What nickname is commonly given to the 1720 collapse of shares in the South Sea Company?

The 1720 collapse of South Sea Company shares is commonly called the South Sea Bubble.

The South Sea Company was founded in England in 1711 and received a government-backed arrangement involving trade and the conversion of government debt. Expectations about the company’s commercial prospects helped drive its share price dramatically higher in 1720. Investors were attracted by promotional claims, easy credit, and the belief that prices would keep rising.

The boom ended when confidence weakened and selling spread. The company’s shares fell sharply, ruining many investors and causing a major political scandal. Parliamentary investigations exposed corruption and improper dealings among company directors and public officials.

The South Sea Bubble is often discussed alongside France’s Mississippi Bubble, which also collapsed in 1720. Neither event was a modern stock-market crash in the narrowest sense, but both are classic examples of speculative bubbles followed by market collapse.