University of Virginia Library

8085. SPECULATION, In France.—

All
the money men [in France] are playing
deeply in the stocks of the country. The
spirit of “agiotage” (as they call it) was
never so high in any country before. It will
probably produce as total deprivation of morals
as the system of [John] Law did. All the
money of France is now employed in this,
none being free even for the purposes of commerce,
which suffers immensely from this
cause.—
To R. Izard. Washington ed. ii, 206.
(P. 1787)