Douglas Watt John Law and the Mississippi Bubble

February 22, 2017

Law was a financial innovator, monetary theorist, gambler and art collector, as well as being described as ‘one of the greatest promoters of despotism ever seen in Europe.’

The son of an Edinburgh goldsmith, he became Comptroller General of France in 1720. But the bursting of the Mississippi Bubble, which Law’s ‘System’ had inflated, ended his political career.

Douglas Watt is a writer and historian with a particular interest in financial bubbles. He is the author of The Price of Scotland, a financial study of Scotland’s ill-fated Darien Venture.

Recent lectures

Patrick Schotanus – The Market Mind Hypothesis

We are very proud to support the Market Mind Hypothesis and its proponent Dr Patrick Schotanus — a project going from strength to strength, attracting ...
View Lecture

Charles Williams and Andrew Speirs – The Iceland Banking Saga – Fixing The Calamity

On 2 November we hosted another event about the Iceland Banking Saga. In October 2008, Iceland's three major banks went bankrupt after a decade of rapid ...
View Lecture

Rachel O’Dwyer – Tokens

We were delighted to welcome Rachel O'Dwyer, author of Tokens to the Library of Mistakes. We’ve all heard how traditional money is being replaced by ...
View Lecture
The Library of Mistakes Course

Advanced Valuation in Financial Markets

The online version of our renowned course, is available for both finance professionals and nonprofessionals.

As featured in the Financial Times

In conjunction with Heriot-Watt University

twoguys
Scroll to Top