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By Root 632 0

outstanding debt. Law’s long-standing adversaries, the Pâris brothers, were recalled from exile to supervise. Crozat, another eminent private banker, from whom Law had snatched the colonization rights to Mississippi, was appointed to look into Law’s private affairs. Eight hundred investigators were set to work in the old offices of the bank, at a cost of 9 million livres. Anyone holding shares, annuities, or banknotes was ordered to deposit them and explain how they had acquired such sums. As before, if they were deemed to have acted illegally they were liable to severe fines and confiscation of much of their property. The scale of the impact of Law’s schemes became clear when a total of more than half a million people—equivalent to two-thirds of the then entire population of London—came forward with claims for losses as a result of his shares and banknotes. Nearly two hundred investors were penalized to the tune of almost 200 million livres—the widow Chaumont received the heaviest fine of 8 million livres, but remained rich because she had cannily put so much money into tangible assets. Other less fortunate, or less shrewd, investors found their gains dramatically reduced. “Those who have lost are already ruined, and now they wish to ruin those who gained,” wrote one journalist, as the pruning was uncomfortably achieved. In England the State of Europe commented that “other ministers are now undoing what has been done by that projector [Law],” and went on to remark, “The French court after so many trials and expedients to no purpose may be convinced that a public bank is one of those plants which cannot grow in all soils, and that people will never entrust with the keeping of their cash a company which may be dissolved by any sudden blast of an arbitrary wind.” In fact, as Law had pointed out, the State had benefited greatly from his system. Rising inflation, falling share prices, and the reduction in the value of paper had bankrupted state creditors but reduced Crown debt by two-thirds.

The Mississippi Company was also targeted by the investigators. The privilege of administering the tax system and mint was withdrawn, and the company retained only its maritime interests. Through a painful process of confiscations and contractions, shares were decreased in number from 135,000 to 56,000. In this depleted state the company survived its founder’s downfall, and in one sense fulfilled his fervent hope, remaining in business until the end of the eighteenth century.

Amid the financial confusion Law, the convenient whipping boy, was accused of massive misappropriation and of leaving vast unsettled debts. According to one report, a week before his departure he had helped himself to 20,000 livres from the bank. A later document sent to the Duc de Bourbon showed that in fact Law’s account was several millions in credit.

Conscious of ill will mounting against him, and unable to defend himself, Law became more and more concerned for Katherine’s safety. In mid-April, when traveling conditions had improved, he instructed her to arrange for the dispatch of their horses, carriages, and furnishings by boat, settle outstanding debts—according to the regent’s mother, she owed 10,000 livres to the butcher alone—and prepare to leave: “I want your company and to live as we used to before I engaged in public business. . . . Though I determine you at present to come to Venice and though I like the place very well, I don’t propose that we shall always stay here.” He was desperately worried at the thought of her making the hazardous journey across Europe without him, and sent detailed instructions of the route she should take and the documents she would need. Certificates of health would have to be stamped in every town they passed because of the travel restrictions caused by the plague; she should avoid crossing through the Tyrol in case she was held for quarantine; and she should travel incognito: “Keep your journey private, there are malicious people . . . and though I received no insult on the road, yet I think you should shun being known,