The South Sea Bubble
In Our Time: History
BBC
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2012
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss The South Sea Bubble, the speculation mania in early 18th-century England which ended in the financial ruin of many of its investors. The South Sea Company was founded in 1711 with a view to restructuring government debt and restoring public credit. The company would ostensibly trade with South America, hence its name; and indeed, it did trade in slaves for the Spanish market even after the Bubble burst in 1720.
People from all walks of life bought shares in the South Sea Company, from servants to gentry, and it was said the entire country was gripped by South Sea speculation mania. When the shares crashed and the company collapsed there was a public outcry and many people faced financial ruin, although some investors sold before the crash and made substantial amounts of money. For example, the bookseller Thomas Guy made his fortune and founded a hospital in his name the following year.
But how did such a financial crisis develop and were there any lessons learnt following this early example of a stock market boom and bust?
With:
Anne Murphy Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Hertfordshire
Helen Paul Lecturer in Economics and Economic History at the University of Southampton
Roey Sweet Head of the School of History at the University of Leicester
Producer: Natalia Fernandez.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time for more details about In Our Time |
| 0:04.1 | and for our terms of use please go to bbc.co.uk slash radio 4. |
| 0:09.1 | I hope you enjoy the program. |
| 0:11.3 | Hello, in September 1720 England was plunged into economic crisis when the South Sea company |
| 0:16.6 | collapsed. |
| 0:17.6 | One of the first examples of a financial boom and bust and one which gave rise to the |
| 0:22.0 | term bubble to refer to such an incident of spectacular stock market failure. |
| 0:27.2 | This was a history often written by its losers. |
| 0:30.2 | Every valuable, every pleasant thing, read the poet Alexander Pope, who'd invested heavily |
| 0:34.4 | in the South Sea stock, is sunk in an ocean of avarice and greed. |
| 0:39.0 | Pope wasn't the only one to lose money on the venture. |
| 0:41.0 | People from all walks of life from servants to politicians to lords and ladies had been |
| 0:45.0 | drawing to the scheme and faced bankruptcy when the market crashed. |
| 0:48.8 | However, not everybody lost money, some even gained from it. |
| 0:52.8 | It was not perhaps such a financially ruinous incident as we'd become to think of. |
| 0:57.1 | And the media and people who invested in the South Sea company may, perhaps, be undeserving |
| 1:01.2 | of their reputation for blind, greed and folly. |
| 1:04.6 | With me to discuss the South Sea bubble are Rowie Sweet, head of the School of History |
| 1:08.2 | at the University of Lester, Helen Paul, lecturing economics and economic history at the University |
| 1:13.3 | of South Hampton, and Anne Murphy, senior lecturer in history at the University of Hartfordshire |
| 1:18.5 | Rowie Sweet, can you give us the political backdrop to the establishment of the South |
| 1:22.4 | Sea Company in 1711, nine years before the bust? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.