The entrepreneur's name was John Law. By all accounts he was incredibly charismatic and had a flamboyant, larger than life personality. He was something like Adam Neumann, formerly of WeWork… the kind of person who could talk anyone into anything.

And John Law's pitch that day was to launch an entirely new financial system.

King Louis XIV had just died eight months before, leaving France in terrible financial ruin. Decades of endless wars, palaces, and profligate spending had bankrupted the French government.

The situation was so dire, in fact, that there was hardly any gold left in the French treasury. So the new head regent of the government, Duke Philippe II of Orleans, was desperate for a solution.

Law made him a bold proposal: the Duke would provide Law with a special banking license. And in exchange, Law would create a new system of paper money that would bring more gold into France and help pay off the crippling national debt.

Philippe agreed. And, only a few weeks later, John Law's new Banque Generale Privee was in business.

It turned out that people loved the idea of paper money. And within a year, his paper bank notes were circulating widely throughout the French economy, and the government even accepted them for tax payments.