"No, 'tis not that kind of credit that I mean. I mean the credit which comes of confidence. It is fate, necessity, which demands a new system. The world has grown too much for every man to put his sixpence into the other man's hand, and carry away in a basket what he buys. We are no longer savages, to barter beads for hides. Yet we were as savages, did we not come to realize that this insufficient coin must be replaced in the evolution of affairs, just as barter has long ago been, replaced."
"And by what?"
"As I said, by credit."
"Do not annoy me by things too deep, but rather suggest some definite plan, if that may be."
"First of all, then, as I said to you years ago, we need a bank, a bank in which all the people of France shall have absolute confidence."
"You would, then, wish a charter of some sort?"
"Only provided your Grace shall please. I have of my own funds a half million livres or more. This I would put into a bank of general nature, if your Grace shall please. That should be some small guarantee of my good faith in these plans."
"Monsieur L'as would seem to have followed play to his good fortune."
"Never to so good fortune as when first I met your Grace," replied Law. "I have given to games of chance the severest thought and study. Just as much more have I given thought and study to this enterprise which I propose now to lay before you."
"And you ask the patent of the Crown for your bank?"