Bubble Trouble

By luigi_pagano

Wed, 30 Dec 2020
  • 925 reads
6 comments
 
The South Sea Company was formed
to reduce the cost of the national debt.
In 1720 the shareholders were informed
that in return for a loan they would get
5% interest on the sum they advanced,
the monopoly to supply slaves and trade
with South America. As this enhanced
the stock value, huge profits were made.
 
The country went wild; other schemes,
some very dodgy, were hastily contrived
and were the basis of numerous dreams.
Every trick in the book was tried.
A company was set up to buy Irish Bogs,
one to make a gun to fire square balls.
All those enterprises held people agog,
just a few ignored the siren's call.
 
The situation was highly mesmeric
everyone, whether a plebeian or a toff,
a parliamentarian, a civilian or a cleric,
would have had his snout in the trough.
Investors converged like bees to honey
and the project was successful at first
but ultimately everybody lost money
when the bubble eventually burst.
 
Frantic bankers invaded Parliament;
to restore order the Riot Act was read.
The fiasco's aftermath was turbulent
and demand for vengeance spread.
It seems the King was also involved
together with two of his mistresses
but of the charge they were absolved:
there was no proof and no witnesses.
 
'The best-laid plans o' mice an' men'
as one poet said, went terribly wrong.
To this catastrophe no one said “Amen”
nor jumped for joy and burst into song.
It's easy to say that they were too naive
and gullible to have joined this scheme.
It may be obvious but still many believe
that making a fortune is not a pipe-dream.
 
© Luigi Pagano 2020
Image:
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Poem
Mutevoli pensieri
Historical Fiction
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Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by marandina on

I find the story of The South Sea Bubble fascinating. A template for other similar financial crashes ever since. Nicely done, Luigi. Happy New year to you, sir

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Aye, Paul, this fascinating story should be a lesson for all of us and yet many people are still prey to unscrupulous frauds like the Ponzi scam and pyramids schemes. Many thanks for the New Year wishes that I reciprocate.

Luigi
 

 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Happy New Year, Luigi!

Great to see your your wonderful, erudite poem, linking soap adverts and historical financial crashes :0)

The rule seems to be - if it is too good to be true, it IS.

And you can't even eat bonds, while at least the Dutch could eat tulips at the end of their Tulipmania

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

And a Happy New Year to you Di.
Nice to hear from you and thanks for reminding me of the first economic bubble. I had completely forgotten about that. There is scope for a poem based on that event; I might give it a thought but having had two attempts at the I.P. it may be overdoing it. Anyway, glad that you enjoyed this one.

Luigi x

 

Submitted by Nolan on

Sounds familiar, myself could never understand finance don't think there is anything to understand really. Just "wanna-wanna-wanna gimme-gimme-gimme" saw that in a movie actually.

Keep well Luigi! Been a long year hey? && Nolan

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

You put it in a nutshell, Nolan.

My best wishes for a joyful year, Luigi