At the time, France’s most famous economist was John Law (a Scotsman by birth) who thought the creation of new money would stimulate the economy. In 1716 he created a national bank with the ability to issue paper money backed by land, gold, silver, and state bills. That began the upswing in the cycle. The original capital for this bank, Banque Générale, was provided by shareholders, who also sat on the bank’s board. France had had a stock market since 1673, when Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s Ordinance of Trade was codified into commercial law,1 so it had all the ingredients for a
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