WHAT WAS THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE?
The South Sea Bubble was a period of speculation frenzy and collapse on the British stock market, revolving around the fate of a single company. For years, the South Sea Company had been at the centre of a complex and tangled web of financial manoeuvrings; deliberately obfuscated dealings around selling shares and government debt; the exploitation of publicity and hype to inflate stock prices; as well as bribery, corruption and the slave trade.
It worked for a while and stock prices skyrocketed in 1720, until the bubble burst. Investors were ruined and an inquiry had to be held. While the South Sea Bubble went
