Bubble Trouble in the 1700s

What we can (re)learn from hype cycles of old

Mar 14, 2024

∙ Paid

A throng of people in a public square, representing different classes affected by the "ride" that they were taken on with the South Sea Company bubble collapse. — “The South Sea Scheme: speculators ruined by the collapse of the South Sea Company”: a 1721 engraving by William Hogarth; in public domain and housed by the Wellcome Collection

As a child, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in some fairly eclectic parts of Canadian history. On one summer visit to the Yukon, I recited Robert Service’s “The Cremation …

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