Millionaire - Janet Gleeson [31]
Law willingly spent long hours explaining his ideas and in Orléans found someone with the intellect and vision to understand. Perhaps also Orléans’s regard for Law was strengthened by secret admiration for his life of opportunistic adventure, a world away from the protocol and formality of the French court. Both men were fast thinkers and witty talkers, and with mutual intellectual respect, personal affection grew.
Encouraged by his royal friend, Law optimistically revised his proposal and resubmitted it to the king. But for all Orléans’s help and Law’s high hopes, Louis eyed it icily. This time, according to Orléans’s mother, the Princess Palatine, the stumbling block was not the scheme’s complexities but the author’s religion. Law was a non-Catholic and therefore, to Louis, inherently untrustworthy. Police superintendent d’Argenson was instructed to hasten Law’s departure.
Law did not give up hope. He based himself in Holland, from where he continued the roving quest for a ruler willing to listen. The nomadic life was arduous for Katherine, with a baby to care for, but the relationship does not seem to have suffered. On the contrary, it seems likely that the fortitude and loyalty she later displayed resulted from the closeness that developed during this extended period of rootlessness. In unfamiliar environments, and during long journeys across Europe, she and Law spent much time together and relied on each other for companionship. At each new city, Katherine’s dignified bearing worked in Law’s favor, for political advancement depended upon social success as much as worthy ideas. Her glamour, allied to his charm, helped forge the alliances on which his career depended.
In the spring of 1710 he was in Italy, accompanied as usual by Katherine, who was pregnant. Their second child, Mary Katherine, whom Law called Kate, was born in Genoa. In Turin, Law presented a scheme for a bank similar to the Bank of England to Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, whose domain was in dire need of cash after the siege of the city. The duke, a great admirer of Law, liked his scheme, and Law’s spirits rose. As he waited to be given the go-ahead, he involved himself in speculative dealings and currency trades so successfully that a year later he was able to open a bank account in Amsterdam with a deposit of £100,000 (US$160,000).
But as the months passed, it became obvious that Victor Amadeus’s support did not mark the turning point for which Law had hoped. The duke’s ministers were stubbornly conservative, and eventually, after lengthy arguments, Victor Amadeus was forced to reject Law’s idea with the lame explanation that his dominions “were too small for the execution of so great a design.” He added that “France was the proper theatre for its performance, if I know the disposition of the people of that kingdom I am sure they will relish your schemes.” Law agreed, but knew that with the present administration intact, there too the door was closed.
Even in exile John Law’s success gripped the English authorities. By now he had decided that his ambitions would be helped if he presented himself to the world as a man of substance. In the spring of 1712 he left Italy to return to The Hague, “the handsomest, the most fashionable and the most modern looking town in the Netherlands,” according to one writer