South Sea Company

The South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the
merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of
America, and for the encouragement of fishing)[3] was a British joint-stock
company founded in 1711, created as a public-private partnership to consolidate and
reduce the cost of national debt. The company was also granted a monopoly to trade
with South America and nearby islands, hence its name (the modern use of the term
"South Seas" to refer to the entire South Pacific was unknown in England at the
time). When the company was created, Britain was involved in the War of the
Spanish Succession and Spain controlled South America. There was no realistic
1754 engraving of Old South Sea
prospect that trade would take place, and the company never realised any significant
House, the headquarters of the
profit from its monopoly. Company stock rose greatly in value as it expanded its South Sea Company, burned down in
operations dealing in government debt, peaking in 1720 before collapsing to little 1826,[1] on the corner of Bishopsgate
above its original flotation price; the economic bubble became known as the South Street and Threadneedle Street in
Sea Bubble. the City of London

The Bubble Act 1720 (6 Geo I, c 18), which forbade the creation of joint-stock
companies without royal charter, was promoted by the South Sea company itself
before its collapse.

In Great Britain, a considerable number of people were ruined by the share collapse,
and the national economy greatly reduced as a result. The founders of the scheme
engaged in insider trading, using their advance knowledge of when national debt
was to be consolidated to make large profits from purchasing debt in advance. Huge
bribes were given to politicians to support the Acts of Parliament necessary for the
scheme.[4] Company money was used to deal in its own shares, and selected
The Dividend Hall of South Sea
individuals purchasing shares were given loans backed by those same shares to
House, 1810
spend on purchasing more shares. The expectation of profits from trade with South
America was used to encourage the public to purchase shares, but the bubble prices
reached far beyond the profits of the slave trade.[5]

A parliamentary enquiry was held after the crash to discover its causes. A number of politicians were disgraced, and people found to
have profited unlawfully from the company had assets confiscated proportionate to their gains (most had already been rich men and
remained comfortably rich). The company was restructured and continued to operate for more than a century after the Bubble. The
headquarters were in Threadneedle Street at the centre of the financial district in London. At the time of these events the Bank of
England also was a private company dealing in national debt, and the crash of its rival consolidated its position as banker to the
British government.[6]

Contents
Foundation
Conception of the Company
Flotation
The slave trade
Changes of management
War
 Refinancing government debt
Trading more debt for equity
Public announcement
Inflating the share price
Bubble Act
Top reached
Recriminations
Quotations prompted by the collapse
A trading company
Slave trade under the Asiento
The annual ship
Arctic whaling Arms of the South Sea
Company: Azure, a globe
Government debt after the Seven Years' War
whereon are represented
Armorials the Straits of Magellan and
Officers of the South Sea Company Cape Horn all proper and in
In fiction sinister chief point two
herrings haurient in saltire
See also
argent crowned or, in a
Notes canton the united arms of
References Great Britain
External links

Foundation
In August 1710 Robert Harley was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in a
government of commission. The government at this time had become reliant on the
Bank of England. This was a privately owned company, chartered 16 years
previously, which had obtained a monopoly as the lender to Westminster, in return
for arranging and managing loans to the government. The government had become
dissatisfied with the service it was receiving and Harley was actively seeking new Heraldic grouping above main
ways to improve the national finances. entrance to the surviving South Sea
House, Threadneedle Street, rebuilt
A new Parliament met in November 1710 with a resolve to attend to national after the fire of 1826
finances, which were suffering significantly from two simultaneous wars: the war
with France, which ended in 1713, and the Great Northern War, which was not to
end until 1721. Harley came prepared, with detailed accounts of the situation of the national debt, which was customarily a piecemeal
affair, with different government departments arranging their own loans as the need arose. He released the information steadily,
continually adding new reports of debts incurred and scandalous expenditure, until in January 1711 the House of Commons agreed to
appoint a committee to investigate the entire debt. The committee included Harley himself; the two Auditors of the Imprests, whose
task was to investigate government spending; Harley's brother Edward; and Paul Foley, his brother-in-law. Also included were the
Secretary of the Treasury, William Lowndes, who had had significant responsibility for reminting the entire debased British coinage
.[7]
in 1696; and John Aislabie who represented the October Club, a group of around 200 MPs who had agreed to vote together

Harley's first concern was to find £300,000 for the next quarter's pay for the British army operating in Europe under Marlborough.
This was provided by a private consortium of Edward Gibbon,[8] George Caswall and Hoare's Bank. The Bank of England had been
operating a state lottery on behalf of the government, but this had not been particularly successful in 1710, and another had already
begun in 1711. This too was performing poorly, so Harley granted authority to sell tickets to John Blunt, a director of the Hollow
Sword Blade Company, which despite its name was an unofficial bank. With sales commencing on 3 March 1711, tickets had
.[9]
completely sold out by the 7th. This was the first truly successful English state lottery
The success was shortly followed by another, larger, lottery, "The Two Million
Adventure" or "The Classis", with tickets costing £100, a top prize of £20,000 and
every ticket winning a prize of at least £10. Although prizes were advertised by their
total amount, they were paid in the form of a fixed annuity over a period of years, so
that the government effectively held the prize money as a loan until it was paid out
to the winners. Marketing was handled by members of the Sword Blade syndicate,
Gibbon selling £200,000 of tickets and earning £4,500 commission, and Blunt
selling £993,000. Charles Blunt (a relative) was made Paymaster of the lottery with
expenses of £5,000.

