How the South Sea Bubble Created U.K.'s Modern Monarchy
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April 5 (Bloomberg) -- The bubble of 1720 precipitatedEngland’s first stock-market crash. In August of that year,shares in the South Sea Company reached a peak of 1,000 poundsand dropped to 150 pounds by the end of September.
The crisis devastated thousands of investors, including SirIsaac Newton, who reputedly said after losing 20,000 pounds, “Ican calculate the movement of heavenly bodies but not themadness of men.” The crash also permanently changed thestructure of the constitutional monarchy, allowing a primeminister to become head of the government as the monarchgradually assumed the more ceremonial role of head of state.