30

c. 1720 Broadside Satirizing John Law Mississippi Company Land Scheme Bubble!

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:650.00 USD Estimated At:800.00 - 1,200.00 USD
c. 1720 Broadside Satirizing John Law Mississippi Company Land Scheme Bubble!
Colonial America
Satirizing John Law’s Mississippi Company Land Scheme
c. 1720 Colonial America, Dutch Broadside Satirizing John Law’s Mississippi Company Land Scheme, Extremely Fine.
c. 1720, Broadside measures about 11.5” x 15.75”. Written in Dutch, the title reads; “DE STROPENDE ACTIE-VALK, OM HALS, en 't BUBBLE-ROTJE onder de klaauwen van den UIL” in Dutch. Under the title a central, scathing Satirical Woodcut Engraved Vignette symbolically depicts the Land Scheme Investors in the form of one bird, being pierced by another bird, as an Owl and Hawk feed on a Dead Rat at lower right. Four nice margins on all sides with some text printed close to the right edge. Sharply printed on clean period laid paper. John Law gained the trust of the Duke of Orleans, and with this excellent connection was able to gain control of Louisiana. He developed an elaborate plan to exploit the resources of the region. The idea quickly gained popularity and people rushed to invest. Share prices opened at 500 livres and rapidly rose to 18,000 livres, then the-bubble-burst and the company went bankrupt. A Rare and very attractive historic satirical financial “Bubble” related Broadside, the first we have offered and has nice eye appeal for display.
Mississippi Bubble, a financial scheme in 18th-century France that triggered a speculative frenzy and ended in financial collapse. The scheme was engineered by John Law, a Scottish adventurer, economic theorist, and financial wizard who was a friend of the regent, the Duke d'Orléans.

The Mississippi Company (French: Compagnie du Mississippi; founded 1684, named the Company of the West from 1717, and the Company of the Indies from 1719) was a corporation holding a business monopoly in French colonies in North America and the West Indies. When land development and speculation in the region became frenzied and detached from economic reality, the Mississippi bubble became one of the earliest examples of an economic bubble.

Louis XIV's long reign and wars had nearly bankrupted the French monarchy. Rather than reduce spending, the Regency of Louis XV of France endorsed the monetary theories of Scottish financier John Law. In 1716, Law was given a charter for the Banque Royale under which the national debt was assigned to the bank in return for extraordinary privileges. The key to the Banque Royale agreement was that the national debt would be paid from revenues derived from opening the Mississippi Valley.

The Bank was tied to other ventures of Law—the Company of the West and the Companies of the Indies. All were known as the Mississippi Company. The Mississippi Company had a monopoly on trade and mineral wealth.

The Company boomed on paper. Law was given the title Duc d'Arkansas. Bernard de la Harpe and his party left New Orleans in 1719 to explore the Red River. In 1721, he explored the Arkansas River. At the Yazoo settlements in Mississippi he was joined by Jean Benjamin who became the scientist for the expedition.

In 1718, there were only 700 Europeans in Louisiana. The Mississippi Company arranged ships to move 800 more, who landed in Louisiana in 1718, doubling the European population. John Law encouraged Germans, particularly Germans of the Alsatian region who had recently fallen under French rule, and the Swiss to emigrate. They give their name to the regions of the Côte des Allemands and the Lac des Allemands in Louisiana.

Prisoners were set free in Paris in September 1719 onwards, under the condition that they marry prostitutes and go with them to Louisiana. The newly married couples were chained together and taken to the port of embarkation. In May 1720, after complaints from the Mississippi Company and the concessioners about this class of French immigrants, the French government prohibited such deportations. However, there was a third shipment of prisoners in 1721.

Law exaggerated the wealth of Louisiana with an effective marketing scheme, which led to wild speculation on the shares of the company in 1719. The scheme promised success for the Mississippi Company by combining investor fervor and the wealth of its Louisiana prospects into a sustainable, joint-stock, trading company. The popularity of company shares were such that they sparked a need for more paper bank notes, and when shares generated profits the investors were paid out in paper bank notes.

In 1720, the bank and company were merged and Law was appointed by Philippe II, Duke of Orleans, then Regent for Louis XV, to be Comptroller General of Finances to attract capital. Law's pioneering note-issuing bank thrived until the French government was forced to admit that the number of paper notes being issued by the Banque Royale exceeded the value of the amount of metal coinage it held.

The "bubble" burst at the end of 1720, when opponents of the financier attempted to convert their notes into specie en masse, forcing the bank to stop payment on its paper notes. By the end of 1720 Philippe d'Orléans had dismissed Law from his positions. Law then fled France for Brussels, eventually moving on to Venice, where he lived off his gambling. He was buried in the church San Moisè in Venice