John Law, a Scotsman, occupied in France, 1715–1720, a succession of fiscal offices leading to that of controller-general of state finances. Through them he applied the tenets of his “System,” with extraordinary success at the outset but ending in the unmitigated disaster called the “Mississippi bubble.” The “System” provided for a vast increase in credit through the issuance by a state bank of paper currency redeemable at a fixed value and acceptable in payment of taxes. In the resulting expansion of industry and trade, a state company was created and given a monopoly in the handling of trade and banking in and with France’s foreign possessions. When the state bank, the mint, and the company were brought under unified control, shares were offered to an eager public, were wildly oversubscribed, and brought sensational profits to the holders. Failure of the “System” came only when the speculators and investors, seeking to convert their new paper fortunes into specie, forced the bank to suspend cash payments. Panic and all but universal bankruptcy marked the end ( DNB ).