Extraordinary Popular Delusions, the Money Mania - The Mississippi Scheme, the South-Sea Bubble, & the Tulipomania - Charles MacKay

The finances of the country were in a state of the utmost disorder. A profuse and corrupt monarch, whose profuseness and corruption were imitated by almost every functionary, from the highest to the lowest grade, had brought France to the verge of ruin. The national debt amounted to 3000 millions of livres, the revenue to 145 millions, and the expenses of government to 142 millions per annum: leaving only three millions to pay the interest upon 3000 millions.-from \The Mississippi Scheme\The savings-and-loan..