nd allowing the king of Spain
twenty-five per cent out of the profits, the company might build and
charter as many ships as they pleased, and pay no per centage whatever to
any foreign potentate.

"Visions of ingots danced before their eyes,"

and stock rose rapidly. On the 12th of April, five days after the bill had
become law, the directors opened their books for a subscription of a
million, at the rate of 300l. for every 100l. capital. Such was the
concourse of persons of all ranks, that this first subscription was found
to amount to above two millions of original stock. It was to be paid at
five payments, of 60l. each for every 100l. In a few days the stock
advanced to three hundred and forty, and the subscriptions were sold for
double the price of the first payment. To raise the stock still higher, it
was declared, in a general court of directors, on the 21st of April, that
the midsummer dividend should be ten per cent, and that all subscriptions
should be entitled to the same. These resolutions answering the end
designed, the directors, to improve the infatuation of the monied men,
opened their books for a second subscription of a million, at four hundred
per cent. Such was the frantic eagerness of people of every class to
speculate in these funds, that in the course of a few hours no less than a
million and a half was subscribed at that rate.

In the mean time, innumerable joint-stock companies started up every
where. They soon received the name of Bubbles, the most appropriate that
imagination could devise. The populace are often most happy in the
nicknames they employ. None could be more apt than that of Bubbles. Some
of them lasted for a week or a fortnight, and were no more heard of, while
others could not even live out that short span of existence. Every evening
produced new schemes, and every morning new projects. The highest of the
aristocracy were as eager in this hot pursuit of gain as the most plodding
jobber in Cornhill. The Prince of Wales became governor of one company,
and is said to have cleared 40,000l. by his speculations.[17] The Duke of
Bridgewater started a scheme for the improvement of London and
Westminster, and the Duke of Chandos another. There were nearly a hundred
different projects, each more extravagant and deceptive than the other, To
use the words of the _Political State_, they were "set on foot and
promoted by crafty knaves, then pursued by multitudes of covetous fools,
and at