This paper presents a case study of a well-informed investor in the South Sea bubble. We argue that Hoare's Bank, a fledgling West End London banker, knew that a bubble was in progress and that it invested knowingly in the bubble; it was profitable to ride the bubble. Using a unique dataset on...

Introduction -- The stock market in early modern England -- Politics, warfare and finance -- Financial innovation and trade -- The bubble and the crash -- Reasons to invest in the South Sea Company -- Criticism and financial complexity -- The social history of the crash -- The real effects of...

Introduction -- The stock market in early modern England -- Politics, warfare and finance -- Financial innovation and trade -- The bubble and the crash -- Reasons to invest in the South Sea Company -- Criticism and financial complexity -- The social history of the crash -- The real effects of...

Introduction -- The Bubble Act and the First Corporate Economy -- ‘Mr Morice is said to appear at the head’: The Bubble Act and an Aborted Joint-Stock Slave-Trading Company -- ‘That ever-memorable year of epidemical infatuation’: Incorporation, the Jamaica Mines Company, and the Bubble...

For nearly three centuries the spectacular rise and fall of the South Sea Company has gripped the public imagination as the most graphic warning to investors of the dangers of unbridled speculation. Yet history repeats itself and the same elemental forces that drove up the price of South Sea...