John Law

John Law (1671–1729) was a Scottish financier whose theories reshaped French finances under the Regency. Born in Edinburgh, he killed a man in a duel in 1694, escaped a death sentence, and made his way as a gambler across Europe.

In 1716 the regent Philippe d'Orléans let him found a note-issuing bank, nationalized as the Banque royale in 1718. His Mississippi Company (1717), created to develop Louisiana, drove the speculation of the Mississippi Bubble. Made controller-general of finances in 1720, he fled France when it collapsed and died impoverished in Venice in 1729.