Share-dealers and ruined speculators confronting each other in a crowded street during the share price boom of 1720. Etching after A. Humblot, ca. 1720.

According to De Bruyn, the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam is shown as Rue Quinquempoix in Paris, the scene of speculative trading during the John Law scheme (De Bruyn, 'Het groote tafereel and the speculative bubble of 1720', p. 65). However it seems equally likely that trading in Rue Quinquempoix in Paris is shown as a model for trading in the Kalverstraat. Bombario, the personification of reckless speculation, allows his humped back to be used as a desk by the stock-jobbers (De Bruyn, 'Reading Het groote tafereel', p. 23). John Law looks out of a window (marked "Law", left). A lantern suspended above the street is labelled "Missisippi Lantaarn"; the lettering refers to it as a lantern without light. In the right background, a bank has a key as its street-sign, with the motto "Ik sluyt en onsluyt" (I lock and unlock). Above is the inscription "Hier sijn stroppen" (Here are straps, colloquial word for bad bargains). A dealer in the foreground says "Koop maar acties" (buy more shares).