Extraordinary Popular Delusions, follow-up
From p. 72:
The state of matters all over the country was so alarming, that George I. shortened his intended stay in Hanover, and returned in all haste to England. He arriver on the 11th of November, and parliament was summoned to meet on the 8th of December. In the mean time, public meetings were held in every considerable town of the empire, at which petitions were adopted, praying the vengeance of the legislature upon the South-Sea directors, who, by their fraudulent practices, had brought the nation to the brink of ruin. Nobody seemed to imagine that the nation itself was as culpable as the South-Sea company. Nobody blamed the credulity and avarice of the people - the degrading lust of gain, which had swallowed up every nobler quality in the national character, or the infatuation which had made the multitude run their heards with such frantic eagerness into the net held out for them by scheming projectors. These things were never mentioned. The people were a simple, honest, hard-working people, ruined by a gang of robbers, who were to be hanged, drawn, and quartered without mercy.
March 8th, 2006 at 11:29 am
There’s mention of the South Sea Bubble in “A History Of The World In Six Glasses”. He describes the all-time classic business proposition: “For carrying on an undertaking of great advantage; but nobody to know what it is.”
http://www.sanjbak.com/The_South_Sea_Bubble.HTM:
“The man of genius who essayed this bold and successful inroad upon public credulity, merely stated in his prospectus that the required capital was half a million, in five thousand shares of 100 pounds each, deposit 2 pounds per share… Next morning, at nine o’clock, this great man opened an office in Cornhill. Crowds of people beset his door, and when he shut up at three o’clock, he found that no less than one thousand shares had been subscribed for, and the deposits paid. He was thus, in five hours, the winner of 2,000 pounds. He was philosopher enough to be contented with his venture, and set off the same evening for the Continent. He was never heard of again.”
March 8th, 2006 at 11:42 am
Hmmm…
Poor memory today Mark?
http://www.fizzz.net/blog/2006/03/05/excerpts-from-extraordinary-popular-delusions/