CEMH Digital Talk: Charly Coleman (History, Columbia University)

Title: "John Law’s Sacraments of Finance"

Abstract: This lecture traces the surprising influence of sacramental theology on the reception of John Law’s System. Allusions to the mysteries of transubstantiation and transmutation abounded in cultural productions of the period, which depicted banknotes and company shares as yielding previously unfathomable riches. The spiritual ideal of boundlessness drove participation in the System, emboldening investors to place their faith in accumulation without limit.

Bio: Charly Coleman is Associate Professor of History at Columbia University. His latest book, The Spirit of French Capitalism: Economic Theology in the Age of Enlightenment, is forthcoming with Stanford University Press in January 2021.

Part of the Panic and Plague in 1720 and 2020 Lecture Series