Mississippi Company

In 1718 John Law, a financial adventurer, the son of a goldsmith in Edinburgh, Scotland, created in Paris, with the consent and concurrence of the regent of France (Duc D’Orleans), the Company of the West, to which was granted the vast territory in the valley of the Mi i ippi in North America which bore the name of Louisiana. In this company also were vested the privileges and po e ions of all foreign trading companies, the control of the French mint, the handling of the king’s revenues and the ww management of the Royal Bank. Subsequently the company a umed the title of Company of the Indies on its acquisition of the exclusive rights of the East India Company in addition to its other prerogatives. The company was always commonly known as the Mi i ippi Company; it derived this name from the fact that through the province of Louisiana which was granted to it flowed the great Mi i ippi River. A wild speculation took place in the stock of the company. The shares, which were of the par or face value of 500 livres (about $100) each, sold in September, 1719, as high as 10,000 livres (about $2,000) each. In the middle of the following year the whole scheme collapsed and John Law, who held the office of Comptroller General of the Finances of the Empire, fled from France. 312