John Law of Lauriston / Financier and Statesman, Founder of the Bank of France, Originator of the Mississippi Scheme, Etc.

The biography follows an ambitious financier from his formative years through gambling-driven exile and sustained experiments in banking and public finance. It charts his efforts to remedy national indebtedness with proposals such as a land bank, the founding of a private bank that became a royal institution, and the creation and expansion of a trading company whose shares fueled a speculative mania. The account details the resulting economic boom and collapse, administrative conflicts, and personal ascendancy and downfall, while examining underlying financial theories, contemporary reactions, and archival sources to assess his methods and legacy.