[120] John Law was the inventor of “bearer” certificates.
[121] “The History and Methods of the Paris Bourse,” by E. Vidal, Senate Document No. 573, Sixty-first Congress (Second session), pp. 161–2.
[122] “Opérations de Bourse et de Change,” Courtois, 13th ed., p. 239.
[123] Provincial bourses in France are divided into two classes—those with parquets, and those without them. Bourses with parquets are those at Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Nantes, Toulouse, and Lille. The Minister of Finance is in control of these parquet bourses, while the Minister of Commerce controls those that have no parquet.
[124] “History and Methods of the Paris Bourse,” by E. Vidal, published by the National Monetary Commission, Washington, 1910, pp. 262–3–4.
[125] The report of the Paris Chamber of Commerce, February 8, 1882, which paved the way for this reform, is interesting reading:
“An administration of justice which would permit a speculator to carry on two deals of equal importance with two different brokers, one for a rise and the other for a fall, and, while collecting from one the profit he had made to advance the plea of gambling toward the other, in order to avoid paying the loss which the operation showed—such an administration, I say, could not hold any longer; that fact alone would condemn it.
“Experience shows that the plea of gambling has never protected anybody but those of bad faith, and has only encouraged the excess of speculation, as was stated by M. Andrieux in his report presented to the Chamber in 1877, in the name of the Seventh Commission of Initiative.
“Prompted by these reasons, and, considering that the present legislation, far from preventing gambling, encourages it; considering that bad faith finds protection in the jurisprudence sanctioned; and, further considering that in commercial affairs, as in any other, it behooves to allow every one his full freedom, as well as to hold him responsible for his actions—I beg to suggest that an address be sent to the Minister of Commerce, confirming the letter of the Chamber of Commerce of November 25, 1877, and requesting the Government to introduce a bill in the Chambers, declaring that article 1965 of the Code civil does not apply to debts resulting from dealings for future delivery, and that articles 421 and 422 of the Code penal are repealed.”
The law legalizing dealings for future delivery was enacted March 28, 1885, and formally promulgated April 8, 1885.