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I don't think so. The pool value is 500,000 + sold tickets. So there's no reason for the organisers to limit the number of sold tickets. Since, as the number of

I don't think so. The pool value is 500,000 + sold tickets. So there's no reason for the organisers to limit the number of sold tickets. Since, as the number of tickets sold increase, the pool value increases. As the pool value increases, the number of bonds that gets paid off increases, so less debt for Hotel de ville (bondholders would be paying other bondholders). I think the key is that no one thought Hotel de Ville bonds would get repaid, so their value would be approximately zero (or around about there). So Voltaire could buy all the bonds for cheap. Therefore, rather than there being a limit of the number of tickets available, he controls the number of tickets bought, since him (and his buddies) are the only bondholders and can buy tickets.

OscarCunningham 8y ago
> So there's no reason for the organisers to limit the number of sold tickets. But maybe they stupidly did so anyway? (Perhaps because they only knew how to draw randomly from the number of tickets that could physically fit into a large tumbler.) > I think the key is that no one thought Hotel de Ville bonds would get repaid, so there value would be approximately zero (or around about there). So Voltaire could buy all the bonds for cheap. That would also make sense, but it seems implausible to me that Voltaire would be able to buy up the bonds cheaply after the lottery had already been announced.
- plouffy 8y ago
  The article mentions records of the results, but unfortunately all I could find is the announcement of the 19th draw (I think the results of the 18th draw are below, but they don't show names) [1]. Looks like you were right and the number of tickets were limited to 20,000 "LE PUBLIC est averti que les Billets de la dix-neuvième Loterie de la Ville, toujours fixés au nombre/ de Vingt mille, depuis & compris le numéro 20001 jusques & compris le numéro 40000, commenceront d'être distribués le Samedi 19 Juin 1762" [1] http://parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/dix-neuvieme-loterie-de-l-hotel-de-ville-de-paris-etablie-par-arrets-du#infos-principales http://parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/o...
  - OscarCunningham 8y ago
    Thanks for doing the research! This version of the story is also more in the spirit of the original article. It's not just that the government was more solvent than people thought; Voltaire is making money by cleverly exploiting a technicality in the lottery system.

OscarCunningham 8y ago

> So there's no reason for the organisers to limit the number of sold tickets. But maybe they stupidly did so anyway? (Perhaps because they only knew how to draw randomly from the number of tickets that could physically fit into a large tumbler.) > I think the key is that no one thought Hotel de Ville bonds would get repaid, so there value would be approximately zero (or around about there). So Voltaire could buy all the bonds for cheap. That would also make sense, but it seems implausible to me that Voltaire would be able to buy up the bonds cheaply after the lottery had already been announced.

plouffy 8y ago
The article mentions records of the results, but unfortunately all I could find is the announcement of the 19th draw (I think the results of the 18th draw are below, but they don't show names) [1]. Looks like you were right and the number of tickets were limited to 20,000 "LE PUBLIC est averti que les Billets de la dix-neuvième Loterie de la Ville, toujours fixés au nombre/ de Vingt mille, depuis & compris le numéro 20001 jusques & compris le numéro 40000, commenceront d'être distribués le Samedi 19 Juin 1762" [1] http://parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/dix-neuvieme-loterie-de-l-hotel-de-ville-de-paris-etablie-par-arrets-du#infos-principales http://parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/o...
- OscarCunningham 8y ago
  Thanks for doing the research! This version of the story is also more in the spirit of the original article. It's not just that the government was more solvent than people thought; Voltaire is making money by cleverly exploiting a technicality in the lottery system.