Although no price was payable to the State for the apparently valuable rights acquired by the company, the ingenuity of Law had devised an indirect consideration of great importance. We have already seen how the Bank had absorbed depreciated _billets d’état_ at their face value to the extent of 4½ millions. But a bolder stroke was now conceived by Law. It was no less than to make the whole of the share capital of his new company payable in the State notes, which were then standing at a discount of 65 per cent. These _billets d’état_ formed part of the converted stock of the previous year, and bore interest at the rate of 4 per cent. The company scrip which was given in exchange for the _billets d’état_ was charged with a fixed permanent interest at the same rate, and in addition a contingent interest dependent upon the profits of each year. The effect of this financial juggle, was on the one hand, to transfer a twentieth part of the national debt from the State to a private company, and, on the other hand, to reduce the number of the nation’s creditors by several thousands. The advantage was primarily in favour of the State, and as will be seen later, was the first step towards the total extinction of the nation’s paper then in currency, by a method which in reality was repudiation of liability, though at this stage it could not have been foreseen as such either by Law or by the Regent. The influential position to which Law had now attained was naturally productive of great heart-burning, not only amongst those whose power he had virtually usurped, but also amongst the army of tax-farmers whose opportunities he had seriously curtailed. D’Aguessau, the Chancellor of France, was particularly envious of Law, and had used all his influence with the Regent against the new regime. Law, however, was paramount in the Regent’s favour, and secured the summary dismissal of the undesirable Chancellor. In January, 1718, D’Argenson, Lieutenant of Police, a weak and pliable creature, was installed in his place, and a pretext was also discovered for requiring the resignation of the Duke of Noailles, chief of the Council of Finance, in order to combine the two offices in the person of D’Argenson. These appointments practically left the Government in the hands of the Regent, Law, and the Abbé du Bois, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The elevation of D’Argenson was a move on the part of Law to secure the adoption of all his suggestions without encountering the opposition he would have met at the hands of a strong and independent Minister. His duties were to be merely clerical, and his services were to be at all times at the command of Law. D’Argenson, however, was of a suspicious disposition. Accustomed to being his own master in his former office, and active, though somewhat officious, in the administration of its functions, he fretted under the domination of his imperious master. He had been accustomed to