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Macgregors and the South Sea Bubble
The wars with France had left Great Britain with a 拢50million debt. Taxes could not be raised in sufficient amounts to cover.
In 1710 a Tory Ministry had granted a charter to a company trading with the South Seas and had arranged for it to take over part of the National Debt.
In 1720 a group of Directors approached the Government with a plan to absorb the whole of the National Debt - a sum of about 拢30million. Offering the Government the chance of wiping out the whole debt in 25 years.
The bubble burst. Heads rolled. The Directors of the Company were arrested and their estates forfeited. It was discovered that 462 members of the Commons and 112 peers were involved.
Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke |
HENRY ST JOHN, FIRST VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE (1678-1751)- Political schemer and writer
- Sometime favourite of Queen Anne
- With Robert Harley, joint leader of the Tories
- His sense of sometimes spiteful intrigue led him to plot Harley's removal
- His political and diplomatic skills were stretched when he successfully negotiated the Treaties of Utrecht
- George I mistrusted him for his Jacobite sympathies
- Was exiled to France
- Pardoned, he returned to England, but was never able to return to political life
- Returned to France and wrote pamphlets and papers
- Returned once more to England where he wrote among other things The Idea Of A Patriot King
At the beginning of the 18th century people were so keen to invest money that some of the financial schemes were ridiculous. There were schemes for buying Irish bogs and for a gun that would fire square canon balls. There was even a company for "carrying on an undertaking of Great Advantage but no one to know what it is".
ROBERT WALPOLE ON THE SOUTH SEA SCHEME
"...The scheme countenanced the pernicious practice of stock-jobbing, by diverting the genius of the nation from trade and industry; it held out a dangerous lure for decoying the unwary to their ruin by false prospect of gain, and to part with the gradual profits of their labour for imaginary wealth .... "The great principle of the project was an evil of the first magnitude; it was to raise artificially the value of stock, by exiting and keeping up a general infatuation and by promising dividends out of funds which would not be adequate to the purpose...".
 
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| 1694 | Death of Mary II
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| 1701 | Death of James II
Louis XIV of France recognizes the Old Pretender as king
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| 1702 | Anne becomes queen
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| 1704 | Battle of Blenheim
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| 1706 | Battle of Ramilles
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| 1707 | Act of Union with Scotland
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| 1709 | Sacheverell impeached
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| 1711 | Marlborough dismissed
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| 1714 | Death of Queen Anne
Death of Sophia, Electress of Hanover
George I becomes king
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| 1715 | Jacobite revolt
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| 1716 | Septennial Act passed
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| 1717 | Triple Alliance is formed against Spain
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| 1718 | Quadruple Alliance is formed
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| 1720 | South Sea Bubble bursts
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| 1722 | Walpole becomes Prime Minister
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| 1727 | George I dies
George II becomes king
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