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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For a considerable time Law remained away from Paris, visiting the principal cities of Italy, Hungary, and Germany, and in all leaving behind him the reputation of being one of the most remarkable men of his age. He became a frequent and well-known visitor at all the gambling resorts on the Continent. His progress from city to city resembled the progress of a royal court, and rumour preceded him to herald his coming. He was no common gambler. He was an accomplished man of the world, exquisitely courteous, and with interests that rose above the sordid pursuits from which he derived his pecuniary prosperity. His political instincts were always allowed free play, and by close observation he acquired the amplest knowledge of the industrial and economic conditions of the various countries he visited.

Law was now becoming anxious to secure an opportunity of putting into practice the schemes he had mentally constructed for the improvement of trade and commerce. The more he observed the prevailing unhealthiness of industry, and the more he satisfied himself as to the apparent causes of industrial depression, the more did he feel that his scheme was the only royal remedy. He accordingly returned to Paris shortly before the close of the reign of Louis XIV., purposing to gain the support of that monarch for the adoption of his system in France. Chamillard did not now occupy the office of Comptroller-General, but Law through the influence of the Abbé Thesul was received by Desmarets his successor, who not only discussed in thorough detail the scheme laid before him by Law for the rehabilitation of the financial condition of the country, but became so enamoured of it that he decided upon submitting it to the King himself. Louis XIV., however, was not a man of large mental horizon. His decisions were often the outcome of the impulse of the moment. Frequently they were determined by religious bias, even where religious scruples were wholly foreign to the matter under consideration. Law’s proposal seems to have been placed under the latter category by Louis XIV. Report has it that the bigoted monarch was more anxious to learn the faith to which the Scotsman belonged than to know the merits of his scheme, and that on being informed Law was not a Catholic, he brushed aside the matter and refused to accept his services.