New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-08-27

could take gold and silver, and hurl them back
into the barren deserts and dark caverns
whence they came. He thought he had in
vented currency which would always equal
and never exceed the wants of trade" wants
"of the State and of commerce" was his
phrase, often repeated.
Law was a genius OF high order. AS
writer on money, in spite of the capital errors
which the 1866 economists have again resusci-
tatcd, he ranks far superior to the modern
Philadelphia school. He was supported by the
whole power of dcspotic Government and
by universal credulty which has been the
wonder of all succeeding generations. His
influence, far from being confined to France
intoxicated the staid Dutch and sober
English. London aud Amsterdam attempted,
though in vain, to reach the pitch
of "societary circulation with which
the veins of Paris and all france
were thrObbing. Prime Ministers and Cham
cellOrs of the Exchequer embarked on the
bottomless deep of the South Sea-" and both
in London and in Paris counters were erected
in the open air in accordance with " the re-
"u,nrements of the business community" For
all that the "nOn-expOrtablc circulation" in
vented and set in operation by the
Sieur Law, was not permanently MAN.
tanned. A demand for currency set ill.,
In four months actions to the nominal
value of 1900, OOO,OOO francs were converted
into bank-notes and the volume of the cur
rency was more than doubled The "million-
aires" as Paris Duverney sarcasticaly calls them
bought up everything that could be stored
away-diamOnds, tobacco, coffee, brcadstuffs,
bai Al
Prices rose frightfuly until annuitants and
laborers were in danger of actual starvation:
Law was powerless to control the forces he had
created. His bubble burst and himself barely
escaped over the frontier with his life, leaving
France bankrupt beneath the ruins OF his
famous System" as he delighted to call it.
We beg leave to assure those votaries OF
3.65 who have not wholly abdicated their
reason that the catastrophe which actually be-
fell the nOn-expOrtablc, intercOnvcrtible paper
money of John Law, would certainly put an
end TO their " SYSTEM" should the country have
the madness to follow the lead of the sagcs
and simpIetons of Philadelphia. We will also
say to our readers in general that the parallel
between the Mississippi scheme and the $50
is not fancy sketch. There does not exist in
English any passably complete or accurate ac-
count of Laws operations Adam Smith
merely refers his readers to the book
of Paris Duverney, which he deservcd!y
praises. That work written by the ablest
financier of France of his generation,
and published anonymously at the Hague in
174O, under the title of "Eramea du LIRE
"inttulf Reaerions POlitques sr les Finances
get lie Commerce." is still the only complete
account of Laws mOmentous experiment. The
French work. Economsics Endncicrs" OF
the eighteenth century, contains good ac-
count of the "Systcm'' in the preface to the
writings of Law. The English accounts that
we are acquainted with are either mere
sketches, like Prof. Seniors, or wretched jum-
bles like that of Sir James Stcuart. 1t is
SOBER historical fact that Law not ONLY laid
the $50 egg, but Matched n dragon from it in
France in the year of our Lord 1920.