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The Politics of Utopia: A New History of John Law's System, 1695-1795

Online ISBN:
9780226825366
Print ISBN:
9780226825359
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press
Book

The Politics of Utopia: A New History of John Law's System, 1695-1795

Arnaud Orain
Arnaud Orain

Directeur d'études

École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)
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Published online:
23 January 2025
Published in print:
31 July 2024
Online ISBN:
9780226825366
Print ISBN:
9780226825359
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press

Abstract

Louis XIV left the Kingdom of France in a desperate economic situation when he died in 1715 in Versailles. His great grandson was too young to rule and power fell to the Duke Philippe d’Orléans. Under his regency, what contemporaries called the “System” was gradually put in place: the first Bank of France, paper money and a joint-stock trading company. Until now, it was thought that the “System” was a simple monetary and financial experiment that ended in the failure of banknotes and a speculative bubble. It was seen as a historical accident caused by a lonely and misunderstood genius, the Scotsman John Law (1671-1729). In a comprehensive rereading of this famous episode of European history, this book reveals, on the contrary, the incredible ambition of the “System” of 1717-1720, its determination to establish a total control of economic activity by the state apparatus. At the crossroads of utopias and colonial dreams developed since the end of the 17th century, thanks to intense propaganda that turned the “System” into a marvelous tale, this great economic Leviathan was to completely modify the social organization of the kingdom and respond to the disturbing rise of economic liberalism. The great merchants, the Church and the dominant classes (bourgeois and magistrates) rose up to destroy this experiment, which seemed to overturn traditional hierarchies, promote equality and transform France into a republican regime. The revolutionary impact of the “System” nevertheless carried through the Enlightenment to the great storm of 1789.

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