Conception of the Company

The national debt investigation had concluded that a total of £9,000,000 was owed,
without any allocated income to pay it off. Edward Harley and John Blunt together
had devised a scheme to consolidate this debt in much the same way that the Bank of
An early trade label of the South Sea
England had consolidated previous debts, although the Bank still held the monopoly
Company, for export of finest English
on operating as a bank. All holders of the debt would be required to surrender it to a serge cloth. The letters
new company, the South Sea Company, which in return would issue shares to the circumscribing the seal below should
same amount. The government would pay the company £568,279 10s 0d (6% read "SS&FC", for "South Sea and
interest plus expenses) annually, which would be distributed as a dividend to Fishery Company"[2]
shareholders. The company was also given a monopoly to trade with South America,
a potentially lucrative enterprise, but one controlled by Spain, with whom Britain
was at war.[10]

At that time, when continental America was being explored and colonized,
Europeans applied the term "South Seas" only to South America and surrounding
waters. The concession both held out the potential for future profits and encouraged
a desire for an end to the war, necessary if any profits were to be made. The original
suggestion for the South Sea scheme came from William Paterson, one of the
founders of the Bank of England and the financially disastrousDarien Scheme.[10]

Harley was rewarded for the scheme by being created Earl of Oxford on 23 May
1711, and was promoted to Lord High Treasurer. With a more secure position, he
began secret peace negotiations with France. Commercially, since the lotteries were
discredited, some of the debt intended to be consolidated under the scheme was
available in the open market before the scheme was announced, at a discounted rate
of £55 per £100 nominal value. This allowed anyone with advance knowledge to
buy debt cheap and sell at an immediate profit, and made it possible for Harley to
bring further financial supporters into the scheme, such as James Bateman and
Theodore Janssen.[11] 1733 share certificate of the South
Sea Company showing the
Daniel Defoe commented:[12] Company's coat of arms and the
Latin motto A Gadibus usque
Auroram ("From Cadiz to Dawn",
Unless the Spaniards are to be divested of common sense, infatuate,
Juvenal, Satires, 10)
and given up, abandoning their own commerce, throwing away the
only valuable stake they have left in the world, and in short, bent on
their own ruin, we cannot suggest that they will ever, on any
consideration, or for any equivalent, part with so valuable, indeed so
inestimable a jewel, as the exclusive trade to their own plantations.
The originators of the scheme knew that there was no money to invest in a trading
venture, and no realistic expectation that there would ever be a trade to exploit, but the
potential for great wealth was widely publicised at every opportunity, so as to encourage
interest in the scheme. The objective for the founders was to create a company which
they could use to become wealthy, and which offered future scope for further
government deals.[13]

Hogarthian image of the 1720

Flotation "South Sea Bubble" from the mid-
The Charter for the company was drawn up by Blunt, based on that of the Bank of 19th century, by Edward Matthew
England. Blunt was paid £3,846 for his services in setting up the company. Directors Ward, Tate Gallery
would be elected every three years and shareholders would meet twice a year. The
company employed a Cashier, Secretary and Accountant. The Governor was
intended to be an honorary position, and the position was later customarily held by
the ruling monarch. The charter allowed the full court of directors to nominate a
smaller committee to act on any matter on its behalf. Directors of the Bank of
England and of the East India Company were disbarred from being a director of the
South Sea Company. Any ship of more than 500 tons owned by the company was to
have a Church of England clergyman on board.

The exchange of government debt for stock was to occur in five separate lots. The
first two of these, totaling £2.75 million from about 200 large investors, had already
been arranged before the company's charter was issued on 10 September 1711. The
government itself exchanged £0.75 million of its own debt held by different
departments (at this time, individual office holders were responsible for money in
their charge, and were at liberty to invest it to their own advantage before it was
The "night singer of shares" sold
required). Harley exchanged £8,000 of debt and was appointed Governor of the new
stock on the streets during the South
company. Blunt, Caswall and Sawbridge together provided £65,000, Janssen Sea Bubble. Amsterdam, 1720.
£25,000 of his own plus £250,000 from a foreign consortium, Decker £49,000, Sir
Ambrose Crawley £36,791. The company had a Sub-Governor, Bateman; a Deputy
Governor, Ongley; and 30 ordinary directors. In total, nine of the directors were politicians, five were members of the Sword Blade
[14]
consortium, and seven more were financial magnates who had been attracted to the scheme.

The company created a coat of arms with the motto A Gadibus usque ad Auroram ("from Cadiz to the dawn") and rented a large
house in the City as its headquarters. Seven sub-committees were created to handle its everyday business, the most important being
the "Committee for the affairs of the company". The Sword Blade company was retained as their banker and on the strength of its
new government connections issued notes in its own right, notwithstanding the Bank of England monopoly. The task of the Company
Secretary was to oversee trading activities; the Accountant, Grigsby, was responsible for registering and issuing stock; and the
.[15]
Cashier, Robert Knight, acted as Blunt's personal assistant at a salary of £200 per year

The slave trade

The Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 granted Britain an Asiento lasting 30 years to supply the Spanish colonies with 4,800 slaves per year.
Britain was permitted to open offices in Buenos Aires, Caracas, Cartagena, Havana, Panama, Portobello and Vera Cruz to arrange the
Atlantic slave trade. One ship of no more than 500 tons could be sent to one of these places each year (the Navío de Permiso) with
general trade goods. One quarter of the profits were to be reserved for the King of Spain. There was provision for two extra sailings
at the start of the contract. The Asiento was granted in the name ofQueen Anne and then contracted to the company.[16]

By July the company had arranged contracts with the Royal African Companyto supply the necessary African slaves to Jamaica. Ten
pounds was paid for a slave aged over 16, £8 for one under 16 but over 10. Two-thirds were to be male, and 90% adult. The company
trans-shipped 1,230 slaves from Jamaica to America in the first year, plus any that might have been added (against standing
instructions) by the ship's captains on their own behalf. On arrival of the first cargoes, the local authorities refused to accept the
Asiento, which had still not been officially confirmed there by the Spanish authorities. The slaves were eventually sold at a loss in the
West Indies.[17]

In 1714 the government announced that a quarter of profits would be reserved for the Queen and a further 7.5% for a financial
advisor, Manasseh Gilligan. Some Company board members refused to accept the contract on these terms, and the government was
obliged to reverse its decision.[18]

Despite these setbacks, the company continued, having raised £200,000 to finance the operations. In 1714 2,680 slaves were carried,
and for 1716–17, 13,000 more, but the trade continued to be unprofitable. An import duty of 33 pieces of eight was charged on each
slave (although for this purpose some slaves might be counted only as a fraction of a slave, depending on quality). One of the extra
trade ships was sent to Cartagena in 1714 carrying woollen goods, despite warnings that there was no market for them there, and they
remained unsold for two years.[19]

Changes of management
The company was heavily dependent on the goodwill of government; when the government changed, so too did the company board.
In 1714 one of the directors who had been sponsored by Harley, Arthur Moore, had attempted to send 60 tons of private goods on
board the company ship. He was dismissed as a director, but the result was the beginning of Harley's fall from favour with the
company. On 27 July 1714, Harley was replaced as Lord High Treasurer as a result of a disagreement that had broken out within the
Tory faction in parliament. Queen Anne died on 1 August 1714; and at the election of directors in 1715 the Prince of Wales (the
future King George II) was elected as Governor of the Company. The new King George I and the Prince of Wales both had
significant holdings in the company, as did some prominent Whig politicians, including James Craggs the Elder, the Earl of Halifax
and Sir Joseph Jekyll. James Craggs, as Postmaster General, was responsible for intercepting mail on behalf of the government to
obtain political and financial information. All Tory politicians were removed from the board and replaced with businessmen. The
Whigs Horatio Townshend, brother in law ofRobert Walpole, and the Duke of Argyll were elected directors.

