150 . PARLIAMENTARY COLBERTISM 
schemes. The terrible crisis of 17201 was the occasion of efforts 
to check the operations of projectors?, and rendered the public 
more chary of being beguiled by every romance and made 
them realise the importance of capital as the basis of credit. 
1g on The speculative mania at the time of the South Sea 
acquired Bubble was the most disastrous in the century, and it was 
sperience only by paying in sixpences, and having recourse to other 
expedients for delaying its payments in cash, that the Bank 
saved its own credit, and survived in the general crash. 
There were other occasions when the Bank of England was 
fairly successful in intervening, either to check the fever of 
speculation, or to facilitate recovery after the beginnings of 
disaster. The directors profited to some extent by financial 
disasters in other lands; the failure in 1720 of Law's great 
scheme in France® was a useful warning as to the danger of an 
over-issue of paper-currency, and it seriously interfered with 
the development of banking and credit in that country. On 
the other hand, the growth of British commerce in all parts 
of the world rendered England an increasingly favourable 
and field for the investment of capital. London was coming to 
Lik ch rival Amsterdam as the financial centre of the world, and 
nae the the wisdom of the management of the Bank, during the 
financial critical year 1763, did much to strengthen its position. The 
Fag) difficulty originated on the Continent, as the Bank of 
Amsterdam had refused support to a firm named Neufville, 
which had connections in many business centres, and there 
were numerous failures in Hamburg and Germany. The 
effect of these disasters extended to England ; but the Bank 
was able to make such advances as to prevent the results 
from being fatal to many of the mercantile houses here. 
The successive crises of this century were all due to 
similar causes, and followed on periods of commercial over- 
trading. From 1769 onwards there was a very rapid increase 
‘nthe exports from the country? and early in the summer 
A.D. 1689 
—1776. 
1 Compare the petitions in Parl. Hist. vi. 760. 
% On the Bubble Act, see p. 816 below. 
i For an account of this remarkable man see J. S. Nicholson, Money and 
Monetary Problems, 165. 
4 Macleod, op. cit. 1. 502; Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, 131. 
5 Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas (1801).