BUBBLE ACT

The statute 6 Geo. I. c. 18, “for restraining several extravagant and unwarrantable practices herein mentioned,” was so called. It prescribed penalties for the formation of companies with little or no capital, with, the intention, by means of alluring advertisements, of obtaining money from the public by the sale of shares. Such undertakings were then commonly called “bubbles.” This legislation was prompted by the collapse of the “South Sea Project,” which, as Blackstone says, “had oeggared half the nation.” It was mostly repealed by the statute 6 Geo. IV. c. 91.