The new government led to a revival of the company's share value, which had fallen below its issue price. The previous government
had failed to make the interest payments to the company for the last two years, owing more than £1 million. The new administration
insisted the debt be written off, but allowed the company to issue new shares to stockholders to the value of the missed payments. At
around £10 million, this now represented half the share capital issued in the entire country. In 1714 the company had 2,000 to 3,000
shareholders, more than either of its rivals.[20]

By the time of the next directors' elections in 1718 politics had changed again, with a schism within the Whigs between Walpole's
faction supporting the Prince of Wales and James Stanhope's supporting the King. Argyll and Townshend were dismissed as directors,
as were surviving Tories Sir Richard Hoare and George Pitt, and King George I became governor. Four MPs remained directors, as
did six people holding government financial offices. The Sword Blade Company remained bankers to the South Sea, and indeed had
flourished despite the company's dubious legal position. Blunt and Sawbridge remained South Sea directors, and they had been joined
by Gibbon and Child. Caswall had retired as a South Sea director to concentrate on the Sword Blade business. In November 1718
Sub-Governor Bateman and Deputy Governor Shepheard both died. Leaving aside the honorary position of Governor, this left the
company suddenly without its two most senior and experienced directors. They were replaced by Sir John Fellowes as Sub-Governor
and Charles Joye as Deputy.[21]

War
In 1718 war broke out with Spain once again, in the War of the Quadruple Alliance. The company's assets in South America were
seized, which the company claimed cost it £300,000. Any prospect of profit from trade, for which the company had purchased ships
[22]
and had been planning its next ventures, disappeared.

Refinancing government debt

Events in France now came to influence the future of the company. A Scottish economist and financier, John Law, exiled after killing
a man in a duel, had travelled around Europe before settling in France. There he founded a bank, which in December 1718 became
the Banque Royale, national bank of France, while Law himself was granted sweeping powers to control the economy of France,
which operated largely by royal decree. Law's remarkable success was known in financial circles throughout Europe, and now came
forts to grow their own concerns.[23]
to inspire Blunt and his associates to make greater ef

In February 1719 Craggs explained to the House of Commons a new scheme for improving the national debt by converting the
annuities issued after the 1710 lottery into South Sea stock. By Act of Parliament, the company was granted the right to issue £1,150
of new stock for every £100 per annum of annuity which was surrendered. The government would pay 5% per annum on the stock
created, which would halve their annual bill. The conversion was voluntary, amounting to £2.5 million new stock if all converted.
[24]
The company was to make an additional new loan to the government pro-rata up to £750,000, again at 5%.

The South Sea company presented the offer to the public in July 1719. In March there was an abortive attempt to restore the Old
Pretender, James Edward Stuart, to the throne of Britain, with a small landing of troops in Scotland. They were defeated at the Battle
of Glen Shiel on 10 June. The Sword Blade company spread a rumour that the Pretender had been captured, and the general euphoria
encouraged the South Sea share price to rise from £100, where it had been in the spring, to £114. Annuitants were still paid out at the
same money value of shares, the company keeping the profit from the rise in value before issuing. About two-thirds of the in-force
annuities were exchanged.

Trading more debt for equity

The 1719 scheme was a distinct success from the
government's perspective, and they sought to repeat it.
Negotiations took place between Aislabie and Craggs for
the government and Blunt, Cashier Knight and his assistant
and Caswell. Janssen, the Sub Governor and Deputy
Governor were also consulted but negotiations remained
secret from most of the company. News from France was of
fortunes being made investing in Law's bank, whose shares
had risen sharply. Money was moving around Europe, and
other flotations threatened to soak up available capital (two
insurance schemes in December 1719 each sought to raise
£3 million).[25]

Plans were made for a new scheme to take over most of the
unconsolidated national debt of Britain (£30,981,712) in
William Hogarth, Emblematical Print on the South Sea
exchange for company shares. Annuities were valued as a
Scheme (1721). In the bottom left corner are Protestant,
lump sum necessary to produce the annual income over the
Catholic, and Jewish figures gambling, while in the middle
original term at an assumed interest of 5%, which favoured there is a huge machine, like a merry-go-round, which
those with shorter terms still to run. The government agreed people are boarding. At the top is a goat, written below
to pay the same amount to the company for all the fixed which is "Who'l Ride". The people are scattered around the
term repayable debt as it had been paying before, but after picture with a sense of disorder, while the progress of the
well-dressed people towards the ride in the middle
seven years the 5% interest rate would fall to 4% on both
represents the foolishness of the crowd in buying stock in
the new annuity debt and also that taken over previously.
the South Sea Company, which spent more time issuing
After the first year, the company was to give the stock than anything else.
government £3 million in four quarterly installments. New
stock would be created at a face value equal to the debt, but
the share price was still rising and sales of the remaining stock, i.e. the excess of the total market value of the stock over the amount
of the debt, would be used to raise the government fee plus a profit for the company. The more the price rose in advance of
.[26]
conversion, the more the company would make. Before the scheme, payments were costing the government £1.5 million per year
In summary, the total government debt in 1719 was £50 million:

£18.3m was held by three large corporations:

£3.4m by the Bank of England

£3.2m by the British East India Company
£11.7m by the South Sea Company
Privately held redeemable debt amounted to £16.5m
£15m consisted of irredeemable annuities, long-fixed-term annuities of 72–87 years, and short annuities of 22 years
remaining to expiry.
The purpose of this conversion was similar to the old one: debt holders and annuitants might receive less return in total, but an
illiquid investment was transformed into shares which could be readily traded. Shares backed by national debt were considered a safe
investment and a convenient way to hold and move money: far easier and safer than metal coins. The only alternative safe asset, land,
was much harder to sell and it was legally much more complex to transfer ownership.

