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The Great Swindle: The Story of the South Sea Bubble
Long before sub-prime lending torpedoed the global economy in 2008, before the stock market crash of 1929, before Ponzi invented his schemes, the South Sea Company pulled off their own great swindle in 18th century Britain. Remarkably, the ways of the Company were not unique in Europe. The Mississippi Bubble had just wreaked similar havoc across the channel in France. Virginia Cowles reveals the conspiracies that ripped-off two nations and implicated both Royal houses. She exposes the individuals responsible for the swindle, how they did it and how two scams so similar and so devastating could occur so close together. The Great Swindle is a compelling narrative of greed, corruption and devastation. Its relevance today need not be stated, the parallels are clear. Not only do the ways of the stock market continue to boggle the minds of most of us, ‘expert’ and layman alike, but also there continues to be those willing and able to exploit that to their material advantage. Cowles reveals this has been the case for centuries. Worse still, it’s clear those responsible used their wealth and power to get away with it then as they still do today. Virginia Cowles (1910-83) was a well-respected American journalist and biographer, especially known for her coverage of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. For her service as a war correspondent she was awarded an OBE by the British government in 1947. She authored fifteen books, about her journalistic experiences, various historical topics, figures and families, and was a contributor to Vogue and Harper’s. She is also the author of 'The Astors', 'The Romanovs' and 'The Rothschilds'. Praise for Virginia Cowles. ‘A fascinating historical read’ - The Telegraph ‘A rarity and a joy – a witty novel’ – Birmingham Daily Post ‘A luminously sketched view of human folly’ – The New York Times ‘For the political background alone you must read Cowles’ book, which deals with it admirably’ – Country Life
192 pages, Paperback
Published July 31, 2002
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72 people want to read
About the author
Virginia Cowles
28 books66 followers(Harriet) Virginia Spencer Cowles OBE was a noted American journalist, biographer, and travel writer. During her long career, Cowles went from covering fashion, to covering the Spanish Civil War, the turbulent period in Europe leading up to World War II, and the entire war. Her service as a correspondent was recognized by the British government with an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1947. After the war, she published a number of critically acclaimed biographies of historical figures. In 1983, while traveling with her husband in France, she was killed in an automobile accident near Biarritz.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 21, 2023
I think I may be more confused about the history of the South Sea Bubble than I was before reading this.
If GR allowed half stars I’d have rated this as 2.5, but as it is I couldn’t put my score down to 2 stars because of the amount of research evident in the text.
Cowles does a great job of adding historical context to this, but at times the narrative feels quite choppy and there’s a real onus on the reader to remember names and assume who/what is being discussed based on material from previous pages. None of this is helped by the constant errors/typos that litter this book. It reads as if it has been dictated or poorly scanned.
While Cowles’ inclusion of contemporary accounts adds empirical accuracy to the South Sea scheme’s planning and reception, this is pretty dry material and I was constantly pulled up by the fact this hadn’t been properly proof read. Intricate Finance writing is not something I naturally find easy to process, so the errors, paired with vast swathes of historical account made this a bit of a tricky read.
BBC Sounds have a good episode of ‘In our Time’ about this subject.
If GR allowed half stars I’d have rated this as 2.5, but as it is I couldn’t put my score down to 2 stars because of the amount of research evident in the text.
Cowles does a great job of adding historical context to this, but at times the narrative feels quite choppy and there’s a real onus on the reader to remember names and assume who/what is being discussed based on material from previous pages. None of this is helped by the constant errors/typos that litter this book. It reads as if it has been dictated or poorly scanned.
While Cowles’ inclusion of contemporary accounts adds empirical accuracy to the South Sea scheme’s planning and reception, this is pretty dry material and I was constantly pulled up by the fact this hadn’t been properly proof read. Intricate Finance writing is not something I naturally find easy to process, so the errors, paired with vast swathes of historical account made this a bit of a tricky read.
BBC Sounds have a good episode of ‘In our Time’ about this subject.
March 5, 2019
This is a very technical history of the South Sea Crash. As we are dealing with coverage of an economic event, this means that a lot of this text relates to economics though fairly basic ones. Even so, however, I did not find the author's descriptions of the main characters in the story and the way the manipulated the marked to have been particularly helpful to understanding, and this is my main reason for the low rating.
The reader is also given brief glimpses into other stockmarket problems of the early 18th century, such as the Mississippi Company Bubble in Paris and the plentiful other events in London. However, especially with the British ones, the reader gets a list of companies and methods of stealing money over anything substantive. As these are not the main focus of the book, the coverage seems appropriate -- especially for the reader to gain a better understanding of the financial climate of the 1710's.
