A Very English Deceit: The Secret History of the South Sea Bubble and the First Great Financial Scandal - Softcover

Balen, Malcolm

3.93

102 ratings by Goodreads

9781841155531: A Very English Deceit: The Secret History of the South Sea Bubble and the First Great Financial Scandal

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841155535 ISBN 13: 9781841155531

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2003

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The paperback of the critically acclaimed popular history book: the story of the South Sea Bubble which in Balen’s hands becomes a morality tale for our times. A classic collision of political ambition, mercenary greed and financial revolution.

The early years of the 18th-century produced two great monuments: one, Christopher Wren’s new cathedral of St Paul’s, an enduring testament to principled craft and masterful construction; the other, an empty fraud of such magnitude that its collapse threatened to overturn monarchies and governments. Its failure delayed the introduction of modern market economies by two generations. Yet the full scale of this monumental deceit was quietly covered up and hidden, its enduring legacy a poorly understood colloquialism: the South Sea Bubble.

It was all planned by one ambitious promoter, who had decided to launch ‘a company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is’. This eighteenth-century mission statement has now acquired an almost uncanny resonance: these words could aptly have been applied to the bursting of the internet bubble and the collapse of Enron. With the financial scandals that have beset global companies recently, such as Rank Xerox and Worldcom, this tale is all the more relevant today.

Balen reveals the full story of corruption and scandal that attended the birth of the first shareholder economy, and with it uncovers a parable for our times.

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Review:

‘As successive corporate accounting scandals surface in America, and global share prices again tumble, Balen reminds us that the murky tale of the first Bubble still stands as a cautionary tale for our time.’ Lisa Jardine, Sunday Times

‘They are rattling good yarns, and Balen spins them with all the mastery of the seasoned newsman that he is.’ Peter Jay, Guardian

‘Author Michael Balen has picked a good time to tell a tale of skullduggery, mania, and greed...It is the classic story of boom and bust.’ Express

From the Back Cover:

Malcolm Balen has picked a good time to tell a tale of skulduggery, mania and greed...It is the classic story of boom and bust.'
'Express'

The early years of the eighteenth century produced two great monuments: one, Christopher Wren's new cathedral of St Pauls, an enduring testament to principled craft and masterful construction, the other, an empty fraud of such magnitude that its collapse threatened to overturn monarchies and governments. The full scale of this deceit was quietly covered up, its enduring legacy a poorly understood colloquialism: the South Sea Bubble. For the first time, Malcolm Balen uncovers the story of corruption and scandal that attended the birth of the first shareholder economy, and with it uncovers a parable for our times.

'Balen reminds us that the murky tale of the first Bubble stands as a cautionary tale for our time.'
Lisa Jardine, 'Sunday Times'

'Balen's strength as chronicler of this episode is to depict the context in sufficient detail without letting it overwhelm the dramatic thrust...it bristles with contemporary resonance.'
Christopher Silvester, 'Financial Times'

'Malcolm Balen inevitably sees the South Sea episode as a parable for our own bubbly time...he tells the story briskly and well.'
Kathryn Hughes, 'Sunday Telegraph'

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