Brewer's: Law's Bubble

The famous Mississippi scheme, devised by John Law, for paying off the national debt of France (1716-1720). By this “French South-Sea Bubble” the nation was almost ruined. It was called Mississippi because the company was granted the “exclusive trade of Louisiana on the banks of the Mississippi.”

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Related Content