43. Bubble

43. Bubble

Not all bubbles are all that bubbly. The South Sea Bubble made some people a lot of money - such as Isaac Newton, the physicist but also skilful financier - or a colossal amount of money - such as Thomas Guy, who founded Guy's Hospital, still one of England's great teaching hospitals. But it also ruined a lot of others. Rather like every bubble, down to the present day.

This bubble also opened the door for a man who might sort the fallout so competently that not too many in the English elite would suffer badly. Which would make him Britain's first Prime Minister. Truly proving that even a financial disaster could make the fortune of some people...


Illustration: Edward Matthew Ward, The South Sea Bubble, a Scene in ‘’Change Alley in 1720, Edward Matthew Ward. Presented by Robert Vernon 1847. Photo: Tate. Tate Reference: N00432. Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

Jaksot(275)

250. Return of the crisis man

250. Return of the crisis man

When Harold Wilson formed his second government, he immediately faced a major crisis inherited from Heath’s administration: the coalminers were on strike, a state of Emergency (Heath’s fifth in four y...

6 Heinä 202514min

249. Who governs Britain?

249. Who governs Britain?

How did Heath end up calling an election on the question of who governed the country? Especially as the choice he seemed to be offering was between him and the minders. This episode traces the impact ...

5 Heinä 202514min

248. Withered Heath

248. Withered Heath

Ted Heath’s government had to deal with two problems drawn from Britain’s postimperial standing: • adapting to its loss of global status, by negotiating, at the third time of asking and for the first ...

22 Kesä 202514min

247. Hopes dashed

247. Hopes dashed

After talking last week about his government’s achievements in the social sphere, this episode looks at the difficulties Wilson faced in economics and foreign affairs.One way Wilson explored to addres...

15 Kesä 202514min

246. The sixties, swinging - high and low

246. The sixties, swinging - high and low

According to the English poet Philip Larkin, the sixties saw the invention of sexual intercourse. While that may not be quite the case, it was certainly a time when a lot of people decided that it was...

8 Kesä 202514min

245. Pressures preventing progress

245. Pressures preventing progress

The Wilson government got off to a pretty sticky start, with the new Prime Minister learning, more or less as he arrived at Downing Street in October 1964, that the trade deficit for the year was like...

1 Kesä 202514min

244. Harold gets Home

244. Harold gets Home

Here we’re focusing on the changes that took place in Britain after Supermac (Harold Macmillan) stood down as Prime Minister.A lot of how that went depended on the Opposition formed by the Labour Part...

25 Touko 202514min

243. Sex, spies and a slippery slope

243. Sex, spies and a slippery slope

Last time we looked at the continuing disintegration of the British Empire. In this episode we look at two other key aspects of Macmillan’s foreign policy, Britain’s relations with the US and with pot...

18 Touko 202515min

Suosittua kategoriassa Historia

olipa-kerran-otsikko
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
mayday-fi
huijarit
mystista
rss-ikiuni
tsunami
konginkangas
totuus-vai-salaliitto
rouva-diktaattori
sotaa-ja-historiaa-podi
rss-kirkon-ihmeellisimmat-tarinat
rss-sattuu-sita-suomessakin
rss-subjektiivinen-todistaja
rss-peter-peter
rss-i-dont-like-mondays-2
historiaa-suomeksi
apinan-vuosi
maailmanpuu
tiedetta-ja-sirkushuveja-vanhojen-aikojen-podcast