Law was an amused spectator of the puerile efforts of the Regent and his advisers to restore financial stability to their country. He regarded them no less with scorn, and probably rejoiced in the futility of their efforts, in the hope that each successive step they took would bring the realisation of his own ambition within measurable distance. The position he occupied, however, was one of difficulty, and demanded a display of considerable tact and judgment. He had educated the Regent up to the point of implicit confidence in his scheme, but there still remained a dead weight of opposition in the Council, and without the support of both the ground was very uncertain. No time was lost by Law in an attempt to bring his proposals to a head. He repeatedly interviewed the Regent within the first few weeks after the death of Louis XIV., and submitted definite schemes for relieving the situation. He urged that by the adoption of a system of paper credit, not necessarily for supplanting, but for supplementing, the coinage in currency, not only would the trade of the country increase in volume, but the national debt would be effectively dealt with. He based his argument upon the principle that the quantity of money in circulation in a country determines its industrial activity. Recognising that money, whether it be specie or paper, is not itself the wealth of a country, but only the measure of its wealth, and that in whatever form it exists it must represent either the whole or part of that actual wealth, he conceived the idea of issuing the notes against the landed property of France, and the ordinary State revenues. He pointed out, as examples in support of his proposals, the immense benefits which had flowed from the adoption of a similar system by England, Holland, Venice, and Genoa. The Regent, convinced before by Law’s arguments, was now determined to put them into operation. He convened the Council of Finances, and invited to its deliberations the principal bankers and merchants of Paris and of the provinces. The sederunt took place on 24th October, 1715, only eight weeks after the King’s death, but the Regent had personally interviewed beforehand several of the members to secure their support for Law. To this assembly Law unfolded the general outline of his proposals. “He was listened to as long as he liked to talk. Some, who saw that the Regent was almost decided, acquiesced; but the majority opposed.” The precise ground of opposition is nowhere recorded, but probably the fear, expressed at the former Council in July, had not been dissipated, that the system would lend itself to abuse at the hands of an absolute monarch, and might bring in its train greater evils than those it was intended to remedy. The letters patent of 2nd May, 1716, granting private banking privileges to Law, refers to the decision of this assembly, but being couched in the language of official ambiguity, gives no clue to the reasons which actuated the rejection of the