The South Sea Bubble and Ireland

The bursting of the South Sea bubble in October 1720 and its ripple effects were felt far beyond the city of London. This book examines for the first time the impact of the bubble and the resultant economic crisis on the peripheries of the British state. Its primary focus is on Ireland but Irish developments are placed within a comparative context with special attention paid to Scotland. Central to the book is the lived experience of the bubble and the wider financial revolution. The stories of individual investors are employed to create a new more personal narrative of the momentous events of 1720 showing how they impacted on the lives of the inhabitants of early eighteenth-century Britain and Ireland.