The greater fool: Paper, illusion, and time in representations of the south sea bubble

Abstract

In the autumn of 1720, the joint-stock venture, the South Sea Company, imploded in a swirl of paper: company shares, notes of credit, receipts of sale, newspapers, and other ephemera littered the streets of London like ashes of recently lost fortunes. As if preserving these documents where they fell, two collage prints published by Thomas Bowles II, both entitled The Bubblers Medley, or a Sketch of the Times: Being Europe's Memorial for the Year 1720 (Figs. 1, 2), reassemble the artifacts of this paper world. This article considers Bowles's visual depictions of the financial calamity, known as the South Sea Bubble, to illustrate the emergence of the modern idea of a bubble from this flurry of paper. A bubble, which had been formerly considered a crooked swindle, became an economic opportunity offered by a cycle of speculation in which value depends on when one enters and exits the market. Analysis of the visual form and narrative content of the two Bubblers Medleys suggests that these prints invite viewers to participate in a paper economy in which financial instruments both simultaneously have fictitious value and offer opportunity for actual profit. By illustrating the importance of timing in select visual elements, I illustrate that in Bowles's Bubblers Medleys, successful speculation depends most importantly on when one acts. The Bubblers Medleys thus demonstrate that the printed image provided a critical medium through which to envision the new relationship swept in by the South Sea amongst paper, value, and time.