50 THE PBEPETtJAL COMPANY OF THE INDIES. chap, were made perpetual. This offer was accepted by the Ir * Government; a decree, dated June, 1720, was issued, 1720. an d thenceforth the Company which ruled French India from the Rue Vivienne is known in history under the designation of the Perpetual Company of the Indies. But this measure, which the Parlement refused to confirm, did not stop the panic. In October of the same year it was therefore determined to effect a return to cash payments. The union between the Royal Bank and the Perpetual Company of the Indies was therefore dissolved, and that Company was reorganised on the footing of a commercial association independent of the State, the value of its shares being reduced to 2,000 francs each. About the same time the contract, which secured to it the right of coining money and collecting the revenues of the State, was cancelled. Shortly after, Law having been forced to retire from France, its share- holders were declared responsible for all the engage- ments it had contracted and for all the notes it had issued ; its property was sequestered, and a provisional board, composed of officials denominated Regisseurs, was appointed by Government to carry on its affairs. The investigations and cancellings to which this Board had recourse resulted in leaving the Company, in 1723, a private commercial association, with a capital of 112,000,000 francs in 56,000 shares of 2,000 francs each. Two years later the number of the shares was reduced by 5,000 representing 10,000,000 francs. Of all the great privileges conceded to the Company during the administration of Law, there then remained only the inheritance bequeathed to it by the old Company, founded by Colbert, and the monopoly of tobacco.* Meanwhile, the Company of the Indies had not for- gotten, in the midst of its vast speculations, one of the
- In this account of Law, the fol- Finances sous la Minorite de Louis
lowing works have been consulted: XV. Duverney. With these have Law, son Systeme et son fipoqne been compared the various edicts Cochut. Htstoire du Systhne des issued during the Regency.
