John Law (economist) - Books

Books

• John Law: Economic Theorist and Policy-Maker by Antoin E. Murphy (Oxford University Press, 1997) is the most extensive account of Law's writings. It is given credit for completing the transformation of opinion about Law from a con man (see Mackay below) to an important economic theorist and successful financial leader.
• Letters to John Law by Gavin John Adams (Newton Page, 2012) is a collection of early eighteenth-century political propagandist pamphlets documenting the hysteria surrounding John Law's return to Britain after the collapse of his Mississippi Scheme and expulsion from France. It also contains a very useful chronology and extensive biographical introduction to John Law and the Mississippi Scheme (ISBN 9781934619087).
• Millionaire: The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist Who Invented Modern Finance by Janet Gleeson (2000). (ISBN 0-684-87295-1) is a straightforward biography.
• The Poker Face of Wall Street by Aaron Brown (John Wiley & Sons, 2006) credits Law for the inspiration of the modern futures exchange and also the game of Poker.
• John Law – The History of an Honest Adventurer by H. Montgomery Hyde (W. H. Allen, 1969) is one of the earliest favorable accounts of Law's ideas.
• John Law, the father of paper money by Robert Minton (Association Press, 1975) treats Law's financial innovations that led to modern paper money.
• Crime, Cash, Credit and Chaos by Colin McCall (Solcol, 2007) examines the events and circumstances that became Law's dramatic and tragic life.
• Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay, published 1841, contains a colorful negative account of Law's financial activities in France. Available as a reprint and online, including as a free Kindle text.
• The Gamester by Rafael Sabatini (Houghton Mifflin Company Boston, 1949) is a sympathetic fictionalized account of Law's career as financial adviser to the Duke of Orléans, Regent under Louis XV.