John Law: Money to Burn (ePub)

This is the story of John Law, a pied piper who led rich and poor alike across the barriers of reason and plunged them into disaster. Was he a genius, wizard or charlatan? Was France victimized by a gigantic fraud perpetrated by a scheming Scotsman?

John Law was the Scotsman who invented the concept of paper money and banking and became Comptroller of France. Though his principles were solid, the corruption of the French court led to the disaster known as The Mississippi Bubble. A dashing hero, dark villains, physical and political conflict, dangerous duels and harrowing escapes, exotic locales, beautiful and dangerous women, sex, corruption, betrayal, heroism and tragedy.

Sex, Money, and Power are the most powerful forces that drive mankind, and John Law was hell bent on having them all. This handsome Scottish adventurer stepped onto the stage of Europe at the dawn of the 18th century to alter forever the shape of international commerce. Born in Edinburgh in 1671, capable of hypnotizing women, monarchs, and whole populations, he escaped the hangman's noose in England to travel the capitals of Europe, received by kings and sovereigns.

Daredevil and genius, rake and economist, mathematical wizard, gambler par excellence, womanizer--and most of all: original thinker, the paper money in your pocket, stock market reports, banking credit, stocks, shares and investment systems are all the legacy of this charismatic adventurer.

John Law was a real person. His exciting story is proof that truth is stranger than fiction.