Note 68 — Chapter VI

The original South Sea Company, which became so notorious through its connection with the first great speculative mania in England in 1720, came into existence in 1711 (partly promoted, it may be, by Dampier and Daniel Defoe), for the purpose of trading with the "South Sea", viz. the Pacific Ocean, and chiefly the west coast of South America and the vaguely known islands of Oceania. It received in course of time certain concessions from Spain, such as the sole right to supply Negro slaves to the Pacific coast of Spanish America, and from the British Government the exclusive monopoly of British trade with the "South Seas". Although fraudulently speculative, it did not smash in 1720, but continued an uncertain existence till 1807. Amongst other privileges it received permission to coin the silver it brought back from Peru into shillings, and these were the "South Sea" shillings—coined mostly in 1723—so often referred to in the history of the eighteenth century.