the wars waged by louis xiv left the country completely wasted, both economically and financially. the resultant shortage of precious metals led to a shortage of coins in circulation, which in turn limited the production of new coins. with the death of louis xiv seventeen months after law's arrival, the duke of orleans finally presented law with the opportunity to display his ingenuity. since, following the devastating war of the spanish succession, france's economy was stagnant and her national debt was crippling, law proposed to stimulate industry by replacing gold with paper credit and then increasing the supply of credit, and to reduce the national debt by replacing it with shares in economic ventures. on 1 may 1716, law presented a modified version of his centralised bank plan to the banque générale which approved a private bank that allowed investors to supply one-fourth of an investment in currency and the other parts in defunct government bonds. the second key feature of the proposal centred on the premise that this private bank was able to issue its own currency backed by louis of gold. this enabled the currency to be redeemed by the weight of silver from the original deposit instead of the fluctuating value of the livres which had been devaluing rapidly.