What was the name of the 1720 French speculative collapse centered on John Law’s company?

The 1720 French speculative collapse centered on John Law’s company was the Mississippi Bubble.

John Law, a Scottish financier, helped establish the Banque Générale in France in 1716 and later controlled the Mississippi Company, which held a monopoly over trade and colonization connected with French Louisiana. The company’s shares became linked to Law’s paper-money system and to extravagant expectations about American wealth.

Share prices rose sharply in Paris during 1719 and 1720. Buyers often purchased shares with borrowed money, while promotional stories exaggerated the riches available in Louisiana. The boom was connected to a broad financial experiment rather than to a normal, profitable trading expansion.

Confidence collapsed in 1720 when investors sought to convert paper assets into more reliable money and concerns grew about the company’s valuations. Law’s system failed, and he fled France. The episode is frequently paired with Britain’s South Sea Bubble, but the Mississippi Bubble developed within France’s own monetary and colonial-finance system.