資料紹介
早稲田大学法学部
長文問題
分析と
対策
問題編
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資料の原本内容
英語塾
早稲田大学法学部 長文問題 分析と対策
問題編
1 Read the following passage and answer the questions below.
①
The study of economics is a modern discipline. Today everybody seems to know about the
business cycle, while supply and demand, inflation and recession, are all household words. But
until the late eighteenth century, when Adam Smith witnessed the beginnings of the English
Industrial Revolution and wrote The Wealth of Nations(1776), there was little systematic
consideration of the way that commerce worked. Nevertheless, over half a century earlier the
Scotsman John Law single-handedly created a financial system very similar to that of a modern
industrial state. Its cornerstones were a central bank to control the money supply, and the use of
paper currency and easy credit to promote investment. This did not take place in Scotland but in
France under the Regent, Philippe Ⅱ, Duke of Orleans, following the death in 1715 of King Louis
XIV, whose extravagance had
brought the country to the verge of financial ruin. At first the Scotsman's ideas worked extremely
well, and he rapidly became the richest and most powerful man in France-perhaps in all of
continental Europe. But clearly Law was ahead of his time, for within little more than five years
his ambitious financial schemes were to fall apart.
②
John Law was born in Edinburgh in 1671, the son of a wealthy goldsmith, a profession which
then included the roles of banker and moneylender, since precious metals were the only currency.
As a youth Law earned a reputation not only for his brilliance in mathematics, but also as a man of
fashion and a gambler. In London in April 1694 he killed a man in a duel and had to flee the
country. He went to the thriving commercial city of Amsterdam, where he studied the banking and
financial arrangements closely. For the next twenty years he traveled widely in continental Europe,
dividing his time between the gambling table, where his luck and skill earned him a substantial
fortune, and the study, where he composed a series of pamphlets on financial and monetary issues,
including Money and Trade Considered(1709). At the same time, he made contacts with many
European statesmen, but repeatedly failed in his attempts to persuade them to put his economic
theories into practice. The same was true in his homeland, where the Scottish parliament had
rejected his scheme for the establishment of a state bank.
③ After the death of Louis XIV, however, Law managed to win the support of the French Regent
for a scheme that promised to reduce the crushing burden of public debt and stimulate French trade
and industry. Though Law's proposal for a national bank was rejected, in May 1716 he was
permitted to create his own private bank, the General Bank, the first of its kind to be founded in
英語塾
France. In this way, Law was able to try out his pet scheme of a paper currency under especially
favorable circumstances. At that time the French government frequently changed the value of coins
by reducing the amount of precious metals they contained. Law made his bank notes payable on
demand in coin of the same standard and weight as at the date of issue. The reputation of the
General Bank was increased in 1717 when the government agreed to accept Law's bank notes in
payment of taxes. Since his paper money was more popular than gold or silver coins, Law freely
lent money at low interest, and the result was the stimulation of French industry of all kinds.
④ Unfortunately Law's love of gambling, plus pressure from the Regent to provide funds for his
own extravagant lifestyle, ensured that the Scotsman would go at least one step too far. Law
wanted a bank that would not only issue
paper
money
and encourage investment but that
would also control all national trade. He thus came up with a scheme to develop the land along the
Mississippi River in North America. In 1717 he began to issue shares in a new Mississippi
Company. His agents sent back optimistic reports about the wealth to ...
