The Great Mirror of Folly

This illustrative page from "The Great Mirror of Folly", 1720, was a volume of text with 76 engraved plates, documenting the international joint-stock scandal instigated by John Law. This great "Theater of Folly", representing the origin, progress, and downfall of the South Sea Bubble in France, England and Holland, is a collection of engraved plates with caricatures of the schemes of John Law and the Mississippi Company that lured clients to invest in establishing colonies in Louisiana and Canada with fatal results. Text below the image is in Dutch. An English description of the content of the book comes with this image.