Bernard Baron, after Bernard Picart, A Monument Dedicated to Posterity in Commemoration of Ye Incredible Folly Transacted in the Year 1720, 1721

New York, The New York Public Library, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection (1763 - 1793), 31051

Image here From The New York Public Library at : https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/47f62a70-7693-0137-3252-0a1d0a4b601c

Somewhere or other you’re bound to have heard of the “bursting of the South Sea Bubble”. The phrase has certainly been trotted out over the years when some overhyped cash cow has turned into a lemon (to boldly mix metaphors [and indeed split an infinitive]). There was the dot-com bubble… and there have been countless ill-advised tech speculations since. Now, it’s all about bitcoin and cryptocurrency. It is perhaps true that there is nothing new under the sun!

But what exactly was the South Sea Bubble and how did it come to burst? To answer that, we need to venture back to the strange moral universe of the early eighteenth century, when slavery was legal and sodomy a capital offence; when the government had no qualms about buying into the latest Ponzi scheme, and corruption began in the very highest places. Even the man appointed to investigate the inevitable calamity was somehow in on the scam. You may have heard of him – Robert Walpole, our first Prime Minister!

Join us as we trace this tale of greed, hysteria, and recrimination – from dubious beginning to sorry end.

RJW F2621 Online (via Zoom)

A 5-hour short course, delivered via 2 x 2½-hour sessions on consecutive Mondays (Monday 15 & Monday 22 January).

£40 (individual registration); £72 (for two people sharing one screen).