Reflection of the Mercenary World, in the Beginning of the Rise and Fall of Stock Trading
Money and Trade Considered, With a Proposal for Supplying the Nation with Money
The Chimera: or, The French Way of Paying National Debts, Laid Open
Daniel Defoe (British, 1661?–1731), London: Printed for T. Warner, 1720
Founded in England in 1711, the South Sea Company received substantial support from influential public figures such as Daniel Defoe, who was quick to recognize the significant financial opportunities of trade in the Americas. An insurance underwriter and trader of wine and wool before making his living as a novelist and journalist, Defoe was nevertheless no fan of John Law’s methods. By the end of 1719, Defoe began composing the treatise he titled The Chimera. Using the image of the mythical creature composed of various animal parts to describe what he perceived as a wildly implausible scheme, Defoe laid out the defects of Law’s grand plan at the very moment the bubble was climaxing in France.
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