John Law: Economic Theorist and Policy-maker

Abstract

Abstract Despite his popular reputation as a rake and a gambler, John Law (1671–1729) left a remarkable legacy of economic concepts at a time when economic conceptualization was very much at an embryonic stage. His vision of a monetary and financial system was more of the twenty‐first rather than the eighteenth century. Law believed in an economy of banknotes and credit where specie had no role to play. He was the first economic writer to use concepts such as demand and supply, the demand for and supply of money, the money‐in‐advance requirement, the circular flow of income, and the law of one price. Law was able to implement his economic theory in the form of economic policy during the Mississippi System that he created. This produced Europe's first stock market boom and crash. The collapse of the Mississippi System and closely afterwards the crash of the South Sea Bubble led to a lasting impression of Law as a failure. This book seeks to dispel this view.

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