Working Paper
Government equity and money: John Law’s system in 1720 France
Abstract: John Law?s System was a radical restructuring of French public finances, carried out from 1716 to 1720. It involved on the one hand a conversion of the existing French public debt into something like government equity, on the other hand the replacement of commodity money with fiat money. For strategic reasons, Law supported the equity at too high a level, resulting in uncontrolled money creation. The System ended with the recreation of a public debt at, surprisingly, the same level as before.
Access Documents
File(s): File format is application/pdf http://www.chicagofed.org/digital_assets/publications/working_papers/2003/wp2003-31.pdf
Authors
Bibliographic Information
Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Part of Series: Working Paper Series
Publication Date: 2003
Number: WP-03-31