Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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

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.

I had been wondering when someone would give us a biograph of Law. After all it is rare in the world that an individual who cut such an outrageous swath through life should have been of some actual significance. Casanova, Nell Gwyn, and Butch Cassidy all cut outrageous swaths, but the world was not altered by their having lived. Law, on the other hand, was the father of the South Sea Bubble, a financial manipulation that affected financial policy in several nations for a century or more. Why only four stars? I like my history straight. Well written, even witty, if possible, but hold the fictionalization. We cannot know, after all, what anyone thought or, usually, what they said. I do like a good story well told, and I like well-told stories about money especially well. For my money, the best such story this season is the unheralded Bullough's Pond. Lots of money, good writing, no fictionalizing.

Based on this biography of John Law, the real character of the man remains somewhat murky. While this book tells us a lot about the effects he created on the lives of others, what other people had to say about him, and what his environment was like, we get a limited sense of the man himself. Little is recorded of his writing or conversations in this book. In this sense, he reminds me a little of Howard Hughes who also had many visionary elements (in developing technology), spectacular failures (the Spruce Goose), and preferences for beautiful women (especially movie actresses).

What is most clear is that John Law made both his successes and his failures through his persuasiveness (he sought the ear of powerful people, not the other way around) and his personality faults (he was clearly reckless in many ways -- killing a man in a duel, pushing the implementation of his financial schemes too aggressively, and being very friendly with married ladies). The book seems to gloss over what it says about John Law that his administration as finance minister in France was almost deliberately harmful in some cases (sending people by force to Louisiana after it was known that a high percentage of the people sent there died of disease, publishing glowing reports based on no shred of reality about Louisiana to encourage investments, and going along with printing vastly too much paper currency knowing that this would backfire).

For a man who came from a Scottish family of clerics, he was amazingly immoral. The ideas he advanced about paper money were pretty simply based on the earlier successful development of such bank-based currency in England. The Mississippi Company scheme was not too much different from an earlier one that had almost bankrupted Scotland involving Panama.

Although much is made in the book about him learning the laws of statistics so he could make the odds run in his favor, he clearly took outlandish risks throughout his life. Outside of card games, he seemed to ignore statistics.

I see the man through this book more as sinner than saint. Clearly, his concepts would have eventually been used in France. Perhaps pushed by a more responsible person, these concepts would have worked and France would have had better economic development in the 18th century. Perhaps visionary con man is the right appellation. You'll have to read the book and decide for yourself.

Clearly, he got his just deserts because he died penniless in terms of cash, and hounded by his enemies.

Overcome your misconception that every pioneer is a great woman or man by learning about John Law. Sometimes, they were just one of the first. When the history of the early Internet age is written in a few years, who will be our John Law? Think about it! Your answer may save (or even make) you a fortune!

It's hard to believe that no one thought to write this book before. John Law stands at the intersection of 17th-century finance, mathematics, and politics in Great Britain, and this biography of him (broadly construed) sheds light on all three. Gleeson does an amazing job of using often scanty source materials to shine a light on previously little-known elements of Law's career: we all know him as a smooth-talking financier, but most readers will be surprised by some of the anecdotes Gleeson gives us from Law's prison days (including the fact that he eventually escaped, which was news to me).

I recommend this book without hesitation. The subject is fascinating, the research is exhaustive, and the writing is superb. My only caveat, and it is a minor one, is that Law was assisted by an almost equally colorful cast of minor players, some of whom get short shrift here. But that is a reason to read more widely on the subject, and the best place to start is this book.

This is a neat short biography of the man who is generally credited with the establishment of the French fiduciary system as we know it today on which all financial activity rests: paper money.
Now, Mr. Law was a serious player: great intelligence, great flair, solid acumen, and sharp sense of business and opportunity.
Law was endowed with a brilliant intellect and curious nature but he was not exactly a book worm. Far from this. Our man put the "grr" in swinger long before Austin Powers did.
Although Scottish, Law was not exactly known for his thrifty nature and avarice. Quite the opposite: he loved gambling, women, partying, his collars extra starched, and he took no crap from no one. Words like profligate or debauched were oftenly used in connection with mentioning his name (sometimes a bit admiratively, I might add).
A duel in which he killed one of the rich dandies of the time and apparently a rival, dramatically changed the course of Law's life; he fled to France where due to his pleasant appearance, wit, and fancy moves, he befriended people in high places ending with the king himself. The rest is history.

