John Law's Bank

A third documented project, under Henry IV, adopted the name "Banque de France" and was approved by the Conseil Royal on 20 December 1608, but was not implemented.

The sequence accelerated after the successful start of the Bank of England in 1694 and given the sorry state of French finances in the late years of Louis XIV's reign, with several projects promoted from 1701 onwards.

The regent Philippe II, Duke of Orléans first declined to embrace Law's ideas,[3]: 121  which had no support from France's established financiers.

Noailles's policies did not succeed at restoring confidence and credit, however, and the Regent eventually turned back to Law and his bank project.

[3]: 125 The conditions for share subscription made it possible to pay mostly in government bills accepted at face value, which was highly advantageous to subscribers since these forms of state debt traded at a 60 percent market discount at the time.

[3]: 127-129, 201 The decision to nationalize the bank, long advocated by Law, was made in a context of unveiling of the Cellamare conspiracy and diplomatic escalation in the War of the Quadruple Alliance, as it appeared that France may need to increase its military expenditure.

A separate decree on 27 December 1718 specified that all large transactions should be paid in banknotes in the bank's branches in Amiens, La Rochelle, Lyon, Orléans and Tours.

[9][10] During the subsequent restructuring, the French authorities decided to assume the liabilities of the bankrupt bank while leaving the (parent) company in the ownership of its existing shareholders.