The government received a cash payment and lower overall interest on the debt. Importantly, it also gained control over when the
debt had to be repaid, which was not before seven years but then at its discretion. This avoided the risk that debt might become
repayable at some future point just when the government needed to borrow more, and could be forced into paying higher interest
rates. The payment to the government was to be used to buy in any debt not subscribed to the scheme, which although it helped the
government also helped the company by removing possibly competing securities from the market, including large holdings by the
Bank of England.[26]

Company stock was now trading at £123, so the issue amounted to an injection of £5 million of new money into a booming economy
just as interest rates were falling.Gross Domestic Product(GDP) for Britain at this point was estimated as £64.4 million.
[2]

Public announcement
On 21 January the plan was presented to the board of the South Sea Company, and on 22 January Chancellor of the Exchequer John
Aislabie presented it to Parliament. The House was stunned into silence, but on recovering proposed that the Bank of England should
be invited to make a better offer. In response, the South Sea increased its cash payment to £3.5 million, while the Bank proposed to
undertake the conversion with a payment of £5.5 million and a fixed conversion price of £170 per £100 face value Bank stock. On 1
February, the company negotiators led by Blunt raised their offer to £4 million plus a proportion of £3.5 million depending on how
much of the debt was converted. They also agreed that the interest rate would reduce after four years instead of seven, and agreed to
sell on behalf of the government £1 million of Exchequer bills (formerly handled by the Bank). The House accepted the South Sea
offer. Bank stock fell sharply.[27]

Perhaps the first sign of difficulty came when the South Sea Company announced that its Christmas 1719 dividend would be deferred
for 12 months. The company now embarked on a show of gratitude to its friends. Select individuals were sold a parcel of company
stock at the current price. The transactions were recorded by Knight in the names of intermediaries, but no payments were received
and no stock issued – indeed the company had none to issue until the conversion of debt began. The individual received an option to
sell his stock back to the company at any future date at whatever market price might then apply. Shares went to the Craggs: the Elder
and the Younger; Lord Gower; Lord Lansdowne; and four other MPs. Lord Sunderland would gain £500 for every pound that stock
rose; George I's mistress, their children and Countess Platen £120 per pound rise, Aislabie £200 per pound, Lord Stanhope £600 per
pound. Others invested money, including the Treasurer to the Navy, Hampden, who invested £25,000 of government money on his
own behalf.[28]

The proposal was accepted in a slightly altered form in April 1720. Crucial in this conversion was the proportion of holders of
irredeemable annuities who could be tempted to convert their securities at a high price for the new shares. (Holders of redeemable
debt had effectively no other choice but to subscribe.) The South Sea Company could set the conversion price but could not diverge
much from the market price of its shares. The company ultimately acquired 85% of the redeemables and 80% of the irredeemables.

Inflating the share price

The company then set to talking up its stock with "the most extravagant rumours" of
the value of its potential trade in the New World; this was followed by a wave of
"speculating frenzy". The share price had risen from the time the scheme was
proposed: from £128 in January 1720, to £175 in February, £330 in March and,
following the scheme's acceptance, £550 at the end of May
.

What may have supported the company's high multiples (its P/E ratio) was a fund of
credit (known to the market) of £70 million available for commercial expansion
which had been made available through substantial support, apparently, by
Parliament and the King.

Shares in the company were "sold" to politicians at the current market price;
however, rather than paying for the shares, these recipients simply held on to what
shares they had been offered, with the option of selling them back to the company
when and as they chose, receiving as "profit" the increase in market price. This Chart of company stock prices.
method, while winning over the heads of government, the King's mistress, et al., also
had the advantage of binding their interests to the interests of the Company: in order
to secure their own profits, they had to help drive up the stock. Meanwhile, by publicising the names of their elite stockholders, the
Company managed to clothe itself in an aura of legitimacy
, which attracted and kept other buyers.

Bubble Act
The South Sea Company was by no means the only company seeking to raise money from investors in 1720. A large number of other
joint-stock companies had been created making extravagant (sometimes fraudulent) claims about foreign or other ventures or bizarre
schemes. Others represented potentially sound, although novel, schemes, such as for founding insurance companies. These were
nicknamed "Bubbles". Some of the companies had no legal basis, while others, such as the Hollow Sword Blade company acting as
the South Sea's banker, used existing chartered companies for purposes entirely different from their creation. The York Buildings
Company was set up to provide water to London, but was purchased by Case Billingsley who used it to purchase confiscated Jacobite
.[29]
estates in Scotland, which then formed the assets of an insurance company

On 22 February 1720 John Hungerford raised the question of bubble companies in the House of Commons, and persuaded the House
to set up a committee, which he chaired, to investigate. He identified a number of companies which between them sought to raise £40
million in capital. The committee investigated the companies, establishing a principle that companies should not be operating outside
the objects specified in their charters. A potential embarrassment for the South Sea was avoided when the question of the Hollow
Sword Blade Company arose. Difficulty was avoided by flooding the committee with MPs who were supporters of the South Sea,
and voting down the proposal to investigate the Hollow Sword by 75 to 25. (At this time, committees of the House were either 'Open'
or 'secret'. A secret committee was one with a fixed set of members who could vote on its proceedings. By contrast, any MP could
join in with an 'open' committee and vote on its proceedings.) Stanhope, who was a member of the committee, received £50,000 of
the 'resaleable' South Sea stock from Sawbridge, a director of the Hollow Sword, at about this time. Hungerford had previously been
expelled from the Commons for accepting a bribe.[29]

Amongst the bubble companies investigated were two supported by Lords Onslow and Chetwynd respectively, for insuring shipping.
These were criticised heavily, and the questionable dealings of the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General in trying to obtain charters
for the companies led to both being replaced. However, the schemes had the support of Walpole and Craggs, so that the larger part of
the Bubble Act (which finally resulted in June 1720 from the committee's investigations) was devoted to creating charters for the
Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation and the London Assurance Corporation. The companies were required to pay £300,000 for
the privilege. The Act required that a joint stock company could only be incorporated by Act of Parliament or Royal charter. The
[30]
prohibition on unauthorised joint stock ventures was not repealed until 1825.
The passing of the Act gave a boost to the South Sea Company, its shares leaping to £890 in early June. This peak encouraged people
to start to sell; to counterbalance this the company's directors ordered their agents to buy, which succeeded in propping the price up at
around £750.

