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- Title
The Spirit of Speculation: John Law and Economic Theology in the Age of Lights.
- Authors
COLEMAN, CHARLY
- Abstract
This article traces the surprising influence of sacramental theology on the reception of John Law's campaign to reform public finances and colonial trade during the regency of Philippe d'Orléans (1715-23). Allusions to the mysteries of transubstantiation and transmutation abounded in the cultural productions of the period, which depicted Law's banknotes and company shares as giving rise to previously unfathomable riches. The essay argues that a Eucharistic-alchemical complex lent itself to describing these instruments and their myriad effects. Like the consecrated host and the philosopher's stone, paper's efficacy followed from its dual nature as both visible and transparent, that is, as a means of exchange that not only passively reflected wealth but also brought it into being. The spiritual desideratum of boundlessness underwrote participation in Law's "System," emboldening investors to place their faith in accumulation without limit.
- Subjects
FRANCE; RELIGION; ECONOMICS; LAW, John, 1671-1729; FRENCH economic policy; LORD'S Supper; ALCHEMY; MISSISSIPPI Bubble, 1720; ECONOMIC reform; REGENCY, France, 1715-1723; ORLEANS, Philippe, duc d', 1674-1723; REIGN of Louis XV, France, 1715-1774; FINANCIAL crises; SPECULATION
- Publication
French Historical Studies, 2019, Vol 42, Issue 2, p203
- ISSN
0016-1071
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1215/00161071-7300041