tility of this new
country, of the abundance of its products, of the richness of its mines,
which were reported to be much more extensive than those of Mexico or
Peru. Law, taking advantage of this current of opinion, projected a
company which should unite the commerce of Louisiana with the fur trade
of Canada. The Regent granted all he asked, by an edict given in August,
1717, fifteen months after the first establishment of the bank.

The new company received the title of the "West Indian Company." It was
to have the sovereignty of all Louisiana on the condition only of liege
homage to the King of France, and of a crown of gold of thirty marks at
the commencement of every new reign. It was to exercise all the rights
of sovereignty, such as levying troops, equipping vessels-of-war,
constructing forts, establishing courts, working mines, etc. The King
relinquished to it the vessels, forts, and munitions of war which
belonged to the Crozat Company,[27] and conceded, furthermore, the
exclusive right of the fur trade of Canada. The arms of this sovereign
company represented the effigy of an old river-god leaning upon a horn
of plenty.

Law revolved in his mind many other projects relating to his Western
company. He spoke, at first mysteriously, of the benefits which he was
preparing for it. Associating with a large number of noblemen, whom his
wit, his fortune, and the hope of considerable gains attracted around
him, he urged them strongly to obtain for themselves some shares, which
would soon rise rapidly in the market. He was himself soon obliged to
buy some above par. The par value being five hundred francs, two hundred
of them represented at par a sum of one hundred thousand francs. The
price for the day being three hundred francs, sixty thousand francs were
sufficient to buy two hundred shares. He contracted to pay one hundred
thousand francs for two hundred shares at a fixed future time; this was
to anticipate that they would gain at least two hundred francs each, and
that a profit of forty thousand francs could be realized on the whole.
He agreed, in order to make this sort of wager more certain, to pay the
difference of forty thousand francs in advance, and to lose the
difference if he did not realize a profit from the proposed transfer.

This was the first instance of a sale at an anticipated advance. This
kind of trade consisted in giving "earnest-money" called a premium,
which the purchaser lost if he failed to