Top reached
The price of the stock went up over the course of a single year from about £100 to
almost £1000 per share. Its success caused a country-wide frenzy—herd behavior[31] —
as all types of people, from peasants to lords, developed a feverish interest in investing:
in South Seas primarily, but in stocks generally. Among the many companies to go
public in 1720 is—famously—one that advertised itself as "a company for carrying out
[32]
an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is".

The price finally reached £1,000 in early August, and the level of selling was such that
the price started to fall, dropping back to £100 per share before the year was out.[33]
This triggered bankruptcies amongst those who had bought on credit, and increased
selling, even short selling (i.e., selling borrowed shares in the hope of buying them back
at a profit if the price fell).

Also, in August 1720, the first of the installment payments of the first and second money
subscriptions on new issues of South Sea stock were due. Earlier in the year John Blunt
had come up with an idea to prop up the share price: the company would lend people
money to buy its shares. As a result, many shareholders could not pay for their shares Tree caricature from Bubble
except by selling them. Cards.

Furthermore, a scramble for liquidity appeared internationally as "bubbles" were also

ending in Amsterdam and Paris. The collapse coincided with the fall of the Mississippi Company of John Law in France. As a result,
the price of South Sea shares began to decline.

Recriminations
By the end of September the stock had fallen to £150. Company failures now extended to banks and goldsmiths as they could not
collect loans made on the stock, and thousands of individuals were ruined, including many members of the aristocracy. With
investors outraged, Parliament was recalled in December and an investigation began. Reporting in 1721, it revealed widespread fraud
amongst the company directors and corruption in the Cabinet. Among those implicated were John Aislabie (the Chancellor of the
Exchequer), James Craggs the Elder (the Postmaster General), James Craggs the Younger (the Southern Secretary), and even Lord
Stanhope and Lord Sunderland (the heads of the Ministry). Craggs the Elder and Craggs the Younger both died in disgrace; the
remainder were impeached for their corruption. The Commons found Aislabie guilty of the "most notorious, dangerous and infamous
corruption", and he was imprisoned.

The newly appointed First Lord of the Treasury Robert Walpole successfully restored public confidence in the financial system.
However, public opinion, as shaped by the many prominent men who lost money, demanded revenge. Walpole supervised the process
which removed all 33 of the company directors and stripped them of, on average, 82% of their wealth.
The money went to the victims
and the stock of the South Sea Company was divided between the Bank of England and the East India Company. Walpole made sure
that King George and his mistresses were protected, and by the margin of three votes he managed to save several key government
officials from impeachment. In the process Walpole won plaudits as the savior of the financial system while establishing himself as
the dominant figure in British politics; historians credit him for rescuing the Whig government, and indeed the Hanoverian Dynasty,
from total disgrace.[34][35][36]

Quotations prompted by the collapse

Joseph Spence wrote that Lord Radnor reported to him "When Sir Isaac Newton was asked about the continuance of the rising of
South Sea stock... He answered 'that he could not calculate the madness of people'."[37] He is also quoted as stating, "I can calculate
the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men".[38] Newton himself owned nearly £22,000 in South Sea stock in 1722, but it
is not known how much he lost, if anything.[39]

A trading company
The South Sea Company was created in 1711 to reduce the size of public debts, but was granted the commercial privilege of
exclusive rights of trade to the Spanish Indies, based on the treaty of commerce signed by Britain and the Archduke Charles,
candidate to the Spanish throne during the War of the Spanish Succession. After Philip V became the King of Spain, Britain obtained
at the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht the rights to the slave trade to the Spanish Indies (orAsiento) for 30 years. Those rights were previously
held by the Compagnie de Guinée et de l'Assiente du Royaume de la France
.

The South Sea Company board opposed taking on the slave trade that had showed little profitability when chartered companies had
engaged in it, but it was the only legal type of commerce with the Spanish Colonies as they were a closed market. To increase the
profitability, the Asiento contract included the right to send one yearly 500 ton ship to the fairs at Portobello and Veracruz loaded
with duty-free merchandises, called theNavío de Permiso. The Crown of England and the King of Spain were each entitled to 25% of
the profits, according to the terms of the contract, that was a copy of the French Asiento contract, but Queen Anne soon renounced
her share. The King of Spain did not receive any payments due to him, and this was one of the sources of contention between the
Spanish Crown and the South Sea Company
.

As was the case for previous holders of the Asiento, the Portuguese and the French, the profit was not in the slave trade but in the
illegal contraband goods smuggled in the slave ships and in the annual ship. Those goods were sold at the Spanish colonies at a
handsome price as they were in high demand and constituted unfair competition with taxed goods, proving an important drain on the
Spanish Crown trade income. The relationship between the South Sea Company and the Government of Spain was always bad, and
worsened with time. The Company complained of searches and seizures of goods, lack of profitability, and confiscation of properties
during the wars between Britain and Spain of 1718–1723 and 1727–1729, during which the operations of the Company were
suspended. The Government of Spain complained of the illegal trade, failure of the company to present its accounts as stipulated by
the contract, and non-payment of the King's share of the profits. These claims were a major cause of deteriorating relations between
the two countries in 1738; and although the Prime Minister Walpole opposed war, there was strong support for it from the King, the
House of Commons, and a faction in his own Cabinet. Walpole was able to negotiate a treaty with the King of Spain at the
Convention of Pardo in January 1739 that stipulated that Spain would pay British merchants £95,000 in compensation for captures
and seized goods, while the South Sea Company would pay the Spanish Crown £68,000 in due proceeds from the Asiento. The South
Sea Company refused to pay those proceeds and the King of Spain retained payment of the compensation until payment from the
South Sea Company could be secured. The break up of relations between the South Sea Company and the Spanish Government was a
prelude to the Guerra del Asiento, as the first Royal Navy fleets departed in July 1739 for the Caribbean, prior to the declaration of
war, which lasted from October 1739 until 1748. This war is known as theWar of Jenkins' Ear.[40][41][42]

