John Law
John Law was a Scottish economist who believed that money was only a means of exchange that did not constitute wealth in itself and that national wealth depended on trade. He is said to be the "father of finance," responsible for the adoption or use of paper money or bills in the world today. In 1692, he moved to London where he became an infamous gambler and a Scottish exile for killing his neighbor in a duel. Sentenced to death, he escaped from prison and fled to Amsterdam, the capital of world finance at that time. He was a brilliant mental calculator and was known to win card games by mentally calculating the odds. An expert in statistics, he was the originator of several economic theories.
- Career Peak in the 1720s
- Was the controller-general of finances for France
- Founder and head of France's first central bank
- CEO of the Company of the Indies (Mississippi Company) - largest company in the world at the time (dwarfs modern companies)
- Key Events as France's Controller General
- Thought that high interest rates and a lack of money restricted economic growth
- Convinced the government to print money (and thereby lower interest rates)
- Printing resulted in economic and financial asset price boom
- Eventually resulted in price inflation and deflationary crash
- Law went bankrupt personally during the crash
- Price of Silver & Gold soared during the crash