Capitalists & Financiers - Biography, General & Miscellaneous French History, Economists
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Overview
John Law (1671-1729) is most widely known outside economics as a rake, duellist and gambler. This intellectual biography of the Scottish-born economic theorist and policy-maker shows him to have been a significant economic theorist when economic conceptualization was very much at an embryonic stage. It also explains his ultimate failure.
Editorials
Booknews
Murphy (economics, U. of Dublin) says that though Law (1671-1729) is best remembered as a rake, duelist, and gambler, he also left a remarkable legacy of economic concepts from a period when the field was in an embryonic stage. He points out Law's modern terminology and his advocacy of banknotes and credit, and sets his ideas in the context of Europe's first stock market boom and bust, the failure of the Mississippi System he conceived, and the South Sea Bubble. Law's impotence as a policy maker Murphy attributes to the entrenched interests of financiers and their aristocratic backers as well as to theoretical flaws in his vision. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.Book Details
Published
June 20, 1997
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Pages
408
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780198286493