In 1720, a former scrivener named John Blunt convinced the British government to let his South Sea Company absorb the national debt—and convinced the British public that shares in this enterprise would make them all rich beyond imagination. For a few glorious months, it worked. Then the greatest financial catastrophe in British history erased fortunes overnight.
This episode traces the South Sea Bubble from its origins in the slave trade—the infamous Asiento contract that promised to deliver human cargo to Spanish America—through the frenzy of speculation that gripped an entire nation, to the devastating crash that toppled ministries and ruined thousands. Along the way, we meet the schemers, the dreamers, and the desperate who poured their savings into promises of infinite wealth.
From the coffee houses of Exchange Alley to the halls of Parliament, discover how Britain's first stock market mania created the template for every bubble that would follow—and revealed truths about human nature that remain painfully relevant today.