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.

John Law (pronounced [lɑs] in French in the traditional approximation of Laws, the colloquial Scottish form of the name; 21 April 1671 – 21 March 1729) was a Scottish-French economist and financier. He rose to power in France where he created a novel financial scheme for French public finances known as Law's System (French: le système de Law) with two institutions at its core, John Law's Bank and John Law's Company (…

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Name (English)

John Law

Name (Japanese)

ジョン・ロー

Reading

じょん・ろー

Born

April 21, 1671 – March 21, 1729

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Taurus / Boar

Origin

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Blood type

Private

Height

Private

Agency

Private

Occupation

economist / financier / statistician / bretteur / finance minister

Elementary school

Private

Junior high

Private

High school

Private

University

Private

Spouse

Private

Children

Private

Parents

Private

Siblings

Private

Motto

Private

• 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

Tags

• economist
• financier
• statistician

Last updated

2026-06-02

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