Jackson Kuhl explains the origin of New Orleans, The City Below Sea Level:
The founding of New Orleans owes much to the conniving not of a Frenchman, but of a Scotsman.John Law was a professional gambler who fled Great Britain after killing a man in a duel. After wandering the Continent, he eventually became the confidant of Philippe, the Duke of Orleans and regent of France. Their shared interests — women and games of chance — led to the creation of a get-rich-quick scheme that historians today call ‘the Mississippi Bubble.’
Law’s plan was to convince nobles and wealthy merchants to purchase shares of stock in land in Louisiana, which had been claimed for France in 1682 by explorer Robert Cavelier de LaSalle. Then, in return for a plot of their own and free passage, volunteers (read: shanghaied paupers, criminals, and prostitutes) would be enlisted to emigrate to the New World and work the shareholders’ land. The 18th-century venture capitalists would see returns on their investment once troves of gold, silver, diamonds, and pearls were discovered — which, Law insisted, could be found under every cypress knee and in every duckweed-scummed pool of the Mississippi delta.
Law was contracted in 1716 by the French government (read: Philippe) to establish a new bank which would extend him endless credit for his company.
The charter also granted his company control of Louisiana. Law reappointed Jean Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville, to a second term as governor of Louisiana. Bienville had been eager to found a trading post at the foot of a Native American portage along the Mississippi which connected the river to a bayou, and hence to Lake Pontchartrain, in the north. He saw this as his chance. Law and the royal engineer both thought Bienville’s choice was ridiculous — the site was in the middle of a swamp. The small patch of dry ground lay at a curve in the river, Bienville argued, halfway between Fort Rosalie (Natchez) along the Mississippi and Fort Louis at Mobile. Also, he said, it would be safe from hurricanes. Being the highest-ranking official on-site, Bienville had his way, and Nouvelle Orleans — named after Law’s benefactor — was born in 1718. Not that it mattered for John Law: by the end of 1720, he was bankrupt and had fled Paris for Belgium.