Millionaire: The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist Who Invented Modern Finance [Paperback]

Janet Gleeson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 10, 2001

In the wake of Louis XIV's death, France's government teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Enter the reformer in the unlikely guise of John Law -- a supremely charming and attractive Scot whose brilliant financial mind had thus far served only to make himself rich at the gaming tables.

In one of the great image makeovers of all time, John Law recharged a devastated French economy, making him one of the most successful men in Europe. When Law founded a New World trading company, the synergistic combination of faith in his ideas and wild reports of the riches to be made in France's vast holdings in America sent the price of its shares through the roof. Investors drunk on dreams of instant wealth gave birth to the first boom-and-bust cycle -- one that created such vast wealth for shareholders that a new term was coined to describe them...millionaires.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Given our modern-day obsession with stock speculation, our frenzied sprint toward pre-IPO investment, and our fascination with the creation of overnight wealth, Janet Gleeson's Millionaire is timely, to say the least. The story of John Law's life and legacy is nothing short of incredible, breath-catching drama.

Born into a Scottish family of Church clerics and goldsmiths in 1671, John Law grew up to exude little of the moral and much of the monetary influence in his blood. When, as a 23-year-old gambler and philandering playboy on the London scene, he killed a nobleman in a duel, he was thrown into prison and sentenced to death. After pursing legal channels of appeal and getting nowhere, he eventually escaped and began the life of a gambler-cum-aristocrat in exile. His uncanny knack at the card tables and renowned success with women earned him a dubious reputation within late seventeenth-century European social circles. But his equally outstanding mathematical skills and fascination with the mechanisms of credit also brought him to the attention of political leaders. After attempting to peddle his revolutionary scheme for creating a national bank that issued paper currency to officials in London, Scotland, Vienna, Turin, and elsewhere, Law finally convinced the war-impoverished French government to back his plan. The bank's success and the events that followed--Law's introduction of the "Mississippi scheme," a wild exercise in capital procurement and share offering that spawned the greatest bull market in history and its drastic crash--make this book fascinating reading for anyone playing the markets today.

Gleeson writes with clarity and style on topics that are notoriously complex and potentially dry. Without dumbing down her subject matter, she elucidates the finer points of credit-based financial systems and stock markets in readable English, welcoming both finance aficionados and illiterates to Law's tale. In that regard, the book is similar to Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman, and though ostensibly a record of the rise and fall of one of the world's most infamous--and ultimately influential--financiers, it is a story of murder, lust, politics, wealth, and poverty and far more intriguing than most fare in its often prosaic category. Indeed, this book will leap off your business bookshelf faster than you can ask who wants to be a millionaire. --S. Ketchum --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Gleeson's riveting biography of Law shows that market speculation was not invented with the advent of Internet startups, but has a history that goes at least as far back as the beginning of the 1700s, when Law's financial innovations made ordinary citizens rich beyond their wildest dreams. Born in Scotland, Law parlayed his talent for gambling into a substantial fortune that earned him entrance to the most prestigious courts of the early 18th century. With help from his friends in high places, he escaped from an English jail, where he had been sentenced to death for killing a man in a duel, and worked his way to France. Upon his arrival in Paris, Law met the nephew of King Louis XIV, Philippe, duc d'Orleans, who soon would assume the throne following the death of his uncle. As regent, d'Orleans was faced with a nearly bankrupt country and was eventually persuaded by Law to endorse a system of paper currency. With the regent's blessing, Law established the first French bank, and created the Mississippi Company, a conglomerate that held the trading rights to France's Louisiana territory and in which Law sold shares to the public. At first the bank, and especially the Mississippi Company, performed spectacularly; the boom it fueled made millionaires out of thousands of FrenchmenAand Law a hero. But the overheated economy, which became known as the Mississippi Bubble, soon imploded, driving Law out of France and the country back to the gold standard. With its deft evocation of 18th-century culture and its lucid description of monetary principles, Gleeson's absorbing biography is the perfect summer read for dot.com tycoons and those who aspire to be.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (July 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068487296X
• ISBN-13: 978-0684872964
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,224,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars They didn't have Alan Greenspan..., July 5, 2000

By 

taking a rest - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Millionaire : The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist Who Invented Modern Finance (Hardcover)

And even if they had, you still cannot protect people from themselves.

This is one great piece of work about a major player in World Financial History that I knew little about. This book can easily sit atop; your reading list for Biography, History, and Finance. And some tangential subjects of probabilities, sociology, and Human Nature that is nothing if not consistent.

Ms. Gleeson brings a man to readers who was the original Great White Shark of the financial world. In addition, John Law has got to be one of the 18th Century's greatest personal stories. He was at once the Bill Gates of his time for his wealth, and for his uncanny "luck", a variety of more notorious Wall Street names of recent years. Were he alive today, his final days probably would have been spent in a minimum security Federal Prison, after paying billions in fines.

When reading the book I was reminded of Warren Buffet when speaking about Airlines, that if you took the bottom line for the industries entire existence it would equal zero. He then went on to state that if there had been a Capitalist at Kittyhawk when Mr. Wright left the ground, he hoped he would have shot the pilot.

The book also is very appropriate for the Financial Markets we now are living with. More people in the United States own securities in one form or another than at any other time in our Nation's History. On-line investing, the extreme sport of day trading, all are more expedient ways for the typical investor to become Wall Street Road Kill. There has been discussion about raising the minimum that a person must have in their account to $25,000 prior to be able to use margin loans. At first blush this appears to be an outrageous intrusion on a person's right to make his or her own decisions, for better or for worse. In the end it is another attempt to do what is impossible, and what this book so beautifully shows, that when it comes to money, quick money, it's once burned twice burned, yet again.

John Law's story is spectacular, he had a brilliant mind for numbers, and at least as important, for Human Nature. He at times made his living as a gambler, and when at his height, he could implicitly threaten a given Country with his ability to ruin their economy. It was not a hollow threat; the King Of England for one did not pick up the gauntlet once it had been thrown down.

Readers of all types will like this book, students of Finances, History, Biography, basic gaming theory, or just for pure reading pleasure, this work by the Lady who brought us "The Arcanum" will disappoint no one.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Before All The Yahoo!, July 30, 2000

By 

"goldcoastreviews" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Millionaire : The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist Who Invented Modern Finance (Hardcover)

Janet Gleason has delivered a sensual book about money. And what better mix is there than that? I'll buy a block of Yahoo on a dip and dip into a private office for some fun. Seriously, "Millionaire: The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist Who Invented Modern Finance" is a suberb glimpse into the life of John Law. A man from the 17th Century with a head for math, cards, women, and danger.

This is an entertaining read of a usually dry topic. I had never heard of the infamous "Mississippi Bubble". A land investment scheme regarding development for the French territories. Making the run of the Bulls in Pamplona a snap compared to the Bull Market & crash Law helped create.

A fun business book--Gordon Grecko would be proud.

Thanks for your interest & comments--CDS

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Money Primer, July 7, 2000

By 

GoodKarma (Houston, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Millionaire : The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist Who Invented Modern Finance (Hardcover)

Considering Wall Street is all the rage at the moment this book provides a great primer for how it all began. Millionaire clearly points out our monetary system is all based on confidence with little underpinnings of true value; it is simply about people. Four stars for the NOVEL writing style of a historical fact.