. Printing money transfers wealth from the last recipient to the first. Economists call this the Cantillon effect, and it is why money is never neutral. In France, the people nearest the bank cashed out, and ordinary savers held the paper when it collapsed. He also gave economics the entrepreneur as risk-bearer. Adam Smith cited him, and Hayek drew on him. Jevons rediscovered the Essai in the late 1800s, after nearly a century and a half of neglect.

2026.10.28 08:50

While Scottish gambler John Law printed the notes that wrecked France, an Irish banker in Paris watched from the inside and took notes of his own. Richard Cantillon was born in the 1680s into a landowning family from Ballyheigue, County Kerry, that fought for James II and lost its land for it. He spent time in Spain, then came to Paris in 1714 to work for a second cousin's bank, and when the cousin went bankrupt in 1716, Cantillon bought the bank with backing from Matthew Decker. He built a business moving money between Paris and London, serving exiles from the British Isles. That put him right next to Law's Mississippi Company, and he judged the scheme unsound. He bought shares early anyway and sold at a large profit, then collected on the Company's debt at high interest after the crash. Shares fell almost 90%, and the losers, including James Brydges, blamed Cantillon. His debtors chased him with lawsuits and even murder plots until he died in London in May 1734 under murky circumstances. Around 1730, he wrote the Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général. French censorship held it back, and it appeared in 1755, twenty-one years after his death. Economists consider it the first complete treatise on economics. Its sharpest idea came straight out of Law's wreckage. New money doesn't spread evenly. It enters the economy at specific points, and the first people to receive it get to spend it before prices rise, while everyone further down the line pays higher prices on wages that haven't moved. Printing money transfers wealth from the last recipient to the first. Economists call this the Cantillon effect, and it is why money is never neutral. In France, the people nearest the bank cashed out, and ordinary savers held the paper when it collapsed. He also gave economics the entrepreneur as risk-bearer. Adam Smith cited him, and Hayek drew on him. Jevons rediscovered the Essai in the late 1800s, after nearly a century and a half of neglect.

Handre@Handre

2026.10.28 07:25

Scottish gambler John Law was born in Edinburgh in 1671, the son of a goldsmith banker. His father died when he was a boy, and Law grew up to trade his inheritance for the card tables of London. In 1694, he killed a man named Edward Wilson in a duel, received a death sentence, and broke out of prison to flee to the Continent. He spent the next two decades gambling across Europe and studying banks. Scotland rejected his plan to fund the country with paper money. France said yes. Louis XIV died in 1715 and left the crown buried in debt, and in 1716 the Regent, Philippe d'Orléans, let Law open a bank that issued notes. Law then folded Louisiana trade, tax collection, and the royal mint into the Mississippi Company and sold shares on promises of colonial riches that nobody had found. To keep buyers coming, the bank printed notes. Shares climbed from about 500 livres in 1719 to about 10,000 by early 1720, and the word "millionaire" entered the language. Then the state enforced the fiction. After converting to Catholicism, Law became Controller General of Finances, banned most payments in gold and silver, and made it a crime to hold coin above a small sum. Citizens who wanted out of paper lost the right to leave. When holders rushed to cash in, the bank had printed far more notes than it held in coin. In May 1720, the government decreed a cut in the value of notes and shares, panic forced a reversal within a week, and crowds fought in the rue Quincampoix. Law lost his post that spring and fled France in December. He died broke in Venice in 1729. The recipe never changes: print to fund the favored project, lock the exits, and punish anyone who tries to leave with their savings.

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