The secret history of the South Sea Bubble : the world's first great financial scandal / Malcolm Balen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Balen, Malcolm.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

South Sea Company--History.

South Sea Company.

Finance--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Finance.

Financial crises--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Financial crises.

South Sea Bubble, Great Britain, 1720.

History.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

x, 246 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Fourth Estate, [2003]

Summary:

In this history of the world's first great financial scandal in the 1720s, Balen tells the dramatic full story of how the fraud of the South Sea Bubble was carried out and covered up.

Contents:

I The Dome 1

II A National Lottery, and a Rake's Progress 12

III Blunt Advice 22

IV Walpole and the Maypole 37

V Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? 45

VI The New Economy 68

VII Greed Is Good 84

VIII Paper Fortunes 100

IX Bonfire of the Vanities 117

X Time and Tide and a Fall from Grace 130

XI Not a Penny Stirring 141

XII A Lasting Foundation 159

XIII In the Darkness of the Night 172

XIV Hall of Mirrors 187

XV Friends in High Places 199

XVI Doubtful and Desperate Debts 214

XVII The Architecture of Eternity 228.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 234-236) and index.

ISBN:

0007161778

OCLC:

52213700