Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions (vol. 1)

Claims Supported by This Source

1. States that in 1634, "even the lowest classes" joined the tulip trade, and in 1635, someone invested 100,000 florins in 40 bulbs (pp.141–142).
2. Price examples for sale by weight (perit): Admiral Liefken, 400 perits for 4,400 florins; Semper Augustus, 200 perits for 5,500 florins. In early 1636, only two Semper Augustus bulbs existed in all of Holland; 12 acres of building land were offered for one bulb in Haarlem, and one in Amsterdam was bought for 4,600 florins plus a new carriage, two grey horses, and harness (p.142).
3. Citing Munting, it lists items exchanged for one Viceroy bulb: 2 lasts of wheat, 4 lasts of rye, 4 oxen... totaling 2,500 florins (pp.142–143).
4. Recounts a story from Blainville's travelogue about a sailor who mistook a Semper Augustus bulb (worth 3,000 florins) for an onion and ate it with a herring (pp.143–145).
5. States that nobles, citizens, farmers, artisans, sailors, footmen, maid-servants, and even chimney sweeps and old-clothes sellers dabbled in tulips, and that houses and lands were sold at low prices (pp.146–147).
6. Notes the settlement at 10% of the contract value; that the Provincial Council in The Hague deliberated for three months without reaching a conclusion, recommending that if a seller presented the actual goods and was refused, they should auction them and claim the difference; and that the courts refused to hear the cases, treating them as gambling debts (pp.150–151).
7. Concludes, "The nation's commerce received a severe blow, from which it was many years ere it recovered" (p.151).
8. Describes Law as "neither a knave nor a madman, but more deceived than deceiving," and attributes the collapse to "the eager credulity of a whole nation" (pp. 4–5).
9. The bank was authorized by an edict of May 5, 1716, with a capital of 6 million livres in 12,000 shares of 500 livres each (p. 19. The original letters patent are dated May 2; Velde states 1,200 shares of 5,000 livres). Branches were in Lyon, La Rochelle, Tours, Amiens, and Orléans (p. 20).
10. The company was established by letters patent of August 1717, with a capital of 200,000 shares of 500 livres each, which could be fully paid for at face value with billets d'État, though they were only worth 160 livres on the market (p. 21).
11. Anecdotes from the Rue Quincampoix: A cobbler earned 200 livres a day by renting out his stall; a hunchback made money by renting his back as a writing desk (p. 27). Law's coachman made enough to set up his own carriage and retired; his cook-maid and footman sometimes had similar luck (p. 34). A lady of quality had her carriage overturned to get an audience with Law (p. 31).
12. An edict in February 1720 banned the possession of more than 500 livres in specie and encouraged informing (pp. 49–50). At a meeting in early May, it was calculated that 2.6 billion livres in notes were in circulation, while the country's specie was less than half that amount. An edict on May 21 stipulated that shares and notes would be reduced to half their value over a year, but it was retracted within seven days (pp. 54–55).
13. In the crowds at the bank, one person was crushed to death daily. On July 9, soldiers opened fire, killing one person. Eight days later, 15 people were crushed to death, their bodies were brought to the Regent, and Law's carriage was destroyed (pp. 57–59).
14. Law left for Brussels in December, "almost a beggar" as his wealth was invested in real estate. On January 1, 1721, the national debt exceeded 3.1 billion livres, and the *visa* recommended reducing interest payments to 56 million (pp. 67–70).

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