people of quality in France appeared on foot in hundreds, before his houfe in the Place Vendome. The Company now came under an obligation to lend the King, that he might pay off his creditors, the fum of 1500 millions of livres, at the rate of 3 per cent. per annum, to which rate the intereft of the 100 millions formerly lent to his Majesty, (on the firit creation of actions at 4 per cent.) was alfo reduced; the King confequently had to pay them, in all 48 millions a year. To raife this fum of 1500 millions, there were, in the months of September and October, 1719, 300,000 new actions created, fubfcription for which was fixed at 5000 livres each. The actions were thus brought to their full number of 600,000, (for it is needlefs to take any notice of 24,000 more created on the 4th of October, by the private orders of the Regent, but afterwards fuppreffed) to answer the dividends upon which the Company had, according to fome, the following annual revenue, viz. } Intereft paid by the King to the Company S • Profits upon the Great Farms, Ditto upon the Mint, Ditto upon the Farm } Livres. 48,000,000 15,000,000 4,000,000 2,000,000 of Tobacco, Do. upon the general Receipt of Taxes,&c. } 1,500,000 Ditto upon the Trade, 10,000,000 making a total of 80,500,000 livres open to be improved by the extenfion of their commerce abroad, and by a good administration at home. Other writers on this fubject, however,computed the annual revenue of this great Company at no less than 131 millions of livres, viz, 48 millions intereft from the King, 39 millions profits upon the farms, the mint, and the receipt of taxes, and 44 millions profits upon their trade, in which cafe they could well afford a dividend of even more than 200 livres on every action. The covetousness which these fair profpects of profit, and the prodigious gains of the first proprietors, excited among all ranks, was fuch as no nation had ever beheld before. An univerfal infatuation for the acquifition of fhares in the India Company feemed to occupy the whole kingdom, from the lowest of the people up to Magiftrates, Prelates, and Princes. This infatuation, of which, at the prefent day, we can scarcely form a conception, increased in proportion to the difficulty of obtaining fuccefs; for the whole 300,000 actions last created, being, by a particular agreement, kept up in order to be fold to the Regent, who had also got poffeífion of 100,000 of former creations, no more than 200,000 remained in the hands of the public, of which only a part, quite inadequate to the demand, was now brought to market. The frenzy prevailed fo far, that the whole nation, clergy and laity, peers and plebeians, ftatefmen and princes, nay even ladies, who had or could procure money for that purpose, turned ftock-jobbers, outbidding each other with fuch avidity, that in November, 1719, after fome fluctuations, the price of actions rose to about 10,000 livres, more than fixty times the fum they originally fold for, taking into the account the difcredit of the Billets d'etat. So much indeed were the people interested in this bufinefs, that nothing was talked of but actions, and every place echoed with Miffifippi and Quinquempoix. All claffes appeared to have but one object, the acquifition of fhares of the India Company; mechanics laid by their work, tradefmen forfook their fhops, all degrees entirely neglected their employments to embark in this new The fireet where the flock-jobbing was carried on. occupation; occupation; and the few that did not proceed to that extreme, conducted themselves in a manner which manifefted the little concern they took in any thing foreign to the Miffifippi. The courtiers, according to their usual custom of following implicitly the royal example, engaged fo deeply in this bufinefs, that it was faid only five perfons of that defcription (the Marechals de Villeroi and de Villars, the Dukes de St. Simon and de la Rochefoucault, and the Chancellor) had kept free from the contagion. The negociations for actions were at first carried on in the Rue Quinquempoix, to the great emolument of the occupiers of houfes in that street, apartments letting at the most enormous rates. At length it becoming impoffible for all to procure the ac commodation of a room, most of the ftock-jobbers tranfacted their business in the open air. So great was the concourfe, that the street was quite VOL. II. No. 5. choacked up by break of day, and the crowd ftill continued to increase till the evening bell was rung, when they were obliged to be driven away by force. It now became neceflary to shift the bufinefs to a more commodious fituation, and the stockjobbing was accordingly transferred to the Place Vendome,† from whence it was in a fhort time removed, on account of the complaints made by the Chancellor, that the noife prevented him from attending to the caufes in the chancery. Mr. Law thereupon agreed with the Prince of Carignan to purchase his Hotel of Soiffons, at the enormous price, as is faid, of 1,400,000 livres, and in the fpacious gardens of that edifice caufed about 100 pavilions to be erected, each of which was rated at 500 livres a month. To oblige the brokers to make use of them, an ordonance was iffued prohibiting any bargains for flock to be concluded except in these pavilions. F Account It is related of a phyfician called Chirac, that on his way to wifit a female patient, having heard the price of Actions was falling, he was fo much affected by that piece of news he could think of nothing elle; and accordingly, when feeling the lady's pulse, he kept crying out, O good God, it falls, it falls, it falls! The invalid, naturally alarmed, began to ring the bell with all ber force, crying out that she was a dead woman, and had almost expired with apprehenfion, till the doctor affured her that her pulse was in a very good ftate, but that his mind ran fo much upon Actions, he came to utter the expreffions that terrified her, in reference to the fall of their value. + The memoirs of the Regency take notice of a hump-backed man, who acquired in the courfe of a few days 150,000 livres by letting out his hump as a writing-defk to the brokers in the Rue Quinquempoix.