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‘The folly of particulars’: the political economy of the South Sea Bubble

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2012

Richard Kleer
Richard Kleer
Affiliation:
University of [email protected]
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Abstract

In 1720 Britain embarked on a project to convert a large part of the public debt into shares in the South Sea Company. Most narratives assume the Company stood to profit from an anticipated increase in the market price of its shares. Though some have noted that this assumption is incorrect, no one has yet tried to find an alternative explanation for the Company's motivation for entering into the project. In this article I argue that the Company had no need to profit directly from the conversion operation and instead saw it as an opportunity to establish dominance in the British banking industry.

Keywords

South Sea Bubblepublic debtcash flowcredit

JEL classification

E51: Money Supply • Credit • Money Multipliers E42: Monetary Systems • Standards • Regimes • Government and the Monetary System • Payment Systems H63: Debt • Debt Management • Sovereign Debt E65: Studies of Particular Policy Episodes
Type
Articles
Information
Financial History Review , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , August 2012 , pp. 175 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © European Association for Banking and Financial History e.V. 2012

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References

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