Millionaire - Janet Gleeson [0]
The Arcanum
SIMON & SCHUSTER
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Copyright © 1999 by Janet Gleeson
Originally published in the U.K. in 1999 by Bantam Press, a division of Transworld Publishers Ltd.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
SIMON & SCHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
ISBN-10: 0-7432-1189-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-1189-5
To my parents,
Jill and Michael
Contents
Introduction
1 A Man Apart
2 Gilded Youth
3 London
4 The Duel
5 Escape
6 The Exile
7 The Root of All Evil
8 The Bank
9 King of Half America
10 Finding the Philosopher’s Stone
11 The First Millionaire
12 Mississippi Madness
13 Descent
14 The Storms of Fate
15 Reprieve
16 The Whirligig of Time
17 The Prodigal’s Return
18 Venetian Sunset
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Sources
Bibliography
Index
MILLIONAIRE
INTRODUCTION
Within the last twenty years commerce has been better understood in France than it had ever before been, from the reign of Pharamond to that of Louis XIV. Before this period it was a secret art, a kind of chemistry in the hands of three or four persons, who actually made gold, but without communicating the secret by which they had been enriched. . . . It was destined that a Scotchman called John Law should come into France and overturn the whole economy of our government to instruct us.
Voltaire,
“Essay on Commerce and Luxury”
MONEY HAS EVER POSED PROBLEMS. NOT EVEN LOVE, said Gladstone, has made so many fools of men. Throughout time the most obvious but universal dilemma—that there is never enough of it—has confounded everyone, from mendicants to monarchs, and their ministers.
Rarely, however, had the problem seemed more pressing than it did in the late seventeenth century. Money, as most people had always understood it, was silver or gold—precious metals whose value lay in their intrinsic scarcity. But the fact that coin supplies were limited by the metal that could be dug out of the ground was proving a serious hindrance. Throughout Europe, warfare of vast scale and expense coupled with the extravagant lifestyles of kings had emptied entire treasuries. At the same time the growing population, expansion of trade, and colonization of foreign lands demanded more cash to progress. As rulers plotted invasions, perused peace treaties, and yearned to sponsor new industry, build new palaces, and develop their domains overseas, money and how to create more of it became an obsession. In an age poised between superstition and enlightenment, it became as fashionable to ponder the subject that would soon be christened political economy as the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, and nature. While on the one hand alchemists strove futilely to turn base metal into gold, on the other entrepreneurs proposed a plethora of ingenious schemes to sidestep the shortage. At the lowliest level, small-change coins made from base metal alleviated the dearth of coins in the streets. On a grand scale, banks and joint-stock companies used the magical device of credit to fund royal debts and colonial expansion by issuing paper banknotes and shares of token rather than intrinsic worth. Thus the frustrating limitations of gold and silver evaporated, but a new, even more baffling problem emerged: the question of how to maintain public confidence in the value of intrinsically valueless paper.
Among monetary philosophers and innovators to confront the problem, John Law stands alone as the most improbable, controversial, yet visionary of financial heroes. He was big in every sense, over six feet tall with ambitions that were larger and more daring than anyone else’s. On one level his story is the stuff of romantic legend. He turned his attention to finance after killing a man in a duel over an unfortunate liaison and escaping prison to save his neck.