-A plan of Paris being about this time laid before Louis XV. then only ten years of age, the young monarch found fault with it because that fitreet was not diftinguished from the others by being gilded. The murder and robbery of a rich flock-jobber, by a young Flemish nobleman, Count Horn, and two affociates, who, under pretence of bargaining for Actions, conducted the unfortunate man to a private room in a tavern in the Rue de Venife, and there difpatched him with a poignard, 22d March, 1720, was one of the reafons for this reftriction. The Count, who was only 22 years of age, being taken the fame day, was condemned to be broken alive upon the wheel; and this fentence was put in execution, notwithstanding he was allied to feveral fovereign boufes, and related to the Duke of Orleans himself. The greatest intereft was made for his life, but all folicitations on that bead avere Account of the Deftruction of the Miffifippi Scheme. From the fame. TH HE envy that generally is the attendant on perfons raised to high offices of ftate, Mr. Law had the misfortune to experience; and in his case it was heightened in a fuperlative degree, from the circumitances of his being a foreigner. He was hated by almost all the Ministry, and obnoxious to all the old retainers of the court. Cardinal Du Bois in particular, formerly the Regent's tutor, one of the most profligate of mankind, could not, without the greatest pain, obferve his wonted influence over the mind of his old pupil quite destroyed by the fuperior powers of the Comptroller-General, who, he had reafon to fufpect, was, determined to have him difmiffed from his office. This made him attempt all methods to injure Mr. Law in the opinion of the Regent, in which he was joined by feveral of his colleagues. A favourable opportunity foon after occurred, and was eagerly embraced by them, of engaging the Duke in a scheme which completely ruined the great defigns of the Comptroller-General, by putting an end to his plans of public credit and national affluence. It has been before mentioned, that at the 1st of May, 1720, Bank notes had been fabricated to the amount of 2600 millions of livres. The fpecie in the kingdom, at the rate of 65 livres to the marc, was estimated at 1300 millions. Cardinal Du Bois, M. D'Argenson, and others of the Ministry, now reprefented to the Regent that it was become abfolutely neceffary to form an equal proportion betwixt the notes and the coin, by either raifing the denomination of the latter to 130 livres the marc, by which the 1300 millions of fpecie would have been augmented to 2600 millions; or reducing the value of the notes one half, that is, to 1300 millions. This point was difcuffed in council; fome of the members, among whom was the ComptrollerGeneral, contended ftrenuously for letting matters ftand as they were, or if it was judged neceffary to take fome fteps in that affair, they proposed to raise the denomination of the fpecie, which had been frequently practifed before; but the majority, who bore no good will to Mr. Law, favouring the propofition for lowering the value of the paper, it was at laft, after a grave, wife, and learned deliberation, determined to iffue an Arret to that purpose. Accordingly on the 21ft of May, 1720, an Arret was published, ftating, that the King having judged that the general interest of his fubjects required that the price, or nominal value of the India Company's Actions, and of Bank notes, fhould be leffened, for maintaining them in a juft proportion with the coin and other commodities of the kingdom; his Majefty ordained, that the Actions of the India Company should be reduced, beginning from the day of the publication of the prefent arret, to 8000 livres, on the ift of July to 7500 livres, on the 1st of Auguft to 7000 livres, and fo on by 500 livres a month till the 1ft of December, when they were to remain fixed at 5000 livres. That the Bank notes should alfo be reduced fo as they fhould be received in payments from that date, at the following rates: Thofe of 10,000 livres for 8000 livres, thofe of 1000 livres for 800, of 100 for 80, and of 10 for 8; that unavailing, Mr. Law fhewing the Regent the abfolute neceffity of making an example of him, at a time when most people carried their whole fortunes in their pockets. that on the 1st of July the faid notes fhould be further reduced; those of 10,000 livres to 7500 livres, and fo on by 500 livres a month, the leffer notes being reduced in the like proportion, till the 1st of December, when it was declared that the faid notes fhould remain reduced and fix. ed, thofe of 10,000 livres at 5000 livres, thole of 1000 at 500, those of 100 at 50, and thofe of 10 at 5. That this unjuftifiable and fatal ftep was taken in oppofition to the advice of the Comptroller General, is afferted upon the authority of his nephew the Baron de Laurifton, who fays, "On fe decida, malgré l'avis "de Mr. Law, et fur fon rapport ce"pendant, puis qu'il etoit Controleur "General des Finances, mais peu "ecouté, de lancer l'arret, &c." and indeed it seems hardly credible that one fo well verfed in the principles of credit as Mr. Law was, could approve of a proceeding fo diametrically oppofite to them. Some go fo far as to maintain, on the authority of a letter from a Duke and Peer of France to an English nobleman, that the most serious apprehenfions being entertained by the other European ftates of the vaft increase of the power and wealth of France in the event of the Syftem's fucceeding, the Ministers of the Quadruple Alliance plotted together to occafion its miscarriage, and fuggefted the above mode to the enemies of Mr. Law. Be the cause as it may, the arret Omnia fatis "In pejus ruere, ac retro fublapfa referri." the whole paper fabric fell at once to the ground, the notes loft all credit, no perfon would meddle with them; and, although the Bank did not immediately top payment, there was no poffibility of getting near it, the avenues being, at the firft alarm, blocked up by foldiers, and the tellers employed in changing the notes of their friends and thofe of the directors, fo that the day following, May 22d, any body might have starved with 100 millions in paper money in his pocket. The confternation which feized all ranks of people upon the publication of this fatal arret was quickly converted into rage, so that it became neceffary to ftation a number of troops in the market place, and in other quarters of Paris, to bridle the fury of the mob, from which a fecond night of St. Bartholomew was dreaded*. Disorder and confufion reigned every where, feditious and inflammatory libels were pofted up in all places, In this feajon of calamity, the French, with their ufual levity, could not refrain from fporting with their own misfortunes in epigrams and the like ; the following are felected from a great number of fimilar productions published at that time: To the Abbe de Tencin : (who had the principal band in Mr. Law's con places, and the life of the Regent himself was threatened; but that Prince, among whofe failings want of courage could never be reckoned, difregarded thefe menaces, and continued to give public audience every day in the Palais Royal. In this emergency the Parliament of Paris called an extraordinary meeting to deliberate upon the fituation of affairs; and the refult of this meeting was fending a deputation, compofed of their moft illuftrious members, to the Regent, to demand the revocation of the arret of the 21ft of May. Upon their reprefentation, this was accordingly done by another arret of the 27th of May, establishing the paper at its former denomiBut all confidence being now gone, this edict had no other effect than to increase the mischief, by throwing again into the channel of commerce, notes univerfally difcredited, with which knavifh perfons paid and ruined their lawful creditors. The Prefident de Novion having fome months preceding fold an eftate to Mr. Law for above 800,000 livres in gold, and having referved a right of redemption within a stated period, his fon availed himself thereof, and repaid the purchafer at this juncture with notes. When the last-mentioned arret of the 27th was published, the people crowded fo eagerly about the Bank to change their notes into fpecie, that feveral perfons were hurt, and one was killed outright; but the avenues being strictly guarded by foldiers, very few indeed could get near the tellers; this contributed still more to difcredit the notes, which was further increased by the ftopping pay ment at the Bank on the 29th of May, This was done under the pretext of giving commiffaries conftituted for that purpofe, an opportunity for examining the Bank books, and enquiring into the alledged frauds and knaveries of the clerks. It appears however, that the Bank began paying again on the 2d of June; but still ic was fcarcely poffible to get near the tellers, though the eagerness of the public to obtain fpecie was fo great, that none grudged to give even more than 100 livres for one louis d'or. The Bank was again shut up; but being opened on the 9th of July for the payment of notes of 10 livres, an incredible throng of people affembled at the entrance on the fide of the Mazarine gardens. The guard took care that a very fmall number fhould be admitted: and the door being immediately shut, those on the out-fide began to be very clamorous, and to throw ftones at the door and into the gardens, which was returned from within; and one of the foldiers firing his piece through the key-hole, killed a coachman and wounded a citizen in the fhoulder. At laft the door was opened; but the guards being ranged in the infide with fixed bayonets, few chofe to venture within their reach, and those who did so, paid dear for their temerity, several being wounded, and one run through the body. The 17th of July being appointed for paying notes of 100 livres; fo immenfe a concourfe affembled, and their ftruggles were fuch, that it is faid no lefs than 20 perfons were fqueezed to death; this occafioned a dreadful ferment among the Parifians, which was quelled with great verfion, for which he was rewarded with the Bishoprick of Grenoble. Hi was afterwards Archbishop of Ambrun, and a Cardinal): "Foin de ton zele feraphique, "Malheureux Abbe de Tencin! |
