shares of the company in 1719. The scheme promised success for the Mississippi Company by combining investor fervor and the wealth of its Louisiana prospects into a sustainable joint-stock trading company. The popularity of company shares was such that they sparked a need for more paper bank notes, and when shares generated profits the investors were paid out in paper bank notes. In 1720, the bank and company were merged and Law was appointed by Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, then Regent for Louis XV, to be Comptroller General of Finances to attract capital. Downfall Law's pioneering note-issuing bank thrived until the French government was forced to admit that the number of paper notes being issued by the Banque Royale exceeded the value of the amount of metal coinage it held. The market price of company shares eventually reached the peak of 10,000 livres. As the shareholders were selling their shares, the money supply in France suddenly doubled, and inflation took off. Inflation reached a monthly rate of 23 percent in January 1720. Opponents of the financier attempted to convert their notes into specie (gold and silver) en masse, forcing the bank to stop payment on its paper notes. The "bubble" burst at the end of 1720. By September 1720 the price of shares in the company had fallen to 2,000 livres and to 1,000 by December. By September 1721 share prices had dropped to 500 livres, where they had been at the beginning. By the end of 1720 Philippe d'Orléans had dismissed Law from his positions. Law then fled France for Brussels, eventually moving on to Venice, where he lived off his gambling. He was buried in the church San Moisè in Venice. See also Richard Cantillon – banker who made an early profit from the company South Sea Bubble List of trading companies European chartered companies founded around the 17th century (in French) References Further reading Pollard, S. "John Law and the Mississippi Bubble." History Today (September 1953) 3#9 pp. 622–630. External links "Learning from past investment manias" (AME Info FN). New France Louisiana (New France) Chartered companies Trading companies of France Companies established in 1684 1684 establishments in France 1684 establishments in New France 1770 disestablishments in France 1770 disestablishments in New France Defunct companies of France 18th-century economic history Former central banks Economic bubbles 18th century in New Orleans Pre-statehood history of Louisiana Stock market crashes