The South Sea Company became the central symbol of the South Sea Bubble stock-market crash in 1720.
Founded in 1711, the company received a British government-backed arrangement connected with managing national debt and hoped to profit from trade with Spanish America. Its shares rose dramatically as promotional claims and speculation attracted investors, even though the company’s actual commercial prospects were far more limited.
Prices collapsed later in 1720. The panic damaged investors, exposed corruption and insider dealing, and affected prominent figures across British society. Parliament investigated the episode, and the scandal became one of the best-known examples of speculative bubbles.
The South Sea Bubble occurred alongside the Mississippi Bubble in France, associated with John Law’s Mississippi Company. Those episodes are related but were separate schemes, which is why naming the South Sea Company specifically matters.