Satire on the Mississippi Company

This engraved satire depicts the collapse of John Law's Mississippi Company scheme, a financial bubble that devastated European investors in the 1720s. The print shows a chaotic street scene where crowds of duped speculators mill about a central edifice labeled with the company's name, while pickpockets and con artists work the mob. The Swiss engraver David Herrliberger rendered the scene in fine detail typical of Northern European satirical prints, employing caricature to mock both the gullible masses and the financial swindlers who exploited them. The composition descends from Hogarth's moralistic narratives and prefigures Daumier's later financial satires—visual journalism that made economics legible through exaggeration and grotesque portraiture. Such prints circulated widely, shaping public opinion on corruption and greed centuries before the editorial cartoon became a newspaper staple.