The South Sea Company was a British joint-stock company founded in 1711 as a public-private partnership that took on a portion of British government debt in exchange for a monopoly on trade with Spanish South America, including the asiento contract to supply enslaved Africans to Spain's American colonies. The company is best known for the South Sea Bubble of 1720, a period of wild speculation in its shares, fuelled by a further debt-conversion scheme, that drove the stock price up roughly tenfold before it collapsed within months, ruining many investors and provoking a parliamentary inquiry that implicated several government ministers and company directors in corruption. Despite the crash the company survived as a much diminished financial institution, continuing to manage a portion of the national debt and conduct limited trade for over a century afterward, and it was not formally dissolved until 1853.
Facts
Organization TypeBritish joint-stock chartered company (public-private debt partnership) 1 Headquarters IndustryManagement of British government debt and the Spanish American slave trade (asiento) 1 Organization Type
Organization Type (category)Chartered Trading Company 1 Connections
Associated With
Held the 1713 asiento slave-trading contract
The Bank of England competed with the South Sea Company over the national debt before the 1720 South Sea Bubble.
The Royal African Company and the South Sea Company both held English monopolies tied to the Atlantic slave trade.
In Era
Founded 1711, within the Early Modern Period (1453 to 1789).
Resulted In
The company's speculative stock scheme collapsed in 1720, producing the financial crisis known as the South Sea Bubble.
In the Other Atlases
Located In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is located.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: South Sea Company
Wikipedialead paragraph
The South Sea Company was a British joint-stock company founded in January 1711, created as a public-private partnership to consolidate and reduce the cost of the national debt.
lead paragraph, second sentence
To generate income, in 1713 the company was granted a monopoly (the Asiento de Negros) to supply enslaved Africans to the islands in the "South Seas" and South America.
body text on the debt's later history
The South Sea Company continued its management of part of the national debt until it was disestablished in 1853, at which point the debt was reconsolidated.
Lead
was a British joint-stock company founded in January 1711
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