s grown too much for every man to put his sixpence into the
other man's hand, and carry away in a basket what he buys. We are no
longer savages, to barter beads for hides. Yet we were as savages, did
we not come to realize that this insufficient coin must be replaced, in
the evolution of affairs, just as barter has long ago been, replaced."

"And by what?"

"As I said, by credit."

"Do not annoy me by things too deep, but rather suggest some definite
plan, if that may be."

"First of all, then, as I said to you years ago, we need a bank, a bank
in which all the people of France shall have absolute confidence."

"You would, then, wish a charter of some sort?"

"Only provided your Grace shall please. I have of my own funds a half
million livres or more. This I would put into a bank of general nature,
if your Grace shall please. That should be some small guarantee of my
good faith in these plans."

"Monsieur L'as would seem to have followed play to his good fortune."

"Never to so good fortune as when first I met your Grace," replied Law.
"I have given to games of chance the severest thought and study. Just
as much more have I given thought and study to this enterprise which I
propose now to lay before you."

"And you ask the patent of the Crown for your bank?"

"It were better if the institution received that open endorsement."

A slow frown settled upon the face of the other. "That is, at the
beginning, impossible, Monsieur L'as," said the regent. "It is you who
must prove these things which you propose."

"Let it be so, then," said Law, with conviction. "I make no doubt I
shall obtain subscriptions for the shares. Remember my words. Within a
few months you shall see trebled the energies of France. Money is the
only thing which we have not in France. Why, your Grace, suppose the
collectors of taxes in the South of France succeed in raising the king's
levies. That specie must come by wheeled vehicle all the way to Paris.
Consider what loss of time is there, and consider what hindrance to the
trade of the provinces from which so much specie is taken bodily, and to
which it can return later only a little at a time. Is it any wonder that
usury is eating up France? There is not money enough--it is the one
priceless thing; by which I mean only that there is not belief, not
confidence, not credit enough in France. Now, given a bank which holds
the confidence of the people, and I promise the king his taxes, even as