Slave trade under the Asiento

Under the Treaty of Tordesillas, Spain was the only European power that could not establish factories in Africa to purchase slaves.
The slaves for the Spanish America were provided by companies that were granted exclusive rights to their trade. This monopoly
contract was called the slave Asiento. Between 1701 and 1713 the Asiento contract was granted to France. In 1711 Britain had
created the South Sea Company to reduce debt and to trade with the Spanish America, but that commerce was illegal without a
permit from Spain, and the only existing permit was the Asiento for the slave trade, so at the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 Britain
obtained the transfer of the Asiento contract from French to British hands for the next 30 years. The board of directors was reluctant
to take on the slave trade that was not an object of the company and had shown little profitability when carried out by chartered
companies, but they finally agreed on 26 March 1714. The Asiento set a sale quota of 4800 units of slaves per year. An adult male
slave counted as one unit; females and children counted as fractions of a unit. Initially the slaves were provided by the Royal African
Company.
The South Sea Company established slave reception factories at Cartagena,
Colombia, Veracruz, Mexico, Panama, Portobello, La Guaira, Buenos Aires, La
Havana and Santiago de Cuba, and slave deposits at Jamaica and Barbados. Despite
problems with speculation, the South Sea Company was relatively successful at
slave trading and meeting its quota (it was unusual for other, similarly chartered
companies to fulfill their quotas). According to records compiled by David Eltis and
others, during the course of 96 voyages in 25 years, the South Sea Company
purchased 34,000 slaves, of whom 30,000 survived the voyage across the
Atlantic.[43] (Thus about 11% of the slaves died on the voyage: a relatively low
mortality rate for the Middle Crossing.[44] ) The company persisted with the slave
trade through two wars with Spain and the calamitous 1720 commercial bubble. The
company's trade in human slavery peaked during the 1725 trading year, five years
after the bubble burst.[45] Between 1715 and 1739, slave trading constituted the
main legal commercial activity of the South Sea Company
.

Cover of the English translation of

The annual ship the Asiento contract signed by Britain
The slave Asiento contract of 1713 granted a permit to send one vessel of 500 tons and Spain in 1713 as part of the
Utrecht treaty that ended the War of
per year, loaded with duty-free merchandise to be sold at the fairs of New Spain,
Spanish Succession. The contract
Cartagena, and Portobello. This was an unprecedented concession that broke two
granted exclusive rights to Britain to
[46]
centuries of strict exclusion of foreign merchants from the Spanish Empire. sell slaves in the Spanish Indies.

The first ship to head for the Americas, the Royal Prince, was scheduled for 1714
but was delayed until August 1716. In consideration of the three annual ships missed since the date of the Asiento, the permitted
tonnage of the next ten ships was raised to 650.[47] Actually only seven annual ships sailed during the Asiento, the last one being the
Royal Caroline in 1732. The company's failure to produce accounts for all the annual ships but the first one, and lack of payment of
the proceeds to the Spanish Crown from the profits for all the annual ships, resulted in no more permits being granted to the
Company's ships after the Royal Caroline trip of 1732–1734.

In contrast to the legitimate trade in slaves, the regular trade of the annual ships generated healthy returns, in some case profits were
over 100%.[48] Accounts for the voyage of the Royal Prince were not presented until 1733, following continuous demands by
Spanish officials. They reported that profits of £43,607.[49] Since the King of Spain was entitled to 25% of the profits, after deducting
interest on a loan he claimed £8,678. The South Sea Company never paid the amount due for the first annual ship to the Spanish
Crown, nor did it pay any amount for any of the other six trips.

Arctic whaling
The Greenland Company had been established by Act of Parliament in 1693 with the object of catching whales in the Arctic. The
products of their "whale-fishery" were to be free of Customs and other duties. Partly due to maritime disruption caused by wars with
France, the Greenland Company failed financially within a few years. In 1722 Henry Elking published a proposal, directed at the
governors of the South Sea Company, that they should resume the "Greenland Trade" and send ships to catch whales in the Arctic. He
[50]
made very detailed suggestions about how the ships should be crewed and equipped.

The British Parliament confirmed that a British Arctic "whale-fishery" would continue to benefit from freedom from Customs duties,
and in 1724 the South Sea Company decided to commence whaling. They had 12 whale-ships built on the River Thames and these
went to the Greenland seas in 1725. Further ships were built in later years, but the venture was not successful. There were hardly any
experienced whalemen remaining in Britain, and the Company had to engage Dutch and Danish whalemen for the key posts aboard
their ships: for instance all commanding officers and harpooners were hired from the North Frisian island of Föhr.[51] Other costs
were badly controlled and the catches remained disappointingly few, even though the Company was sending up to 25 ships to Davis
Strait and the Greenland seas in some years. By 1732 the Company had accumulated a net loss of £177,782 from their eight years of
Arctic whaling.[52]
The South Sea Company directors appealed to the British government for further support. Parliament had passed an Act in 1732 that
extended the duty-free concessions for a further nine years. In 1733 an Act was passed that also granted a government subsidy to
British Arctic whalers, the first in a long series of such Acts that continued and modified the whaling subsidies throughout the 18th
century. This, and the subsequent Acts, required the whalers to meet conditions regarding the crewing and equipping of the whale-
ships that closely resembled the conditions suggested by Elking in 1722.[53] In spite of the extended duty-free concessions, and the
prospect of real subsidies as well, the Court and Directors of the South Sea Company decided that they could not expect to make
profits from Arctic whaling. They sent out no more whale-ships after the loss-making 1732 season.

Government debt after the Seven Years' War

The company continued its trade (when not interrupted by war) until the end of the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). However, its
main function was always managing government debt, rather than trading with the Spanish colonies. The South Sea Company
continued its management of the part of the National Debt until it was disestablished in 1853, at which point the debt was
reconsolidated. The debt was not paid off by World War I, at which point it was consolidated again, under terms that allowed the
government to avoid paying down the principal.

