John Law

John Law, the Scottish-French economist who lived from 1671 to 1729, is one of history's most instructive cautionary tales. He talked his way to the top of French finance and built Law's System around his bank and his company, an early experiment in paper money to revive a struggling economy. Then the Mississippi bubble inflated and burst spectacularly, one of the first great financial crashes the world had seen. What gets me every time is that a textbook figure was, at heart, such a gambler. He embodies the light and the shadow of financial innovation in a single life. Brilliant, reckless, and unforgettable.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

John Law

Name (Japanese)

ジョン・ロー

Reading

じょん・ろー

Born

April 21, 1671 – March 21, 1729

Origin

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Occupation

economist / financier / statistician / bretteur / finance minister

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Taurus / Boar

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%20Law%20(economist)
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q312694

Tags

• economist
• financier
• statistician

Last updated

September 18, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.