The Deluded Speculators’ Tower of Babel
The Great Mirror Of Folly (1720)
Symbolic Alchemy Of Risk:
Part I: The Great Mirror Of Folly
The engraving below—created in the wreckage of Law's experiment—eerily prefigures our modern predicament:
The Great Mirror of Folly’s Tower Of Babel shows financial alchemy's grotesque endpoint: speculators suffer from diarrhea after gorging on “stock cakes”—a metaphor for dubious, fraudulent, or inflated financial products—and use their now-worthless certificates as toilet paper. John Law is seated on the bottom left, actively issuing and signing shares; the Tower of Babel rises in the background, symbolizing the hubris of this alchemical endeavor.
On the right side, a vendor—likely a personification of English financial fraud, and possibly representing Sir John Blunt—cooks deceptive stock cakes labeled ‘Smoke,’ ‘Wind,’ ‘Bad Shares,’ and ‘English Shares’. While some interpretations identify this figure as John Law, the labeling suggests a stronger alignment with the South Sea Bubble and English speculation, making Blunt the more likely symbolic target.
Above the chaos, Fortune—a blindfolded woman—rises from smoke while Wisdom exposes Fraud by pulling away her dress to reveal clawed feet. Financial predation is symbolized by a hawk killing a smaller bird, while a ruined investor throws himself from a window in despair.
The banner at the top reads
Greed drives many souls to ruin chasing profit,
Who, blinded by love of illusory wealth,
Lose their work, clothes, and even their very status.
All is lost. Let those drowning in debt take warning:
What they found in shares was mere air and wind—
Empty shadows, never touched by substance.
Below the scene is a poem:
Behold how Law's grand scheme collapsed—
His paper empire turned to ash.
While foolish stocks like hotcakes sold,
Men fought for shares with dreams of gold.
They soiled themselves in frantic greed,
Then found their papers served a need:
To wipe their backsides, raw and red,
With shares once prized, now worthless instead.
Such was their hunger for this trade,
They trampled friends their fortunes made.
The Southern merchant hawks his wares,
Selling slips of worthless shares.
Fair Fortune, blind with purse of wind,
Feeds empty dreams to every mind.
While Fraud sits high upon her throne,
A hundred fools call her their own.
They bow before her gilded lies,
And trust Her tricks before their eyes.
She floats on clouds of empty air
Adored by crowds without a care.
But Wisdom came with Courage true,
And stripped away Fraud's golden hue.
Beneath her robes—a dragon's form!
The Hydra's head to bring the storm.
The crowd recoiled in shocked dismay,
Their golden dreams all swept away.
Then Hope herself came crashing down,
Her wings clipped mid-flight to the ground.
Like madmen driven to despair,
Some leap from windows through the air.
They'd rather die than face the shame
Of losing at this ruinous game.
An airy schemer tried his best
To crown fair Holland with Jester's crest—
But Conscience came with Justice strong,
And stopped his wicked, shameful wrong.
Moral
Like Babel's tower, built with pride,
They fell beneath the stars they eyed.
The people, filled with rage and shame,
Repent this madness and its blame.
Let this example warn posterity—
This alchemy was the utmost folly,
So let this madness stand in fame—
A monument to Babel’s shame.