What was the name of France’s 1720 stock-market collapse centered on John Law’s Mississippi Company?

The Mississippi Bubble was France’s 1720 stock-market collapse centered on John Law’s Mississippi Company.

John Law, a Scottish financier, became influential in France during the early eighteenth century. His company held a monopoly over French trade and colonization in the Mississippi region of North America. Law also controlled a bank that issued paper money, and investors increasingly bought company shares with the expectation of enormous profits from the colony.

Share prices rose dramatically in 1719 and early 1720, despite the colony’s limited immediate economic output. When confidence in the company and its paper currency weakened, investors rushed to sell. The scheme unraveled in 1720, producing financial losses and a lasting association between speculative bubbles and unrealistic colonial wealth claims. It is distinct from Britain’s South Sea Bubble, although both collapses occurred in 1720 and are frequently compared.