Letters patent were issued on 2nd and 28th May, 1716, incorporating the Bank, and three days after the latter date, these letters were registered in the Parliamentary journals. The Bank was formed under the name of the General Bank of Law & Company, the principal partners being Law himself and his brother William. The capital was fixed at six million livres, a sum approximately equal to £300,000, divided into 1200 shares of 5000 livres each. The price of the shares allotted to subscribers was payable in four equal instalments of which only one required to be in cash, the balance being in _billets d’état_. The management of the Bank and its general policy was placed in the hands of the shareholders themselves, the extent of their voting interest being determined by the number of their individual shares, each five shares conferring one vote. A bi-yearly audit was to be made of the Bank’s financial position, and shareholders were to be convened at least twice a year. The business of the Bank was similar in its nature to ordinary banking business of the present day, and wise provision was made against engaging in commercial undertakings. In short, the regulations were modelled upon the soundest principles of finance. The one great feature of the Bank, however, and a feature that displayed Law’s remarkable foresight, because its establishment was only the first step in the development of his vast designs whose ultimate accomplishment depended upon present success, consisted in the character of the note issue. All notes were drawn at sight to bearer, and were promises to pay in coin of the weight and standard of the day of issue. Here rested the foundation of the Bank’s phenomenal success. The coinage had in previous years been subject to sudden and arbitrary changes of relative value, and consequently its purchasing power was always of a speculative character. But, further, as the Government alone secured the profit upon depreciation of the coinage, each alteration brought with it dislocation of commercial transactions and indirectly affected the volume of trade of the country. Law’s notes in a very short time established themselves in the confidence of all classes. Their value was permanent and unaffected by any fluctuations in the coinage. Credit business was rendered possible where before it had been folly. Industry in general experienced the stimulus of financial stability, and underwent remarkable expansion. The notes, and not the current coinage, became the medium of exchange, and soon acquired a value in excess of the specie they nominally represented. To these advantages Law was careful to add ease of immediate conversion. Although the capital payable in cash only amounted to £75,000, yet the large deposits, and the extensive floating business of the Bank, together with the high estimate in which the notes were held, combined to make the risk of inability to convert the notes a very remote contingency.