All classes rushed to buy the stock, which at one time was quoted at 1,000. Then the weakness of the scheme became apparent; the stock fell as rapidly as it had risen, and investors or speculators were ruined in large numbers. This was only one of the bubbles which were inflated and which burst about this time. Other companies were promoted for making salt water fresh, for extracting silver from lead, for trading in human hair, and for a wheel of perpetual motion. Insurance was now coming into prominence, and this offered a favorite field for promoters. Subscriptions were received for companies that proposed to insure against losses of servants, against burglars and against highwaymen; one scheme was “Plummer and Petty’s Insurance from Death by drinking Geneva” (gin). We get a vivid idea of the spirit of the period from the fact that one promoter, who announced a company “for an undertaking which shall in due time be revealed,” secured 2,000 guineas in a single morning, with which he immediately made off. =180. The crisis of the Company of the Indies in France.=—Just before the time of the English crisis one curiously similar in character occurred in France. A Scotchman, John Law, who was an able banker and financier, promoted a Company of the West, expanded later into the Company of the Indies, which united with its commercial projects an attempt to finance the government. Extravagant ideas were formed of the possibilities of Law’s “system,” and the roads to Paris were blocked by people hurrying there to speculate in shares. Two of the ablest scholars in France deplored the madness at one interview, and at the next found themselves bidding against each other. Coachmen, cooks, and waiters became millionaires by lucky speculation; tradespeople in the street where the exchange was established made fortunes by letting out their stalls and chairs. The price of stock rose until it frightened even the promoter of the system, who interfered in the hope of checking speculation, but who found soon that he was unable to check either the rise or the fall of the stock. The crash which quickly followed was especially serious, as the whole currency consisted now of discredited notes issued by the company. Ruin was widespread, and credit received a blow which made the promotion of legitimate enterprises difficult for a long time thereafter. QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 1. Prepare yourself to see the significance of the facts of this chapter by reviewing the functions and benefits of credit institutions like banks. [See Bullock, Introd., chap. 9, or other current manuals of economics.] 2. Write a report on the way in which churchmen and scholars came to justify the taking of interest on loans. [Cunningham, Growth, or Ashley, **Ec. hist., vol. 2, sect. 65 and others following, esp. 72.] 3. Fill in the outline of the text, sect. 169, by details to be found in Cunningham, Growth, vol. 2, sect. 180.