Law now made the concluding proposal of his schemes. The absorption of _billets d’état_ by the Company, although extensive, had not yet exhausted them. There still remained almost 1500 million livres in circulation, and Law was anxious to have them liquidated. He accordingly proposed to lend the King a sum of money sufficient for the purpose at 3 per cent. per annum, and at the same time to reduce the interest upon the 100 millions previously advanced at 4 per cent. to a similar rate; and in return for an offer so advantageous, he secured an extension of the various grants to the Company for the uniform period of fifty years. To carry through this, the largest and most important transaction upon which the Company had entered as yet, an issue of 300,000 new shares was made at a price of 5000 livres, thus yielding a premium of 4500 livres. These shares, however, were not to be allotted to the public. The Regent was fully alive to the possibility of enriching himself by securing the whole of the issue and profiting by the rise which would certainly take place in their value. He already was holder of 100,000 of previously issued shares, and of the whole capital of the company only 200,000 were in the hands of the public. The supply was accordingly unequal to the demand, and in the course of two months the shares reached the incredible price of 10,000 livres. A kind of madness had seized the nation. A royal road to fortune had been opened up by the ingenious foreigner; and had lured along its easy path an excited throng of princes and people, peers and commoners, clergy and laity, rich and poor--in short all who by any means could hope to secure the coveted scrip. The memoirs of the period teem with instances of the excessive folly and rashness which characterised these halcyon days of the scheme, and display a want of balance on the part of the French nation entirely beyond belief.