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

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The minds of the people, however, in 1700 were more disturbed by the feeling of financial insecurity that was gradually asserting itself. The air had been for some years laden with all kinds of fanciful schemes advanced by men who had the public ear, and who had succeeded in calling up visions of easily won wealth in the imaginations of a nation at that time, as now, characterised by caution and business prudence to the degree of frugality. Banks, colonisation schemes, and all sorts of extravagant and even ridiculous proposals followed close upon one another in one continuous stream, but almost invariably bringing ruin in their train. The most notable, as it was the most disastrous of these, was the Darien Scheme launched by William Paterson, founder of the Bank of England. Patronised by all the nobility and people of money as well as by numerous public bodies, and possessing all the superficial elements of success, it produced a fever of financial excitement and a mad race for the acquisition of holdings in its capital. Its collapse caused widespread disaster, and was in reality a national calamity, entirely destroying that confidence essential to industrial and commercial stability.