Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Plates, Figures and Tables
- Editorial Note
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Varieties of Innovation: Ireland, Scotland and the Financial Revolution 1688–1720
- 2 Banking and Investment on the Periphery: The Case of Ireland
- 3 Investment from the Periphery: Irish Investors in the South Sea Company in Comparative and Transnational Perspective
- 4 ‘Most of Our Money of This Kingdom is gone over to the South Sea’: Irish Investors and the South Sea Company
- 5 ‘Nothing here but Misery’? The Economic Impact of the South Sea Bubble on Ireland
- 6 ‘A Thing They Call a Bank’: Irish Projects in the South Sea Year
- 7 The Proposals for a National Bank and the Irish Investment Community in 1720
- 8 ‘A Strong Presumption That This Bank May be a Bubble’: Misreading the Bubble and the Bank of Ireland Debates, 1721
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Plates, Figures and Tables
- Editorial Note
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Varieties of Innovation: Ireland, Scotland and the Financial Revolution 1688–1720
- 2 Banking and Investment on the Periphery: The Case of Ireland
- 3 Investment from the Periphery: Irish Investors in the South Sea Company in Comparative and Transnational Perspective
- 4 ‘Most of Our Money of This Kingdom is gone over to the South Sea’: Irish Investors and the South Sea Company
- 5 ‘Nothing here but Misery’? The Economic Impact of the South Sea Bubble on Ireland
- 6 ‘A Thing They Call a Bank’: Irish Projects in the South Sea Year
- 7 The Proposals for a National Bank and the Irish Investment Community in 1720
- 8 ‘A Strong Presumption That This Bank May be a Bubble’: Misreading the Bubble and the Bank of Ireland Debates, 1721
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In late September 1720, the South Sea bubble burst. The South Sea Company's share price which had been rising all summer collapsed more quickly than it had risen, causing the first great British stock-market crash. Its repercussions were felt far beyond the City of London. Its impact was felt right across western Europe from Aberdeen to Amsterdam, from Belfast to Berne and from Limerick to Lisbon. The dramatic rise and fall of the South Sea Company's stock in the summer of 1720 was a source of wonder, excitement and despair for contemporary observers. Some of them had been drawn to invest in the buoyant London financial markets following reports and rumours of the great riches gained by the fortunate. Many of these investors came from outside the English capital and the consequences of their activities, both positive and negative, reverberated beyond the boundaries of the British world. Money flowed into London from Amsterdam, Berlin, Berne, Cork, Dublin and Edinburgh, expanding the market for South Sea Company shares. The gains and losses made by these investors and speculators during the hectic summer of 1720 fed back into their local economies. Profits made in London's Exchange Alley temporarily drove property prices upwards in Scotland, while investment and banking schemes were floated in Dublin and Edinburgh as local projectors responded to the innovations in the metropolitan capital. More negatively, losses incurred as a result of the London crash impacted on provincial banking systems causing short-lived bank runs in Dublin and Edinburgh.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The South Sea Bubble and IrelandMoney, Banking and Investment, 1690–1721, pp. 1 - 18Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2014