Shares and notes rise together

Late this year, Mississippi shares and Banque Royale notes inflate together. The bust is 1720, not this page.

Portrait of John Law. The Banque Générale is 1716. The collapse is 1720. This is not a picture of the bust.Public domain.

In 1719 the company’s privileges are still widening, and debt conversion is pulling rentiers into shares. Peak mania sits in late 1719 and early 1720. Prices that multiplied then had to find new buyers.

The break — share crash, strained convertibility, flight into metal — is 1720. This page stops at the rise. It is not the assignats, and it is not Germany in 1923.

John Law and the Mississippi Bubble →