Armorials
The armorials of the South Sea Company, according to a grant of arms dated 31 October 1711, were: Azure, a globe whereon are
represented the Straits of Magellan and Cape Horn all proper and in sinister chief point two herrings haurient in saltire argent
crowned or, in a canton the united arms of Great Britain. Crest: A ship of three masts in full sail. Supporters, dexter: The emblematic
figure of Britannia, with the shield, lance etc all proper; sinister: A fisherman completely clothed, with cap boots fishing net etc and
in his hand a string of fish, all proper.[54]

Officers of the South Sea Company

The South Sea Company had a governor (generally an honorary position); a subgovernor; a deputy governor and 30 directors
(reduced in 1753 to 21).[55]
 Year Governor Subgovernor Deputy Governor
July 1711 Samuel Ongley
August 1712 Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford Sir Ambrose Crowley
October 1713 Sir James Bateman
February 1715 George, Prince of Wales
Samuel Shepheard
February 1718
November 1718
King George I John Fellows
February 1719 Charles Joye
February 1721
John Rudge
July 1727 Sir John Eyles, Bt
February 1730 John Hanbury
February 1733 Sir Richard Hopkins
King George II John Bristow
February 1735 Peter Burrell
March 1756 John Philipson
February 1756 John Bristow
Lewis Way
January 1760
February 1763 Richard Jackson
Lewis Way
March 1768 Thomas Coventry
January 1771 vacant (?)
January 1772 King George III Thomas Coventry John Warde
March 1775 Samuel Salt
January 1793 Robert Dorrell
Benjamin Way
February 1802 Peter Pierson
February 1808
Benjamin Harrison
1820
King George IV
January 1826 Charles Bosanquet
1830 King William IV Sir Robert Baker
July 1837
Queen Victoria
January 1838 Charles Franks Thomas Vigne

In fiction
David Liss' historical-mystery novel "A Conspiracy of Paper", set in 1720 London, is focused on the South Sea Company at the top
of its power, its fierce rivalry with theBank of England and the events leading up to the collapse of the "bubble".

Charles Dickens novels are littered with stock-market speculations, villains, swindlers and fictional speculators. Little Dorrit (1857)
The financial house of Mr Merdle; Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) 'Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Loan and Life Company, modeled
loosely on the South Sea Bubble,- is in essence a classic Ponzi scheme; Nicholas Nickleby (1839) Ralph Nickleby's great Joint Stock
Company, United Metropolitan Improved Hot Muffin and Crumpet Baking and Punctual Delivery Company; David Copperfield
(1850) the false accounting by the sycophant Uriah Heep, clerk to lawyer Mr W
ickfield;

See also
 List of stock market crashes
SSC Coinage
Tulip mania
History of company law in the United Kingdom
Whaling in the United Kingdom

Notes
1. Thornbury, Walter, Old and New London, Vol.1, p.538
2. "Cloth Seal, Company, 1711–1853, South Seas & Fisheries" (http://www.bagseals.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=3
246). www.bagseals.org.
3. Dale, Richard. The First Crash: Lessons from the South Sea Bubble(https://books.google.com/books?id=z7xLh00p9
yAC&pg=PA40). London: Princeton University Press, 2004. p. 40.
4. Dorothy Marshall, (1962)Eighteenth Century Englandpp 121-30.
5. Helen Paul, (2013) The South Sea Bubble: An Economic History of its Origins and Consequences
ch 4.
6. Walter Thornbury. 'Threadneedle Street',Old and New London: Volume 1 (London, 1878), pp. 531-544 (http://www.b
ritish-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol1/pp531-544) via British History Online (accessed 21 July 2016).
7. Carswell p.40, 48-50
8. grandfather of the historian
9. Carswell p. 50-51
10. Carswell p.52-54
11. Carswell p.54-55
12. Defoe, Daniel, An Essay on the South-Sea Trade ... , 2nd ed., (London, England:J. Baker, 1712), pp. 40-41. (https://
books.google.com/books?id=NZ5VAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA40#v=onepage&q&f=false)
13. Carswell p. 56
14. Carswell p.57,58
15. Carswell p.60-63
16. Carswell p. 64-66
17. Carswell p. 65-66
18. Carswell p. 67
19. Carswell p. 66-67
20. Carswell p.67-70
21. Carswell p.73-75
22. Carswell p.75-76
23. Carswell p.88-89
24. Carswell p.89-90
25. Carswell p.100-102
26. Carswell p.102-107
27. Carswell p.112-113
28. Carswell p.114-118
29. Carswell p.116-117
30. Carswell p.138-140
31. Paul, Helen Julia (2010) The South Sea Bubble: an economic history of its origins and consequences, Routledge
Explorations in Economic History, Routledge, London.
32. Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds(Harriman House Classics 2003), pp
53, 65, 71.
33. Alter, Peter (2018). "Der geplatzte Traum vom schnellen Geld". Damals (in German). Vol. 50 no. 8. pp. 72–76.
34. Marshall, pp 127-30.
35. Richard A. Kleer, "Riding a wave: the Company’s role in the South Sea Bubble" (2015) p 165.
36. Stephen Taylor, "Walpole, Robert, first earl ofOrford (1676–1745)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(2008)
37. Spence, Anecdotes, 1820, p. 368.
38. John O'Farrell, An Utterly Impartial History of Britain – Or 2000 ears
Y of Upper Class Idiots In Charge (October 22,
2007) (2007, Doubleday, ISBN 978-0-385-61198-5)
39. Richard S. Westfall (1983). Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton(https://books.google.com/books?id=3ngEu
gMMa9YC&pg=PA861). Cambridge UP. pp. 861–62.
40. Nelson (1945) states that the substantial illicit trade pursued by the South Sea Company ficials
of under the Asiento
“must be considered as a major cause of the W ar of Jenkins' Ear because it threatened to destroy the entire
commercial framework of the Spanish Empire ... Unable to accept the destruction of its commercial system, Spain
attempted to negotiate but requested that the company , as an evidence of good faith, should open its accounts for
inspection by the Spanish representatives. Naturally , the directors refused, for compliance would have meant the
complete exposure of the illegal traffic. Neither Spain nor the South Sea Company would yield. W ar was the
inevitable result”.
41. Brown (1926, p. 663) says that The failure to comply with the accounting provisions of the Asiento treaty (in the
context of Spanish knowledge of secret accounts kept by the South Sea Company which would prove clandestine
trading) was a constant source of the friction which culminated in armed conflict.
42. For Hildner (1938), the war of 1739 might have been averted if the issues addressed by the commission established
in 1732 to settle disputes over the Asiento had been resolved.
43. "History Cooperative – A Short History of Nearly Everything!"(https://archive.is/20091020132439/http://www .historyc
ooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/wm/58.1/eltis.html).
History Cooperative. Archived from the original (http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url
=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/wm/58.1/eltis.html) on 2009-10-20.
44. Paul, Helen. "The South Sea Company's slaving activities"(https://archive.is/20121209151433/http://www .ehs.org.u
k/ehs/conference2004/assets/paul.doc). Archived from the original (http://www.ehs.org.uk/ehs/conference2004/asset
s/paul.doc) on 2012-12-09.
45. Paul, H.J. (2010). The South Sea Bubble.
46. Walker, G. J. (1979), p. 101
47. Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain IG2785
48. McLachlan, (1940), pp. 130-131
49. Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain C266L3
50. Elking, Henry [1722](1980).A view of the Greenland Trade and whale-fishery. Reprinted: Whitby: Caedmon.ISBN 0-
905355-13-X
51. Zacchi, Uwe (1986). Menschen von Föhr. Lebenswege aus drei Jahrhunderten (in German). Heide: Boyens & Co.
p. 13. ISBN 3-8042-0359-0.
52. Anderson, Adam [1801](1967).The Origin of Commerce. Reprinted: New York: Kelley.
53. Evans, Martin H. (2005). Statutory requirements regarding surgeons on British whale-ships.
The Mariner's Mirror 91
(1) 7-12.
54. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, catalogue entry for sculpture of arms, object ID: HRA0043
[1] (http://collectio
ns.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/605213.html)
55. See, for 1711–21, J Carswell,South Sea Bubble (1960) 274-9; and for 1721–1840, see British Library
, Add. MSS,
25544-9.

