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Gleeson, Janet The Moneymaker ISBN 13: 9780857501134

The Moneymaker - Softcover

 
9780857501134: The Moneymaker
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Three hundred years ago, a charismatic young gambler and man-about-town with a natural gift for mathematics fled London for the Contintent. His name was John Law and he had a good reason to go, having killed a man in a duel.

Living off his lucrative winnings at the gaming tables of Europe, Law became increasingly fascinated by the nature of finance and journeyed to the impoverished , famine-stricken France of Louis XIV with an extraordinary idea. At the time when wealth was stored and exchanged as gold and silver coin - and there was rarely enough to fund the extravagance of kings, let alone trade - Law realised that the overriding problem was lack of available money. He reasoned that if this could be lent in the form of paper, properly backed by assets, then it could be lend repeatedly and credit used to multiply the opportunities for the making of money.

Such a radical notion meant Law faced opposition from powerful vested interests. His persistence paid off in 1716 when, with royal backing, he established the first French bank to issue paper money. He also created a trading company which made its shareholders rich beyond their wildest dreams: so much so that the new term 'millionaire' was coined to describe them.

What follows is the stuff of epic drama: a tale of fortunes won and lost, of paupers made rich and lords losing all. And in telling this enthralling tragi-comic story, Janet Gleeson brings to life two fascinating characters who together would change the way the world worked: the inscrutable John Law, and mercurial money itself.

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Review:
In 1683, 12-year-old John Law inherited an estate from his father, an Edinburgh goldsmith. Within a few years, the young Law was enjoying London's highlife and paying the price, with his legacy quickly running low. His solution? Learn how to gamble scientifically. This he did with startling thoroughness, visiting Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Venice, Genoa; learning their economic systems and en route gaining a reputation as a state-of-the-art Enlightenment cad--liaisons, duelling, haute couture and, of course, the cards. His success in bluffing and bargaining at the card table put another idea in his head: why should banks issue paper money, to combat the endemic, persistent need for gold and silver? After persuading Louis XV, Law introduced this system to a private bank in France; his success grew with the first multinational trading company, the Mississippi. But, of course, with every boom there's a crash , and Law's had been the mother of all booms.

With her previous book, the best selling The Arcanum, antiques expert Janet Gleeson proved that she had an eye for a good story, and a real flair for telling it clearly and economically. And The Moneymaker is a good story, well told, of modern banking's debt to the skill of the professional gambler. Understandably, there¹s some simplification of the status of money in the 17th and 18th centuries--a time when many people were still quite happy with mutually reciprocal credit arrangements--but in some ways, Gleeson goes beyond simply recreating the ostensible period of the book. Law's life has been told many times since the first biography in 1721; Gleeson's skill here is to realise its importance today, and to suggest its modern resonances-- as currencies disappear and markets crash with alarming regularity--without ever hammering them home. It's a fascinating tale. --Alan Stewart

Review:
"'Excellent . . . Gleeson is exemplary in her lucidity. If you can imagine Keynes' General Theory rewritten by the Marx Brothers you will have some idea of this remarkable book.'" (The Sunday Times)

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  • PublisherBantam
  • Publication date2011
  • ISBN 10 0857501135
  • ISBN 13 9780857501134
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages272
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Gleeson, Janet
Published by Transworld Publishers Ltd (2011)
ISBN 10: 0857501135 ISBN 13: 9780857501134
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Book Description Condition: New. Dieser Artikel ist ein Print on Demand Artikel und wird nach Ihrer Bestellung fuer Sie gedruckt. At the time when wealth was stored and exchanged as gold and silver coin - and there was rarely enough to fund the extravagance of kings, let alone trade - Law realised that the overriding problem was lack of available money.KlappentextrnrnA. Seller Inventory # 595104496

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