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Lot Essay
This very rare pair of pictorial broadsides relate to the financial dealings of the South Sea Company, a British joint-stock company that traded in South America during the 18th century. They each include "A list of bubbles, with the prices they were subscrib'd at, and what each sold when highest. Together with Satyrical Eppigrams upon each, by ye author of ye S-Sea Ballard", including Whale Fishery; Bahama Islands; London Assurance: Pensilvania Company; and Welby's Gold Mines. Founded in 1711, the company was granted a monopoly to trade in Spain's South American colonies as part of a treaty during the War of the Spanish Succession. In return, the company assumed the national debt England had incurred during the war. Speculation in the company's stock led to a great economic bubble known as the South Sea Bubble in 1720, which caused financial ruin for many.