LiveOffshore

MEN OF WEALTH
1941

John Flynn’s

THE BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN LAW

John Law, the goldsmith’s son, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in April, 1671. Having escaped from prison in London, where he was held after conviction of murder in his early twenties, he toured Europe, earning his living as a professional gambler, and then achieved the most amazing leap in history. He bounded in one immense flight from the gaming table to the highest office in France—a country of which he was not a citizen and from which, a few years before, he had been ejected by the minister of police because of his suspiciously consistent winnings. He had operated a gaming table in the house of a notorious actress and courtesan. And when he assumed the role of a financial dictator of France, he had the satisfaction of succeeding the very gentleman who as minister of police had invited him to clear out of Paris.