THE RAGE FOR SHARES. 49 the amalgamation of the Companies he had gone into chap. the market and had bought up all the shares of the IL Company of the West that were to be had. This pro- m$ ceeding brought them up to par, even to a premium. But it was after the amalgamation had been decreed that he made his great coup. Acting under his in- fluence, the Regent caused to be decreed on June 20 following, that, to insure an equal chance to all, without favour to any, no one should be eligible to become a purchaser of the new shares, who did not possess in the old shares (of the Company of the West) a value four times greater than that for which he now wished to become a subscriber. Now it is curious to mark the consequence of this edict. The old shares had been issued at 500 francs each, payable in four instalments in Government notes, then at, perhaps, 70 per cent dis- count. Of this sum the first instalment only had been called up ; that is to say, possession of each of these shares had been obtained by a cash payment of less than 40 francs.* Now the effect of Law's new proposal to forbid the sale of shares in the new Company to all who did not possess four times the amount in the old was to cause an extraordinary run on the old shares. They rose consequently to an enormous premium. The original holders, and those who, like Law and his friends, had purchased before the amalgamation, made thus very great profits. The Parisians, with their usual felicity of nomenclature, styled the old shares meres, and the new shares files, appropriately remarking that these latter always brought with them their dower ; for such was the hourly increasing rage for speculation that a purchaser could almost immediately realise double or treble the amount he had invested. f
- Supposing that Government notes represented the first call made
notes were then at 70 per cent, dis- on the shareholders of the Company count, the value of 125 francs in of the West. ^ notes could be purchased by 37§ f Law, son Systetne et son Epoque. francs in cash. Now, 125 francs in E
