Law (of Lauriston), John 1671-1729
Scottish financier

He was born in Edinburgh, the son of a goldsmith and banker, and educated at the Royal High School there. He became a successful gambler and speculator and went to London to make his fortune, but in 1694 was imprisoned for killing a man in a duel over a lady. In 1695 he escaped and fled to the Continent. He visited Amsterdam, Genoa (where he eloped with a Frenchman's wife) and Venice, making money as he went, and in 1703 returned to Edinburgh, a zealous advocate of a paper currency; but his proposals to the Scottish parliament on this subject, outlined in his Money and Trade Considered (1705), were unfavourably received. In Paris he and his brother William (1675-1752) set up in 1716 a private bank, the Banque G�n�rale. Its success was so great that the regent, Philippe, Duc d'Orl�ans, adopted Law's plan of a national bank in 1718. In 1719 Law originated a joint-stock company, the Compagnie d'Occident, to fund the 'Mississippi scheme' for reclaiming and settling lands in the Mississippi valley, which made him a paper millionaire. He became a French citizen and a Roman Catholic, and in 1720 was made Comptroller-General of Finance for France. However the scheme collapsed that year due to over-issue of stock and Law fled; he died in poverty in Venice.