Law, Like Another Don Quixote, Sits on Sancho’s Ass, Being Everyone’s Fool

Anonymous,1720, etching and engraving

This print likens the foolishness of those who gambled on “wind” to the delusions of Don Quixote. John Law assumes the role of Cervantes’ hero, who mistook windmills for giants, and believed his decrepit horse to be a magnificent steed. Encouraged by three devils overhead, a frenzied mob at right snatches up stock shares issued from the rear end of Law’s donkey. Seated on a toad, and playing the part of Sancho Panza, Bombario—a noisy, disruptive character meant to embody the chaos of the marketplace—accompanies the procession into Amsterdam’s café Quinquampoix, named after the street in Paris where share-trading occurred. In the foreground, Mercury’s caduceus, along with a ledger book and other discarded items, symbolize the rejection of legitimate commerce.