However, to move back to the South Sea Company... As I mentioned above, this history could have been more explanatory. Although written a fairly long time ago now, the author did not seemingly want to link it to the then-modern stockmarkets or how things worked -- which would have helped the modern reader a lot more. This creates a lack of comprehensibility as whatever instruments are described, their context and potential effects need to be figured out independently of the swindle's account.
Even so, I would recommend this -- I think it is one of the few accessible and relatively modern accounts. There's also a good tradition of narrative history included herein with fair background on the Hannoverian princes and their attitude as well as the eventual fates of the directors of the South Sea Company.
This review was originally posted on my blog.
The reader is also given brief glimpses into other stockmarket problems of the early 18th century, such as the Mississippi Company Bubble in Paris and the plentiful other events in London. However, especially with the British ones, the reader gets a list of companies and methods of stealing money over anything substantive. As these are not the main focus of the book, the coverage seems appropriate -- especially for the reader to gain a better understanding of the financial climate of the 1710's.
However, to move back to the South Sea Company... As I mentioned above, this history could have been more explanatory. Although written a fairly long time ago now, the author did not seemingly want to link it to the then-modern stockmarkets or how things worked -- which would have helped the modern reader a lot more. This creates a lack of comprehensibility as whatever instruments are described, their context and potential effects need to be figured out independently of the swindle's account.
Even so, I would recommend this -- I think it is one of the few accessible and relatively modern accounts. There's also a good tradition of narrative history included herein with fair background on the Hannoverian princes and their attitude as well as the eventual fates of the directors of the South Sea Company.
This review was originally posted on my blog.
December 8, 2019
Riddled with typos
Evidently Sharpe Books made no attempt to proofread this book. Amazon should withdraw books published by Sharpe Books until Sharpe has proofread the books and not offer any new books until Sharpe has submitted its quality control plan. This is shameful and atrocious. I request a refund.
In the Kindle edition I found: seven instances where "feet" was used where "fact" should have been used; Use of "carnage" instead of "carriage." ; eight instances of "dear" where the appropriate word choice was clearly "clear."
Evidently Sharpe Books made no attempt to proofread this book. Amazon should withdraw books published by Sharpe Books until Sharpe has proofread the books and not offer any new books until Sharpe has submitted its quality control plan. This is shameful and atrocious. I request a refund.
In the Kindle edition I found: seven instances where "feet" was used where "fact" should have been used; Use of "carnage" instead of "carriage." ; eight instances of "dear" where the appropriate word choice was clearly "clear."
October 18, 2018
Didn't read this for fun. Was research for a book I have planned. But I did find it very educational. The writer has put the information down in a fairly easy to understand way and makes it as interesting as she could. The whole history of the South Sea Bubble is a good lesson for investors today.
January 1, 2019
Very readable history
The financial dealings of the company are complex but this history makes it very clear while putting it in the context of the period. My biggest disappointment is the poor conversion of some of the text to e-reader format. Frequently the word fact is shown as feet while some words are meaningless in the context of the sentence. However, this apart, it is still well worth a read. A history that is a page-turner...
The financial dealings of the company are complex but this history makes it very clear while putting it in the context of the period. My biggest disappointment is the poor conversion of some of the text to e-reader format. Frequently the word fact is shown as feet while some words are meaningless in the context of the sentence. However, this apart, it is still well worth a read. A history that is a page-turner...
October 11, 2019
History repeats itself with swindlers even smarter today than before...
A lesson in financial history and the architects of today's financial world of creating money from thin air.... That same system is used today - we are the poorer for it. The whole system today is hugely corrupt...
A lesson in financial history and the architects of today's financial world of creating money from thin air.... That same system is used today - we are the poorer for it. The whole system today is hugely corrupt...
March 21, 2019
A complex subject that has been presented in a easily readable manner. However the number of mistakes in the formatting of the Kindle version make it very difficult to read in places and down right annoying in others.
October 25, 2018
Riddled with annoying typographical errors.
July 5, 2021
This was really interesting. It played out like a period drama with all the sleaze. Only this was true.
February 25, 2024
Fascinating tale about an economic bubble not much discussed today.
October 25, 2020
The kindle version had a lot of typos, but I was able to figure out most of them without too much difficulty. It would have been nice to have a cheatsheet with this one, giving brief descriptions of each of the players. The nitty gritty details of the scheme are difficult to wrap one’s head around, but the gist of it is that England went completely nuts in 1720 and had an epic stock market bubble inflate and explode within a span of only a few months. Interesting stuff. A bit dry, but not overly so.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews