Imprint
- MacLehose Press
- MacLehose Press
Scotland, Biography: general, Prose: non-fiction, European history, Finance, Banking
The mesmerising story of the eighteenth-century financier of genius who rose from humble Scottish origins to control of the purse-strings of the most powerful nation in Europe
At the summit of his power, John Law was the most famous man in Europe.
Born in Scotland in 1671, he was convicted of murder in London and, after his escape from prison, fled Scotland for the mainland when Union with England brought with it a warrant for his arrest.
On the continent he lurched from one money-making scheme to the next - selling insurance against losing lottery tickets in Holland, advising the Duke of Savoy - amassing a fortune of some 80,000.
But for his next trick he had grander ambitions. When Louis XIV died, leaving a thoroughly bankrupt France to his five-year-old heir, Law gained the ear of the Regent, Philippe D'Orleans. In the years that followed, Law's financial wizardry transformed the fortunes of France, enriching speculators and investors across the continent, and he was made Controller-General of Finances, effectively becoming the French Prime Minister.
But the fall from grace that was to follow was every bit as spectacular as his meteoric rise.
John Law, by a biographer of Adam Smith and the author of Frozen Desire and Capital of the Mind, dramatises the life of one of the most inventive financiers in history, a man who was born before his time and in whose day the word millionaire came to be coined.
Praise for John Law: A Scottish Adventurer of the Eighteenth Century
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An utterly compelling and captivating work . . . he brings a natural storyteller's relish to his subject - Guardian, on The Capital of the Mind.
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Mr Buchan has a clear writing style, a light touch and a irreverent sense of humour . . . he makes difficult subjects accessible and, sometimes, poetic. - Economist.
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In Mr. Buchan's able hands, Smith and his words come across as they should, in all their lucidity and elegance. - New York Times, on Adam Smith: and the Pursuit of Perfect Liberty.
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James Buchan's elegant prose sparkles on the page. - New Statesman.
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One of our finest writers. - The Times.
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I don't believe this country has a better writer to offer than James Buchan. - London Review of Books.
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Each book he writes is a discovery. - Guardian.
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A wonderful portrait of Law's Paris and Europe, of the Regent and the Jacobites. I loved it and could hardly put it down.
James Buchan
James Buchan first visited Iran nearly forty years ago. A student of Persian and Arabic, he was for many years a correspondent of the Financial Times in the Middle East, and later in central Europe and the US. He has written more than a dozen works of fiction and history including a portrait of Edinburgh in the eighteenth century (Capital of the Mind), a biography of the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith (Adam Smith and the Pursuit of Perfect Liberty) and a philosophy of money (Frozen Desire). His most recent book is Days of God: The Revolution in Iran and its Consequences. He works a small farm in Norfolk.
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