Note 49 — Chapter XI · FRENCH DISCOVERY OF WEST AFRICA

John Law was the eldest son of an Edinburgh goldsmith, born about 1681. “Bred to no business, but possessed of great abilities, and a fertile invention,” he, when very young, recommended himself to the King’s ministers in Scotland to arrange fiscal matters, then in some confusion from the union of the Kingdoms. His scheme, however, was not adopted. Great at giving other people good advice on money matters, he failed to manage his own. After a gay career in Edinburgh, and gaining himself the title of “Beau Law,” he got mixed up in a duel, and fled to the Continent. He was banished from Venice and Genoa for draining the youth of those cities of their money, and wandered about Italy, living on gaming and singular bets and wagers. He proposed his scheme to the Duke of Savoy, who saw by this scheme he could soon, by deceiving his subjects in this manner, get the whole of the money of the kingdom into his possession; but as Law could not explain what would happen then, he was repulsed, and proceeded to Paris, where, under the patronage of the Duc d’Orleans, they found favour with Louis XIV. When his crash came he was exiled, and died in Venice in 1729.