My Bloomberg Echoes Article about King George I, the South Sea Bubble and the Constitutional Monarchy

King George I

My article in today’s edition of Bloomberg Echoes, the Bloomberg News economic history blog, discusses the role of the South Sea Bubble of 1720 in the creation of the modern constitutional monarchy. King George I’s mistress, Melusine von der Schulenberg and half sister Sophia Charlotte von Platen were both received shares from the South Sea Company, circumstances that prevented the King from assuming a leadership role in the financial collapse that followed the Bubble. Instead, Robert Walpole, the First Lord of the Treasury assumed the role of “Prime Minister” to resolve the crisis, setting a precedent for the modern constitutional monarchy.

Click here to read the full article, “How the South Sea Bubble Created UK’s Modern Monarchy” in Bloomberg Echoes