References
Historical

Brown, V.L. (1926), "The South Sea Company and Contraband Trade", The American Historical Review, 31 (4):
662–678, doi:10.2307/1840061
Carlos, Ann M. and Neal, Larry. (2006) "The Micro-Foundations of the Early London Capital Market: Bank of England
shareholders during and after the South Sea Bubble, 1720–25"Economic History Review59 (2006), pp. 498–538.
online
Carswell, John (1960),The South Sea Bubble, London: Cresset Press
Cowles, Virginia (1960), The Great Swindle: The Story of the South Sea Bubble, New York: Harper
 Dale, Richard S.; et al. (2005), "Financial markets can go mad: evidence of irrational behaviour during the South Sea
Bubble", Economic History Review, 58 (2): 233–271, doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2005.00304.x
Dale, Richard (2004). The First Crash: Lessons from the South Sea Bubble(Princeton University Press.)
Freeman, Mark, Robin Pearson, and James a Tylor. (2013) "Law, politics and the governance of English and Scottish
joint-stock companies, 1600–1850."Business History 55#4 (2013): 636-652.online
Harris, Ron (1994). "The Bubble Act: Its Passage and its Ef fects on Business Organization."The Journal of
Economic History, 54 (3), 610–627
Hildner, E.G. Jr. (1938), "The Role of the South Sea Company in the Diplomacy leading to the War of Jenkins' Ear,
1729–1739", The Hispanic American Historical Review, 18 (3): 322–341, doi:10.2307/2507151
Hoppit, Julian. (2002) "The Myths of the South Sea Bubble,"Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , (2002)
12#1 pp 141–165 in JSTOR
Kleer, Richard A. (2015) "Riding a wave: theCompany's role in the South Sea Bubble."The Economic History
Review 68.1 (2015): 264-285.online
McLachlan, J.O. (1940),Trade and Peace With Old Spain, 1667–1750, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
McColloch, William E. (2013) "A shackled revolution? The Bubble Act and financial regulation in eighteenth-century
England." Review of Keynesian Economics1.3 (2013): 300-313. online
Mackay, C. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds(1841)
Marshall, Dorothy. (1962) Eighteenth Century EnglandLongman. pp 121-30.
Michie, R.C. (2001), "From Market to Exchange, 1693–1801",The London Stock Exchange, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-924255-9
Nelson, G.H. (1945), "Contraband Trade Under the Asiento", The American Historical Review, 51 (1): 55–67,
doi:10.2307/1843076
Paul, Helen Julia (2010)The South Sea Bubble: an economic history of its origins and consequences , Routledge
Explorations in Economic Historyonline short summary
Paul, Helen. (2013) The South Sea Bubble: An Economic History of its Origins and Consequences Routledge,
176pp.
Plumb, J. H. (1956) Sir Robert Walpole, vol. 1, The Making of a Statesman. ch 8
Shea, Gary S. (2007), "Understanding financial derivatives during the South Sea Bubble: The case of the South Sea
subscription shares", Oxford Economic Papers, 59 (Supplement 1): i73–i104,doi:10.1093/oep/gpm031
Temin, Peter; Voth, Hans-Joachim (2004), "Riding the South Sea Bubble",American Economic Review, 94 (5):
1654–1668, doi:10.1257/0002828043052268
Stratmann, Silke (2000)Myths of Speculation: The South Sea Bubble and 18th-century English Literature . Munich:
Fink
Walker, G.J. (1979), Política Española y Comercio Colonial 1700–1789 , Barcelona: Editorial Ariel

Fiction

Liss, David (2000), A Conspiracy of Paper, New York: Random House, ISBN 0-375-50292-0. Novel set around the
South Sea Company bubble.
Goddard, Robert (2000),Sea Change, London: Bantam Press, p. 416,ISBN 0-593-04667-6. Novel set against the
background of the South Sea bubble.

External links
South Sea Bubble collection at Harvard University
Famous First Bubbles – South Sea Bubble
Charles McKay's Account of The South Sea Bubble in Modern Englishat the Wayback Machine (archived January 6,
2014)
Helen Paul's Account of The South Sea Company's slave trading activities
at Archive.is (archived 2012-12-09)
The South Sea Bubble, audio programming with Melvyn Bragg and guests, BBC Radio 4.

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