VERY ENGLISH DECEIT EPUB ED EB

Malcolm Balen

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780007292783
• eBook ISBN: 9780007393909
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Finance
• Index: History

The ebook of the critically acclaimed popular history book: the story of the South Sea Bubble which in Balen's hands becomes a morality tale for our times. A classic collision of political ambition, mercenary greed and financial revolution.

The early years of the 18th-century produced two great monuments: one, Christopher Wren's new cathedral of St Paul's, an enduring testament to principled craft and masterful construction; the other, an empty fraud of such magnitude that its collapse threatened to overturn monarchies and governments. Its failure delayed the introduction of modern market economies by two generations. Yet the full scale of this monumental deceit was quietly covered up and hidden, its enduring legacy a poorly understood colloquialism: the South Sea Bubble.

It was all planned by one ambitious promoter, who had decided to launch 'a company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is'. This eighteenth-century mission statement has now acquired an almost uncanny resonance: these words could aptly have been applied to the bursting of the internet bubble and the collapse of Enron. With the financial scandals that have beset global companies recently, such as Rank Xerox and Worldcom, this tale is all the more relevant today.

Balen reveals the full story of corruption and scandal that attended the birth of the first shareholder economy, and with it uncovers a parable for our times.

Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.

Index

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader’s search tools.

Note: Page numbers in italic refer to the modern parallels in the chapter headings

Abingdon, Earl of 189

Act of Settlement (1701) 47, 56

Act of Union (1707) 27

Aislabie, John, Chancellor of Exchequer 52, 85, 93, 120

expulsion and imprisonment 221

fraudulent profit on shares 120, 183, 216, 218

launch of South Sea scheme 87–8

and rescue plan 151, 174

resignation 193–4

retirement at Studley Royal 238

sale of royal charters 82

Walpole’s intervention for 232

Amsterdam, Bank of 22–3

Anne, Queen 18, 19, 41, 42

Civil List 81

dismissal of Harley 41–2

annuities, Company spending on 118

annuity holders, national debt 36, 51, 86

Antwerp

Citadel of 202, 203

Knight’s ‘escape’ from 207–9

Argyll, John, 2nd Duke of, director 50

Astell, William, director 194

Atwill and Hammond bank 155

Austrian Empire 205, 235

and attempted extradition of Knight 205, 206

Bank of England 4, 19, 33, 38, 118

establishment of 14–15

opposition to South Sea scheme 85, 89–91

rescue plan 150–2, 173–4, 176

rival offer for national debt 90–1, 92, 93

Whig domination of 19, 89

Bank of Scotland 24

bankruptcies 154, 156–7

banks 26, 61

closures 155

gold and silver reserves 63, 70, 173–4

Law’s Banque Générale 59–60, 70

role in Law’s System 60

see also Bank of England; Sword Blade Bank

Barbadoes coffee house 18

Barings Bank 185

Bateman, Mr., sub-Governor 50–1

Beck, Sir Justus, bankruptcy 154

Belhaven, Lord 125

Bernard, Samuel, French financier 58

Billingsley, Case 117, 127, 144

Blackwell, Sir Lambert, director 115

Blunt, Charles, suicide 158

Blunt, John 10–11,62,237

assets seized 230–2

baronetcy 118–19

called before Lords’ inquiry 189

discussions with Harley 33–4

effect of French crash on 143–5

evidence to Committee of Secrecy 194–6, 200

fraudulent dealings exposed 215–16, 218

and launch of South Sea scheme 85–6, 87, 90–2

national lotteries 34–6

and offer for national debt 83–7, 90–1

origins and rise of 29–32

personal fortune 104–5, 122

royal patronage for Company 50–1

share support manoeuvres 127

and Sword Blade Company 32, 50

and Walpole 45

witness at Stanhope’s trial 220

see also Money Subscriptions; South Sea Company

Bolingbroke, Henry St John, Viscount 39–40, 60, 179

bonfires, public

of banknotes (France) 138

Mississippi Company papers 239

Bostock, Nathaniel, banker 155

Bowles, Mr., printer 103, 107

Brabant, duchy of 204, 205, 206

and requested extradition of Knight 206–9

Bradley, Richard 168

Brand, Madam 124

bribery

at Court 47, 195

extent of 100, 118, 195, 216–17

of MPs 86,91–2, 181, 183

see also corruption

Bridgewater, Duke of 11...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Prologue
• I: The Dome
• II: A National Lottery, and a Rake’s Progress
• III: Blunt Advice
• IV: Walpole and the Maypole
• V: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
• VI: The New Economy
• VII: Greed Is Good
• VIII: Paper Fortunes
• IX: Bonfire of the Vanities
• X: Time and Tide and a Fall from Grace
• XI: Not a Penny Stirring
• XII: A Lasting Foundation
• XIII: In the Darkness of the Night
• XIV: Hall of Mirrors
• XV: Friends in High Places
• XVI: Doubtful and Desperate Debts
• XVII: The Architecture of Eternity
• Postscript
• Bibliography
• Index
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Author’s Note
• Copyright
• About the Publisher