1-627-117 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Trade label of the South Sea Company, 18th century (1894). The South Sea Company was founded in 1711 in order to trade with Spanish America on the assumption that the War of the Spanish Succession would end soon with a favourable treaty allowing trading. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 was not as favourable as hoped, although confidence was boosted when George I became governor of the company. However by September 1720, in what became known as the South Sea Bubble, speculators caused the company's share price to become vastly inflated. The market then collapsed and many investors were ruined. Found in the collection of the Guildhall Museum. An illustration from A Short History of the English People, by John Richard Green, illustrated edition, Volume IV, Macmillan and Co, London, New York, 1894.