The first great acquisition of value and importance was the transfer to the Company of the right of coinage. This was effected on 25th July, 1719. The right was to extend over a period of nine years, and the price was fixed at 50,000,000 livres, payable within fifteen months of the date of the grant. To place the Company in a position to carry out the bargain a fresh issue of shares was made, and Law on this occasion took greater advantage of public enthusiasm than he did on the occasion of the previous issue. In the latter case the shares were offered at a premium of ten per cent., the public, although paying 550 livres, receiving stock only of the value of 500 livres. In the present instance the 500 livres share was to be allotted on payment of 1000 livres, thus necessitating the issue of only 50,000 shares. In addition to enacting a premium, Law employed a device he had before resorted to. He made it a condition that subscribers should be already possessors of previously issued shares to the extent of five times more than the number of new shares they desired to have allotted to them. The effect of this was magical. The demand for old shares was so intense that they rose immediately to 2000 livres, and the rapidity of the rise only served to widen the circle of speculators. Law was thus bringing within his grasp practically the whole of the nation as participants in his schemes. The universal enthusiasm, however, was not unmixed. The unaccustomed magnitude of Law’s transactions was productive in certain quarters of considerable misgivings, and not a few were able amidst the general excitement to regard his schemes with more than usual calmness. Amongst those, of course, were found the financier’s bitterest enemies. To discredit Law, and to baulk him in his efforts, they lost no opportunity; and to instil doubt in the public mind as to the sanity of their speculations was by no means a difficult task. It was only necessary to secure the support of a few in order to depress the value of the Mississippi stock. Extensive sales, ostensibly for the purpose of saving a further loss, but really for the purpose of undermining the market, produced in the following month a sharp reaction. The Earl of Stair writing to Secretary Craggs on 20th August, 1719, remarks in the course of his letter upon this sudden and disturbing attitude of the public. He says:--