John Law

John Law   became famous in France as a swindling genius of high finance during the reign of Louis xv.He was the principal actor behind   the   Banque Royale and the Mississippi bubble whose collapse made him into an outlaw figure.Years earlier he had published in 1706 in Edinburgh Scotland a fascinating small book entitled Money and Trade considered with a proposal for supplying the nation with money.
In this work Law outlined the theoretical basis of his fiat sytem of money supply which some 250 years later was implemented throughout the capitalist world.As Law explained " Money is not he value for which goods are exchanged but the value by which they are exchanged: the use of money is to buy goods, and silver while money is of no other use. " Here Law was ignoring the posibility of money hoarding or the speculative demand for silver or money but he was correctly focusing on the idea that the true purpose of money was to facilitate exchange and mobilize labour power and resources to increase wealth.
There was thus an intriguing element of Keynesian thinking in Law.

Law was also a striking figure with a trail of duels, romances and plots that pursued him until his death in Venice in 1729.Notwithstanding his record of financial swindle Law actually had some some rather interesting insights into the nature of a monetary economy and the virtues of demand as opposed to supply in ensuring prosperity and economic growth.

He is also one of the first writers to recognize that employment of workers even if apparently not profitable to the employer brings about an increase in economic value and wealth.As he puts it " So an addition to the Money, whether the Imployer gains or not, adds to the National Wealth, eases the Country of a number of Poor or idle, proportioned to the Money added , enables them to live better, and to bear a share in the Publick with the other people. " ( p.14)