Letters to John Law

About this book

John Law, the swashbuckling Scottish murderer, gambler and financial genius was at the epicenter of the European financial crises of the 1720s. Forced to flee France after engineering the first ever stock market boom and bust—and unleashing the most significant economic turmoil Europe had ever seen—his unannounced arrival in Britain divided the country, triggering elation and optimism in some, and outrage and fear in others. Letters to John Law is a collection of three uncompromising early eighteenth-century propagandist pamphlets documenting the wildly contrasting reactions to Law’s return to Britain. Included in the collection are: (1) A Letter to Mr. Law Upon His Arrival in Great Britain (Eustace Budgell, 1721); (2) The Case of Mr. Law Truly Stated, (Daniel Defoe, 1721); and (3) A Second Letter to Mr. Law. (Anonymous, 1721). Crafted by the most prominent journalists, commentators and political agitators of the day, each provides an invaluable contemporaneous social, political and historical record of the most remarkable story in financial history.