‘Mr Morice Is Said to Appear at the Head’: The Bubble Act and an Aborted Joint-Stock Slave-Trading Company

Matthew David Mitchell ()
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Matthew David Mitchell: The University of the South

Chapter Chapter 3 in The Bubble Act, 2023, pp 37-61 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In the summer of 1720, Humphry Morice hatched a plan to re-capitalise his transatlantic slave-trafficking business, the largest and most expensive in Britain, by starting a joint-stock company. He hoped to raise £600,000 from outside investors and retain managerial control in his own hands. Though the Bubble Act forestalled this venture, the preparations for it nonetheless produced an informative archive. Over the summer, Morice received 53 expressions of interest from potential investors, including future Prime Minister Robert Walpole. In these documents, we find evidence of how investors evaluated a project and its projectors at the time. He also obtained opinions from five lawyers about his scheme’s legality. Though Morice himself did not make use of their suggestions, they pointed the way towards the creation of the unincorporated company, which later projectors used to circumvent the Bubble Act.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-31894-8_3

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