The brilliant pictures that were drawn of the capacities of Louisiana were undoubtedly largely exaggerated so far as its condition was at the time. With the knowledge of subsequent years they were however substantially accurate, but the development of these capacities required the expenditure of vast sums of capital and the lapse of many years of hard and continuous labour of an imported population. The concessions made to the company on its incorporation were of enormous ultimate value, and under different conditions, conditions which would have imported fewer elements of speculation and introduced more administrative patience and moderation, might have proved a national asset of great importance instead of a disastrous enterprise the magnitude of which had the effect of paralysing for several generations the commercial and industrial stability of France. The concessions were co-extensive with virtual sovereignty over the vast territories included in the grant, and unlimited freedom of administration was conferred. While it is evident that Law anticipated that Louisiana would in reality be a possession which would yield to his company a large annual revenue and prove an exceedingly profitable investment to its shareholders, it is equally evident that he recognised that this result could not be accomplished at once. He was probably mistaken as to the length of time that would be required, and, if so, he was only guilty of a fault of judgment attributable to the inadequacy of contemporary knowledge of these far distant lands as well as to the fact that experience of developing companies, such as the Western Company, was then in its extreme infancy. Until operations could proceed on a sufficiently extensive scale, the only immediate income derivable by the company consisted of the annuities payable by the Treasury, the amount of which was equivalent to interest at the rate of four per cent. upon the 100 million livres of State notes absorbed at the time of incorporation. From the fact that the first year’s annuities of four million livres were to be devoted to the general purposes of the company, and that the succeeding years’ annuities were to be placed to the dividend fund, it would seem that Law was under the impression that he could sufficiently develop the company’s territories within a year to admit of further drafts upon the treasury payments being unnecessary.