Law also has the dubious honor of having caused one of the first manias known to investors: Louisiana territory bubble as embodied in the Mississippi Company, a contemporary and rival to the British South Sea Company but with equally disastrous outcome for its investors. However, in his capacity of CEO, and with no insider deal legislation, Law amassed a fortune, gave meaning for the fist time to the word "millionaire", and as a side matter, made a lot of enemies in the process.

This book makes a thoroughly enjoyable reading. Law was by all accounts a remarkable person and his life and deeds are skillfully presented.
The author did a great job at researching the topic and makes extensive use of the writings of the day documenting the exploits of Mr. Law. If you enjoy adventure, a little bit of economic history, and colorful archaic language you will certainly like this text.

The moral: Law was good with theory but not even he knew that what goes up must eventually come down. Greed took the better of him. Vanity he already possessed in copious amounts, no issue there. Francis Galton enuntiated this about 200 years later in his famous and still valid "reversal to the mean" theory. I guess Law had to learn that one the hard way.

John Law was a middle-class Scotsman and fugitive from English justice who became the world's first "millionaire" and, in 1716, gave France the world's first national bank and paper money system. Law, with the cooperation of the Regent Duc d'Orleans, ushered France from oppressive debt to glorious wealth and introduced the world to the ideas of stock options, futures, conglomerate corporations, marketing, and an all-paper monetary system before his system crashed under the pressures of bad judgment, bad circumstances, and his enemies. Ironically, although John Law's ideas are as relevant today as they were 280 years ago, if not moreso, Law has been largely ignored in the 20th century by everyone except economic historians. To remedy this, Janet Gleeson has written a very readable biography of this economic visionary who did, indeed, invent modern finance, and who created the demand for transparency in banking matters and the concept of economic opportunity and upward mobility for all that we take for granted today. Because "Millionaire" is intended for the general reader, the author has simplified the details of Law's systems and kept numbers to a minimum, so you needn't be put off by the math. Far from tedious, John Law's story, his ideas about money, and his experience are as fascinating and revealing today as they were when he lived. John Law's life and legacy were no less than a quest to understand the ever-elusive nature of money, itself. His story has all the ingredients of a wildly entertaining novel... and all the lessons of a life that saw great accomplishment and equally great failure: politics, human nature, love, sex, violence, art, luck, greed and philanthropy, poverty and wealth, genius and stupidity, success and failure, and, most of all, Money, the currency of all those things. "Millionaire" is recommended reading for anyone living and investing an industrial economy.

Well written and entertaining, which is impressive given the topic. The topic of money, banking, markets, and financial institutions is often dry. Gleeson has, with the considerable help of a fascinating personality in J.Law, written a biography that reads like a novel.

More than just the history of one man, who had a considerable impact on the economy of the times, this book explains how money is created by banks; and how speculation in financial markets can lead to wealth, excesses, and possibly ruin. "He who does not learn from the past must repeat it," and there is much to learn from the tale of J. Law. Fortunately, as presented here, the learning is easy, since it comes liberally mixed in a tale of hedonistic excess, extramarital liason, political intrigue, genius and fraud. Better than a night at the movies.

When this comes out in paper, I will make it required reading for my University course in Money, Markets and Institutions.

I had been wondering when someone would give us a biograph of Law. After all it is rare in the world that an individual who cut such an outrageous swath through life should have been of some actual significance. Casanova, Nell Gwyn, and Butch Cassidy all cut outrageous swaths, but the world was not altered by their having lived. Law, on the other hand, was the father of the South Sea Bubble, a financial manipulation that affected financial policy in several nations for a century or more. Why only four stars? I like my history straight. Well written, even witty, if possible, but hold the fictionalization. We cannot know, after all, what anyone thought or, usually, what they said. I do like a good story well told, and I like well-told stories about money especially well. For my money, the best such story this season is the unheralded Bullough's Pond. Lots of money, good writing, no fictionalizing.