My first encounter with John Law's story was after reading Charles Mackay's 1852 "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds".

https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/24518

It's plainly told and unsurprisingly familiar if you've followed the causes of any of the negligence entertained by the SEC this millennium.

Oh, that seems interesting - like a companion book to the more flamboyant one, Extraordinary Popular Delusions; sounds like it is more statements of facts and unbiased accounts, as opposed to entertainment?