In the second episode of Rise of Money, Bonds of War, Niall begins with a case study of the bubble and bust that bankrupted the French monarchy and the led to collapse. It continues the story of Jean Law, a London prisoner who managed to build on the concept originated by the East India Trading Company to create the first Ponzi scheme. His success reached breaking point when he became Prime Minister of France. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. The problem was that he didn't know where to stop. He wanted to continue printing money to drive up the price of companies' shares, thus becoming the first insider trader. However, the masses eventually discovered that the shares sold in the Mississippi Company he created were worthless. When Law attempted to lower the stock price, it plummeted to more than 90% of its original value. The Mississippi bubble had burst and Jean Law fled the country. Law's madness ruined the French financial economy, which led to revolution in France. This plunged Europe into a series of bloody wars, leading to the exploits of Napoleon Bonaparte. Jacobson goes on to talk about the Rothschilds, particularly Nathan Rothschild, and their rise in financial London. Nathan was a financial genius who dominated the London bond market. Nathan took the money raised on the London bond market and converted it into gold to finance the war against France. He charged a hefty commission for this service. He also used his vast network of family members to buy and sell gold at the best prices throughout Europe. Nathan bought as much gold as he could, anticipating that the war would last a long time. This did not happen, as Wellington defeated Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo, which caused the price of gold to collapse. Faced with falling gold prices, Nathan used the gold to make a risky move into the London bond market, also buying bonds. as prices began to rise. Eventually, when bond prices reached a huge value, he sold his holdings and made a fortune. With a large investment in British bonds, the Rothschilds realized that any war in which Britain was the loser could cause the bonds to lose value. During the American Civil War, the South did not have the finances to defeat the North. The South looked to Britain for financial support. The Rothschilds decided not to lend money to the British government to finance the South's war effort. The South then decided to back its holdings with cotton at a pre-war price. The South had decided to blackmail Britain with cotton by imposing an embargo on all cotton shipments to Liverpool. This devastated the British economy by putting a quarter of the British public into poverty and causing the price of cotton-backed bonds to soar. Ferguson claims that the Northern victory over the ports of New Orleans crippled the cotton trade, causing the value of cotton-backed bonds to plummet. The South tried to raise money by printing money. This caused rapid inflation in the South as money began to lose value. Therefore the South could no longer finance the war against the North. Ferguson then goes on to talk about the aristocracy in Britain. Long ago, most of the land in Britain was owned by a few wealthy landowners. What landowners didn't realize at the time was that when they borrowed money and used their land as collateral, they needed to raise funds for.