The Mississippi Company was a corporation holding a business monopoly in French colonies in North America and the West Indies. When land development and speculation in the region became frenzied and detached from economic reality, the Mississippi bubble became one of the earliest examples of an economic bubble. In May 1716, the Banque Générale Privée, which developed the use of paper money, was set up by John Law, it was a private bank, but three quarters of the capital consisted of government bills and government-accepted notes. In August 1717, he bought the Mississippi Company to help the French colony in Louisiana. In the same year Law conceived. Law was named the Chief Director of this new company, granted a trade monopoly of the West Indies and North America by the French government; the bank became the Banque Royale in 1718, meaning the notes were guaranteed by the king, Louis XV of France. The company absorbed the Compagnie des Indes Orientales, the Compagnie de Chine, other rival trading companies and became the Compagnie Perpetuelle des Indes on 23 May 1719 with a monopoly of French commerce on all the seas.

The bank began issuing more notes than it could represent in coinage. Louis XIV's long reign and wars had nearly bankrupted the French monarchy. Rather than reduce spending, the Regency of Louis XV of France endorsed the monetary theories of Scottish financier John Law. In 1716, Law was given a charter for the Banque Royale under which the national debt was assigned to the bank in return for extraordinary privileges; the key to the Banque Royale agreement was that the national debt would be paid from revenues derived from opening the Mississippi Valley. The Bank was tied to the Companies of the Indies. All were known as the Mississippi Company; the Mississippi Company had a monopoly on mineral wealth. The Company boomed on paper. Law was given the title Duc d'Arkansas. Bernard de la Harpe and his party left New Orleans in 1719 to explore the Red River. In 1721, he explored the Arkansas River. At the Yazoo settlements in Mississippi he was joined by Jean Benjamin who became the scientist for the expedition.

In 1718, there were only 700 Europeans in Louisiana. The Mississippi Company arranged ships to move 800 more, who landed in Louisiana in 1718, doubling the European population. John Law encouraged Germans Germans of the Alsatian region who had fallen under French rule, the Swiss to emigrate, they give their name to the regions of the Côte des Allemands and the Lac des Allemands in Louisiana. Prisoners were set free in Paris in September 1719 onwards, under the condition that they marry prostitutes and go with them to Louisiana; the newly married couples were taken to the port of embarkation. In May 1720, after complaints from the Mississippi Company and the concessioners about this class of French immigrants, the French government prohibited such deportations. However, there was a third shipment of prisoners in 1721. Law exaggerated the wealth of Louisiana with an effective marketing scheme, which led to wild speculation on the shares of the company in 1719; the scheme promised success for the Mississippi Company by combining investor fervor and the wealth of its Louisiana prospects into a sustainable, joint-stock, trading company.

The popularity of company shares were such that they sparked a need for more paper bank notes, when shares generated profits the investors were paid out in paper bank notes. In 1720, the bank and company were merged and Law was appointed by Philippe II, Duke of Orleans Regent for Louis XV, to be Comptroller General of Finances to attract capital. Law's pioneering note-issuing bank thrived until the French government was forced to admit that the number of paper notes being issued by the Banque Royale exceeded the value of the amount of metal coinage it held; the "bubble" burst at the end of 1720, when opponents of the financier attempted to convert their notes into specie en masse, forcing the bank to stop payment on its paper notes. By the end of 1720 Philippe d'Orléans had dismissed Law from his positions. Law fled France for Brussels moving on to Venice, where he lived off his gambling, he was buried in the church San Moisè in Venice. Richard Cantillon – banker who made an early profit from the company List of trading companies European chartered companies founded around the 17th century "Learning from past investment manias".

"Mississippi Scheme". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921. "Mississippi Scheme". New International Encyclopedia. 1905

Live 93 is a live album released in 1993 by The Orb on Island Records. Live 93 is a collection of highlights from The Orb's 1993 performances in Asia, it features The Orb's live performance crew of Alex Paterson, Kris Weston, producers Nick Burton and Simon Phillips, as well as audio engineer Andy Hughes, who had stepped in when Weston decided to stop touring. The album cover of a sheep over a power station is a parody of the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals, an album cover they had parodied on the cover of Aubrey Mixes: The Ultraworld Excursions; the album reached #23 on the UK Album Chart. Island – 5300703: Live 93 at Discogs

Gaztelugatxe is an islet on the coast of Biscay belonging to the municipality of Bermeo, Basque Country. It is connected to the mainland by a man-made bridge. On top of the island stands a hermitage, dedicated to John the Baptist, that dates from the 10th century, although discoveries indicate that the date might be the 9th century. With another small neighboring island, they form a protected biotope that extends from the town of Bakio until Cape Matxitxako, on the Bay of Biscay; the word gaztelugatxe comes from the Basque gaztelu = "castle" and atx = "rock", forming "the rock castle". The word atx and its derivatives are usual in Basque toponyms related to rocky summits: Aketx, Atxulo... The Basque coast is rough in this area; the sea ceaselessly erodes the rocky coast creating tunnels and caves. The island of Gaztelugatxe is in the center of this section of coast next to the small Aketx island, a sanctuary for marine birds. Next to the hermitage there is a small shelter with sea views, used for picnicking and for refuge from the wind.

The hermitage is accessed by a narrow path, crossing the solid stone bridge, going up 231 steps. According to legend, after the strenuous climb to the top of the crag one should ring the bell three times and make a wish; the small church, 80 metres above sea level, dates from the 10th century. In the year 1053 it was donated, by don Íñigo López, Lord of Biscay, to the monastery of San Juan de la Peña near Jaca in Huesca. Medieval burials from the 9th and 12th centuries have been found on the esplanade and in the hermitage. In 1593 it sacked by Francis Drake. Among other incidents, it has caught fire several times. On November 10, 1978, it was destroyed in one such fire. Two years on June 24, 1980, it was re-inaugurated; the hermitage belongs to the parish of San Pelayo in Bakio. The hermitage houses votive offerings from sailors who survived shipwrecks; the strategic location of the site has given it an important role in historic episodes. It was one of the places where the Lord of Biscay, Juan Núñez de Lara, confronted Alfonso XI, King of Castile, in 1334.

In 1594 it was attacked by the Huguenots of La Rochelle, who killed the caretaker. In the 18th century it was assaulted by English troops. HBO filmed scenes for season 7 of its fantasy series Game of Thrones at the islet. Gaztelugatxe stood in with a digitally created castle on top of the islet. Gaztelugatxe, Bermeo Town Council website. San Juan de Gaztelugatxe