Memoir of the life of John Law of Lauriston

OF LAURISTON. 35
possessed of a power to carry the foreign
trade, and the culture of the colonies, to a
height altogether impracticable by any other
means. The outlines of this plan being laid
before the Regent, met, it would seem, with
the approbation of that prince, as measures
were taken for the establishment of the pro-
posed company, and directions issued for
making the requisite grants to enable them to
commence their operations.
Accordingly, by letters patent dated in
August 1717, a commercial company was
erected, under the name of the Company of
the West, to whom was granted the whole
province of Louisiana, a country watered
throughout its whole extent by the great river
Missisippi; from which last circumstance, its
subsequent operations came, by way of dis-
tinction, to be included under the general
name of the missisippi system. Of this
company 200,000 actions, or shares, were is-
sued, rated at 500 livres each, and the sub-
scription for them was ordered to be paid in
billets d'etat. These papers were at that time
in such discredit, by reason of the bad pay-
ment of their interest, tnat 500 livres nominal