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
8 - ‘A Strong Presumption That This Bank May be a Bubble’: Misreading the Bubble and the Bank of Ireland Debates, 1721
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 September 1721 the Irish parliament sat for the first time in almost two years. Much had changed since its last meeting. The passage of the Declaratory Act at Westminster in April 1720 had seen the British parliament reassert its legislative and constitutional superiority over its Irish counterpart. The South Sea bubble had also burst with consequences for British and Irish politics. In London, the political fallout that followed the stock-market crash had led to a changing of the guard at the apex of British politics with Sir Robert Walpole successfully manipulating the crisis to establish himself as de facto prime minister; his rise to power would have important consequences for the government of Ireland. However, the immediate political impact of the crash in Dublin was its effect on the proposal for a national bank. Parliamentary approval was needed for the bank charter which had been drawn up in London in July 1721 and the debates over this charter would dominate the parliamentary session that opened in September. These debates were partly informed by political rivalries and the influence of vested interests, but crucially they were also dictated by reactions to, and misreading of, the South Sea crash. This was clear from the views expressed in the House of Commons, and importantly also in the voluminous pamphlet material concerning the arguments over the bank that were produced in the extra-parliamentary public sphere.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The South Sea Bubble and IrelandMoney, Banking and Investment, 1690–1721, pp. 163 - 180Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2014