| |
|
|
The public enthusiasm, which had been so long rising, could not
resist a vision so splendid. At least three hundred thousand
applications were made for the fifty thousand new shares, and Law's
house in the Rue de Quincampoix was beset from morning to night by the
eager applicants. As it was impossible to satisfy them all, it was
several weeks before a list of the fortunate new stockholders could be
made out, during which time the public impatience rose to a pitch of
frenzy. Dukes, marquises, counts, with their duchesses, marchionesses,
and countesses, waited in the streets for hours every day before Mr.
Law's door to know the result.
|
At last, to avoid the jostling of the plebeian crowd, which, to the number of thousands, filled the whole thoroughfare, they took apartments in the adjoining houses, that they might be continually near the temple whence the new Plutus was diffusing wealth.
Every day the value of the old shares increased, and the fresh applications, induced by the golden dreams of the whole nation, became so numerous that it was deemed advisable to create no less than three hundred thousand new shares, at five thousand livres each, in order that the Regent might take advantage of the popular enthusiasm to pay off the national debt. For this purpose, the sum of fifteen hundred millions of livres was necessary. Such was the eagerness of the nation, that thrice the sum would have been subscribed if the government had authorised it.
Law was now at the zenith of his prosperity, and the people were
rapidly approaching the zenith of their infatuation. The highest and
the lowest classes were alike filled with a vision of boundless
wealth. There was not a person of note among the aristocracy, with the
exception of the Duke of St. Simon and Marshal Villars, who was not
engaged in buying or selling stock. People of every age and sex, and
condition in life, speculated in the rise and fall of the Mississippi
bonds. The Rue de Quincampoix was the grand resort of the jobbers, and
it being a narrow, inconvenient street, accidents continually occurred
in it, from the tremendous pressure of the crowd. Houses in it, worth,
in ordinary times, a thousand livres of yearly rent, yielded as much
as twelve or sixteen thousand. A cobbler, who had a stall in it,
gained about two hundred livres a day by letting it out, and
furnishing writing materials to brokers and their clients. The story
goes, that a hump-backed man who stood in the street gained
considerable sums by lending his hump as a writing-desk to the eager
speculators! The great concourse of persons who assembled to do
business brought a still greater concourse of spectators. These again
drew all the thieves and immoral characters of Paris to the spot, and
constant riots and disturbances took place. At nightfall, it was often
found necessary to send a troop of soldiers to clear the street.
Law, finding the inconvenience of his residence, removed to the
Place Vendome, whither the crowd of agioteurs followed him. That
spacious square soon became as thronged as the Rue de Quincampoix :
from morning to night it presented the appearance of a fair. Booths
and tents were erected for the transaction of business and the sale of
refreshments, and gamblers with their roulette tables stationed
themselves in the very middle of the place, and reaped a golden, or
rather a paper, harvest from the throng. The Boulevards and public
gardens were forsaken; parties of pleasure took their walks in
preference in the Place Vendome, which became the fashionable lounge
of the idle, as well as the general rendezvous of the busy.
|
The noise was so great all day, that the Chancellor, whose court was situated in the square, complained to the Regent and the municipality, that he could not hear the advocates. Law, when applied to, expressed his willingness to aid in the removal of the nuisance, and for this purpose entered into a treaty with the Prince de Carignan for the Hotel de Soissons, which had a garden of several acres in the rear.
A bargain was concluded, by which Law became the purchaser of the hotel, at an enormous price, the Prince reserving to himself the magnificent gardens as a new source of profit. |
|
|
They contained some fine statues and several fountains, and were altogether laid out with much taste. As soon as Law was installed in his new abode, an edict was published, forbidding all persons to buy or sell stock anywhere but in the gardens of the Hotel de Soissons.
In the midst among the trees, about five hundred small tents and pavilions were erected, for the convenience of the stock-jobbers. Their various colours, the gay ribands and banners which floated from them, the busy crowds which passed continually in and out--the incessant hum of voices, the noise, the music, and the strange mixture of business and pleasure on the countenances of the throng, all combined to give the place an air of enchantment that quite enraptured the Parisians. The Prince de Carignan made enormous profits while the delusion lasted. Each tent was let at the rate of five hundred livres a month; and, as there were at least five hundred of them, his onthly revenue from this source alone must have amounted to 250,000 livres, or upwards of 10,000
pounds sterling.
Information, charts or examples contained in this lesson are for illustration and educational purposes only. It should not be considered as advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security or financial instrument. We do not and cannot offer investment advice. For further information please read our .
|
