Millionaire - Janet Gleeson [58]
This version of the argument conflicts, however, with the Princess Palatine’s account of their dealings. Stair, she said, “cannot conceal his hatred of Law, nevertheless he has made three good millions through him.” Stair’s animosity, detectable by his ever more alarmist dispatches, was sparked by his worries about Law’s emerging anti-British sentiments. Law, he said, was interfering in diplomatic matters that were no concern of his, and threatening the British economy: “He . . . pretends he will set France much higher than ever she was before and put her in a condition to give the law to all Europe; that he can ruin the trade and credit of England and Holland whenever he pleases; that he can break our bank whenever he has a mind, and our East India Company.” Law, who had three times been refused a pardon, was now exacting painful revenge. Ironically, the pardon had been granted by George I two years earlier, but Law responded with typical impetuosity by handing over the document to the regent as proof of his unstinting loyalty.
Stair, however, ignored this detail. According to him, by the year’s end the regent was losing faith in Law. Having heard a variety of rumors relating to his erratic behavior, the regent assured Stair he had reprimanded Law for his impudence. A few days later, Stair averred, Orléans was again denouncing Law for “his vanity, presumption and insolence. He said he knew him to be a man whose head had been turned by his vanity and unbounded ambition; that nothing would satisfy him but to be absolute master; that he had such an opinion of his own talents and contempt for the talents of others as to be quite impracticable with any other person.”
Stair’s assessment did not tally with other diplomatic intelligence, which suggested that Law’s authority was substantial. The Paris-based diplomat Martin Bladen appraised the situation in a revealing letter to Lord Stanhope. “The Regent has already reaped many solid advantages from the establishment of this company, he is resolved to throw all the revenues of France under their management, which cannot fail of raising the actions to a much higher price.” Of Law’s part in all this Bladen was in no doubt: “Mr. Law is become the idol of the people, the Regent has gained many new friends, the public debts of the government are all discharged, and the revenues of France very considerably increased.” He drew the inevitable conclusion: “Your Lordship knows better than I how precarious our friendship is with this kingdom, and consequently how necessary it will be that some speedy methods should be thought on for payment of the public debts without which His Majesty cannot long continue the arbiter of Europe.”
The growing anxiety was not only that France’s economic renaissance would increase her political aspirations, but also that the flurry of tourists investing in Mississippi stock would drain England of her coinage. Concerns were amplified by Law’s overt jingoism. Openly contemptuous of the English economy, “he spared no occasion of declaring without reserve, even without decency that we are bankrupt and shall be forced to shelter our country under the protection of France,” wrote Daniel Pulteney to the secretary of state James Craggs. Stair told a similar story: “He [Law] said publicly the other day at his own table, when Lord Londonderry was present, that there was but one great kingdom in Europe. . . . He told Pitt that he would bring down our East India stock, and entered into articles [made an agreement] with him to sell him at 12 months hence, a hundred thousand pounds of stock at eleven per cent under the current price.”
Law was convinced that the price of East India stock would fall and he was therefore, in modern parlance, taking a bear futures position. The stance was probably more of a propaganda exercise,