IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 CLC/B/227-171
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: SOUTH SEA COMPANY
Date(s): 1711-1764
Level of description: Collection
Extent: One production unit.
Name of creator(s): South Sea Company x Corporation for carrying on trade to the South Seas
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The South Sea Company was established in 1711, ostensibly to trade with Spanish South America, but, in fact, as a vehicle for managing government debt incurred during the War of the Spanish Succession. Holders of government debt were persuaded to exchange it for shares in the new Company which by 1720 had made only one, moderately successful, trading voyage and held around £20m of government debt. Company directors continued to talk up the potential of the scheme, provoking feverish speculation followed by a share price collapse in which thousands were ruined.
A Parliamentary investigation uncovered massive fraud by the directors, but the South Sea Company itself survived and continued to trade into the 1760s. It retained a role in the management of the National Debt until effectively abolished in 1854.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of the South Sea Company comprising correspondence and receipts.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
One file.
Conditions governing access:
Available for general access.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright to this collection rests with the City of London.
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
These items were extracted from miscellaneous manuscripts in the Noble Collection (Guildhall Library Print Room). The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material:
Further records of the South Sea Company are held at the British Library, the British Library of Political and Economic Science, the Parliamentary Archives (formerly the House of Lords Record Office), and the University of London Library. There are also other records relating to the Company held at London Metropolitan Archives.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note:
Date(s) of descriptions: January to May 2011.