CHRONICLE – Revolutionary financial innovations fueling scandals.
All schoolchildren in France and Navarre know at least John Law by name. You must say “Girl,” our teachers insisted, because that’s what the French called it three centuries ago. This Scottish economist and banker went down in history for trying to introduce a paper money system in France instead of precious metals, gold and silver. Such a revolution is nothing to envy of our stunning cryptocurrencies. Which, it was hoped, would break the double curse that the country was suffering from, a monetary crisis (lack of liquidity) and a financial crisis (a gigantic public debt after the death of Louis XIV in 1715). A project begun under the Regency of Philippe d’Orléans unfortunately failed and ended in 1720 with La Banqueroute de Law, the title of a cult book by Edgar Faure, symbolic minister of the 4th and 5th republics.
The latter nevertheless considers John Law “the founder of the monetary economy, the most original minister in French history.”