Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation

406 Pages·35.351 MB·English

by  Edward Chancellor

DEVIL
TAKE THE
HINDMOST
A HISTORY OF
FINANCIAL
SPECULATION
EDWARD
CHANCELLOR

Digitized by the Internet Archive
2015
in
https://archive.org/details/deviltakehindmosOOchan
DEVIL
TAKE THE
HINDMOST
HG6005
„C48
1999
DEVIL
TAKE THE
HINDMOST
HISTORY
OF
A
FINANCIAL
SPECULATION
EDWARD
• •
CHANCELLOR
FARRAR«STRAUS»GIROUX
NEW YORK
Farrar,StrausandGiroux
19UnionSquare West,NewYork 10003
Copyright© 1999byEdwardChancellor
Allrightsreserved
Distributedin Canada byDouglas&MclntyreLtd
Priiiledin the UnitedStatesofAmerica
DesignedbyAbbyKagan
First edition, 1999
Libraryoj('ongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chancellor,Edward, 1962-
Deviltakethehindmost:ahistoryoffinancialspeculation/
—
EdwardChancellor. 1sted.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-374-13858-3 (alk.paper)
—
1. Speculation History. 1. Title.
HG6005.C48 1999
332.64'5V9—dc21 99-1266$
To Antonia

CONTENTS
Preface: Devil Take the Hindmost ix
1. "This Bubble World": The Origins ofFinancial Speculation 3
2. Stockjobbing in 'Change Alley: The ProjectingAge
ofthe 1690s 30
3. "The Never-to-Be-Forgot or Forgiven South-Sea Scheme" 58
4. Fool's Gold: The Emerging Markets ofthe 1820s 96
5. "A Ready Communication": The Railway Mania of1845 122
6. "Befooled, Bewitched and Bedeviled":
Speculation in the Gilded Age 152
7. The End ofa New Era: The Crash of1929
and Its Aftermath 191
8. Cowboy Capitalism: From Bretton Woods
to Michael Milken 233
9. Kamikaze Capitalism: The Japanese Bubble Economy
ofthe 1980s 283
Epilogue: The Case ofthe Rogue Economists 328
Notes 351
For Further Reference 367
Acknowledgments 371
Index 373