The South Sea Bubble
Isaac Newton loses a fortune in a stock bubble
Between January and August 1720 South Sea Company shares soared from £128 to £1,000, then crashed, ruining thousands. Among the losers was Isaac Newton, said to have lost about £20,000. The episode helped make "bubble" the word for a speculative mania.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
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Isaac Newton lost a fortune in a stock bubble. He is said to have lost about £20,000 in the South Sea Company in 1720, remarking that he could calculate the motions of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1703 Founding of Saint Petersburg — 17 years earlier
- 1709 Battle of Poltava — 11 years earlier
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — 1 year later
Middle East
- 1722 Fall of Isfahan — 2 years later
Alive at the time
- Isaac Newton (aged 77)
- Kangxi Emperor (aged 66)
- Peter the Great (aged 48)
- Johann Sebastian Bach (aged 35)
- Voltaire (aged 26)
- Benjamin Franklin (aged 14)
- Mikhail Lomonosov (aged 9)
- Ahmed III (aged 47)
- Vitus Bering (aged 39)
- Tokugawa Yoshimune (aged 36)