Show mississippi bubble was disastrous speculation I 1 the mississippi bubble was a scheme devised by john law a famous scotch financier who lived froni from 1671 to 0 1729 under the patronage of the doke uke of orleans regent of france he organized a project intended originally to liquidate the national debt of that country by developing under tin an exclusive clu sive grant the resources of the province of louisiana and the rom coin lineree of the I 1 mississippi then claimed ly by the french the scheme was launched in 1710 1716 with the establishment of a bank in 1737 tile the west indian company was organized with a capital of shares chares of COO livres each the company was at first successful and in 1719 2719 obtained exclusive control of the trade to the east indies china and the I 1 seas leali and all the possessions of the rench french I last east india company the holders elders of west india shares seemed likely all to profit tremendously an additional issue of shares was created arid and so wild was the speculative craze that more than 1 persons applied for them in consequence all of the shares rose to twenty times their original value and at the height of tile excitement in 1719 were nominally worth more than eighty times the amount of all the currency in france the company could not hope to make a satisfactory profit for those who had paid the preposterous prices which speculative demand had put upon the shares before a year was out the bubble burst and the shares sank to a tenth of thell face value the whole enterprise was thus discredited and the company was wound up while law was obliged to flee he died in poverty in venice so grout great were the losses which were in france rather than england that the collapse of the mississippi scheme nearly precipitated a revolution it Is usually regarded as the most disastrous speculation of modern times cleveland plain dealer |