Compagnie du Mississippi
In May 1716, the Scottish economist John Law, who had been appointed Controller General of Finances of France under the Duke of Orléans, created the "Banque Générale Privée" ("General Private Bank"). It was the first financial institution to develop the use of paper money. It was a private bank, but three-quarters of the capital consisted of government bills and government-accepted notes. In August 1717, Law bought the Mississippi Company to help the French colony in Louisiana. In the same year Law conceived a joint-stock trading company called the "Compagnie d'Occident" (The Mississippi Company, or, literally, "Company of [the] West"). Law was named the Chief Director of this new company, which was granted a trade monopoly of the West Indies and North America by the French government.