England: South Sea Bubble - The Sharp Mind of John Blunt - Extra History - Part 1

I'll throw the British South Sea Trading Company into the ring for that title of most overvalued company ever. It had the king himself on the board. The company value represented a decent fraction of the national gdp at the time. All without actually never producing anything of actual value. It was just bribes and speculation all the way through. It's wild. link Extra History did a more easily digestible series, which was how I learned about it in the first place. ▶ this video

More about the whole thing: England: South Sea Bubble - The Sharp Mind of John Blunt - Extra History - Part 1 ▶ this video

If you liked this story, I also highly recommend the YouTube Extra History miniseries on the South Sea Bubble, which is a very similar contemporary scheme in the U.K. ▶ this video

Also mentioned: The south sea company was basically a huge banking bubble scam. It is quite an interesting tale: ▶ this video

It is always amazing to me that humans are just so predictably greedy . You'd have thought that we'd have learned any damned thing from history. For other readers with a bit of free time this Friday afternoon, XtraHistory has a great series on the 'South Sea Company' Bubble and the always interesting First British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole: ▶ this video

I think you'd like this overview of England's South Sea Company and how John Blunt used all kinds of now illegal monetary fraud to become England's largest company, worth more than their GDP: ▶ this video

For those who want an accessible introduction to the South Sea Bubble, Extra History has a video series on the causes and aftermath: ▶ this video