Memoir of the life of John Law of Lauriston

OF LAURISTON. 109
national creditors by these notes, in conse-
quence whereof the government securities
granted to them were withdrawn and can-
celled.*
The respectable author of the Inquiry into
the Principles of Political Economy supposes
that it now was the intention of the Regent to
dispose of as many of the shares he already
possessed, and of those which the company
were bound to sell to his Royal Highness,
(he asserts, at the rate of 5000 livres each,) as
would retire the amount of the national debt
already discharged, and then to destroy the
bank notes so withdrawn. The whole pub-
lic debts of France would consequently be
converted into shares of the India company,
who would have become responsible to the re-
spective proprietors for the dividend on the
shares thus disposed of, and to the Regent
for that on those which might have remained
in his possession. If we suppose the price
of shares during so great an operation not
to fall below 10,000 livres each, the a-
mount of the whole national debt could
* Examen, i. 340.