MARMONT DU HAUTCHAMP, Barthélemi.

£17,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Histoire générale et particulière du visa fait en France. First edition of this detailed account of Louis XV's reprisals after the collapse of the Mississippi Bubble. Among the key sources for the aftermath of the Bubble, this is the first book to print the name of Richard Cantillon.The Visa, a large-scale property inventory and debt restructuring, was established on 26 January 1721. It was to investigate those who had profiteered from the Mississippi Bubble and to tax them retrospectively. Volume II contains a list of shareholders targeted by the Visa. By September 1722, the commissioners could levy an extraordinary tax (amounting to 187 million livres) on all public securities held during the bubble. While some shareholders fled or bribed their way to immunity, many others remained to destroy all the papers relating to the Mississippi Company's liquidation. They hoped that their bonfire had destroyed the master list of targeted shareholders. Einaudi reports that it was Hautchamp's publication of the list which resulted in this work's scarcity, as panicked shareholders destroyed many copies (p. 535).This list includes the book's only mention of Cantillon's name, on page 170. Richard Cantillon (d. 1734) is recorded as having made 20 million livres, largely by shorting the shares of the Mississippi Company and the French currency. Cantillon was among those to flee the country, although his agents were still active - he is listed as "inconnu", which was clearly untrue, since hi

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