Maitland collection of South Sea Company and Mississippi Scheme papers

1669-1774 [bulk 1711-1720] D

The South Sea Company was formed circa 1711 by the British government with a monopoly on trade in South America in exchange for liquidating the British national debt by selling shares in its trading enterprises and funding payment of the debt from a part of the company's capital stock. In 1721 the inflated value of the company's shares collapsed which brought on the fall of the British government and widespread financial and political ruin. The Mississippi Scheme was a rival project in France devised by the Scottish economist John Law. Collection consists of correspondence and papers concerning the South Sea Company and the Mississippi Scheme. Materials include letters and documents, 1669-1747, of notable English persons who were involved in the South Sea Company affair; letters and papers, 1712-1771, relating to the company, its directors and shareholders; and letters and papers, 1690-1774, of persons in Great Britain and France who participated in the Mississippi Scheme or who were friends or benefactors of John Law.