Eros, Inc.: Cupid, Capital, and the Crash of 1720.

This article examines the interplay between the imagery of Amour (Cupid) and the emergence of France’s first modern financial bubble during the early eighteenth century, particularly under John Law’s System, which introduced mass printed paper currency and speculative stock markets. It explores how artworks by Charles Coypel, Bernard Picart, Jean-François Janinet, and others used the theme of love’s irresistible power ("omnia vincit amor") to symbolize both the seductive allure and coercive control exercised by the new paper economy and its colonial enterprises, including the Company of the Indies’ role in French Louisiana. The essay highlights the cultural and political dimensions of this period, showing how Amour’s iconography embodied the volatility, imitation, and social upheaval of a credit-based economy that promised emancipation while masking despotism and colonial domination. It also discusses how the financial bubble’s collapse exposed tensions between ideals of douceur (gentle rule) and the coercive realities underpinning France’s economic and imperial ambitions.