Mississippi Bubble

“The Mississippi Bubble” was a wild, giddy, devastating, international episode in eighteenth century French and American history that ought to be better known, if, as nothing else, a cautionary tale. At its simplest, a Scottish fugitive named John Law convinced the rulers of France to let him use France as a laboratory for his economic theories, and one of his schemes was selling shares for a new colony in America, eventually centered around what was to become New Orleans. The sales pitches weren’t tethered to reality, especially as the scheme got more and more out of hand. Costain does a good job of following the twists and turns and tyrannical moves that were put in play to try to prop things up...

In 1716 France was broke. A series of wars waged by Louis XIV had left the economy in ruins, the king in debt, and the government coffers empty. France did not even have enough gold to produce new coins. Into this breech stepped John Law, a brilliant Scottish economist, and a man on the run from British justice. He knew that France could never recover if it continued to base it's money on precious metals that the government actually owned. So, he set up a bank and obtained the right to issue "paper money"-pieces of paper that stood for value, but had no intrinsic worth of its own. Next, he bought a nearly defunct entity called the Mississippi Company, spun stories of gold and gems for the taking in France's Louisiana territories, and issued shares of stock. To sweeten the deal, he offered nearly unlimited credit and would guarantee the share's value. People flocked from all over France to buy Mississippi Company stock. By 1719, 500 livre shares were selling for 5000 livres. Overnight, poor people were becoming rich, and the rich were becoming even wealthier. At some point the bubble had to burst; and, in 1720, it did. The value of Mississippi Company shares began decreasing; and people started asking, if my paper stock shares were losing value, what was happening to my paper money? This began a run of people demanding gold for paper, which the banks could not provide. When the Mississippi bubble burst, tens of thousands were left impoverished. John Law was forced to flee the country, to die three years later-penniless. Emerson Hough has beautifully captured the triumph and tragedy of that era in his best selling novel: The Mississippi Bubble. It's a must read for anyone interested in how greed can overcome common sense in even the most rational of people.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1859. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.

The Mississippi Bubble revolves around the story of John Law and the famous "Mississippi Bubble", an economic crisis of speculative investment in the French colony of Louisiana. Upon finishing his education John Law intends to pursue a financial career in London, but gets involved in a duel. He escapes the sentence and travels abroad and explores the upper reaches of the St. Lawrence and to the Mississippi. John gets involved in dubious money printing business and chance has thrown him together with a woman who he takes as mistress. Emerson Hough (1857–1923) was an American author best known for writing western stories, adventure tales and historical novels. His best known works include western novels The Mississippi Bubble and The Covered Wagon, The Young Alaskans series of adventure novels, and historical works The Way to the West and The Story of the Cowboy.

Why do stock and housing markets sometimes experience amazing booms followed by massive busts and why is this happening more and more frequently? Boom and Bust reveals why bubbles happen, and why some bubbles have catastrophic economic, social and political consequences, whilst others have actually benefited society.