SOURCE: "Love on Credit: Marivaux and Law," in Romance Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 3, August, 1991, pp. 289-99.

In the following essay, Caplan contends that the value of love in The Game of Love and Chance mirrors a growing belief that money has no intrinsic value but is a "pure convention, grounded in nothing more than public belief. "

In 1716, the French regent, Phillippe d'Orléans chartered John Law's Banque Générale (later the Banque Royale), and authorized it to issue paper notes. He later placed the Scotsman at the head of the newly consolidated Compagnie Générale des Indes, whose notes were guaranteed by the state. The success of these measures was such that in 1720, Law became controller general of finances, and brought the bank and the stock company under his direction. After a frenzied wave of speculation in the so-called "Mississippi bubble," the entire "system" went bankrupt on...