News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-03-02

hlcn ana poor, mobiles and preiates
princes and ENJOYS of princes, strove OF
common ground for these rustline
parchments, signed by the Scotch
Midas. Grotesque metamorphoses sig
nalized all ranks of society. The valet
of the morning retired at night mil
lionaire. Washerwomen withdrew after
days scramble rich as duchesses. AL
classes were confounded, all the orders
obliterated.
Surely the Scotch wizard was keep
ing his word. The National Bank had
become as he promised, the distributor
of the public riches the strong box of
the millionaires, the savings bank of the
poor. The effect now began to be felt
in every fibre of the State. Languish-
ing industry revived, internal manu-
factures throve; the seaports began to
resound to the unaccustomed cries OF
merchant fleets, trade with America
and the Indies began to expand. France,
in fact had, like Aladdin, gotten hold of
the lamp that the slaves of the mines
obeyed when the proper signal was
given that the evil genii obeyed when
an alien hand gave the sign. To add to
the public delirium the Scot took
the entire burden of debt upon his own
shoulders. For the first time since the
Gauls had browsed peacefully on the
Rhone, Loire and Seine, there were no
internal taxes. But singularly as the
Scot was justified in his expectations
and predictions. he was not permitted
| to begin his scheme on the colossal
scale that he had originally designed.
The original idea of Bank and Company
was carried out. It is with this phase
of the enterprise that Law loses charac-
ter of hard headed sagacity, and be-
comes something like the reckless
Goulds and Vanderbilts of to-day.
Dazzling as the initial movements
proved, the young stranger was not yet
omnipotent. He held the alemblc, in
whose secrets lay the conversion of
houses, lands, crops and what not into
goldr He controlled the magnet which
drew irresistibIy all France and thou
sands from stranger lands into the auri
ferrous vortex. He became a French
man and Catholic, and at once re-
ceived the appointment of Comptroller
of the Royal finances. His way thus
clear he proceeded to stupefy his friends
and enemies by the eliminating trans
formation in this golden legend. Forty
years before Laws appearance in 1880
the adventurous La Sale, penetrating
far beyond the Puritan settlements on
the Atlantic course, had in navigating
the Illinois come upon the Mississippi
which he called "Mesehacebi." Fol-
lowirg it with wonder he reached the
tropic luxuriance of the Gulf, and gave
the name Of Louisiana, in honor of
Louis XIV, to the vast country between
the Ohio and the Gulf. The marvels of
the new land threw the French into a
fever of anticipation, but as the king
dom was then in extremes through the
disastrous wars with the coalition, but
small effort at colonization began
Now, however, this great waste of
treasure, rivalling Peru and Mexico in
the Imagination, was to be exploited.
Law incorporated the Company of the
West" with capital of one hu ndred
millions.
Marvellous as had been the first ven
ture, this essay overshadows everything
known in the history of finance. Laws
prospectus, making adroit use of the
picturesque and imaginative descrip-
tions of La Sale and his fellow -adven-
turers, aroused France to delirium.
The nation was about to rival the colo
MES of Spain and Britain. French
argosies were to cover the coast of
Europe, and America bring the grain
and precious stones of q country large
as India, and millionfold more pro-
life than the mines of the Incas, which
had given Spain the domination of the
world the century before.
The stockholders, endowed with un-
heard of privileges, really controlled
the markets and materials of the realm.
But the competition was, for the mo-
ment, like the rush of Niagara to the
slow turgid flow of woodland stream.
The Indian Company, or "Compagnie
d'Occident," as it was known, started
with a capital of 800, 900, 900, divided
into 100000 shares of $500 each. To
the new company was added the oid
commercial intercourse of the East
Indies and China, already more prolific
for France than England, for it was not
until near half century later that the
adventurer Give wrested the Indian
colonies from France, which are to o-day
the source of England's commercial
prowess. Were there time and were
this the place, the story Of Laws gi-
gantic designs would be both profitable
and absorbing. He aimed at nothing
less than the conversion of the kingdom
into vast mart, the heart of the COM
mercial system of the world, whose
gangIions should flow with the blood of
the earth's riches from its remotest ex-
tremities. Like the present Union
Generate, based curiously enough, on
Laws general system, the sub-com-
panies buying their stock from the
mother company gave the necessary
working capital and at the same time
supplied the enormous dividends that
sweIled the pockets of the millions
swirled into this new delirium. In an
incredibly short time the fleets of Law
covered the Spanish main and the Mid
die Atlantic. He had dispatched
Governor to Illinois, colonists in armies
poured down the Mississippi and the
new wants created gave employment to
millions hitherto wasting in penury or
unrecompensed feudalism of the grand
signeurs. Ofshoot after offshoot fol-
lowed in scores, the mother company
realized as high as 500 and ZOO per
cent. on the operations. The master of
such wealth and the processes of pro-
ducing it, Law was accorded the right
of coming all the money of the State
We reach the apogee of. this stupen-
dous drama at this point in June, 1719.
France, the Continent, was gorged with
wealth. Law paid the public debt.
His funding operations, though saving
millions to the State, enriched the cred
itors, for they were paid in the stock of
the India Company, which was at an
enormous premium, above not only