Editing South Sea Company (section)

=== Recriminations ===
{{anchor|National Debt Act 1721}}
By the end of September the stock had fallen to £150. Company failures now extended to [[bank]]s and [[goldsmith]]s, as they could not collect loans made on the stock, and thousands of individuals were ruined, including many members of the British [[elite]]. With investors outraged, [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] was recalled in December and an investigation began. Reporting in 1721, it revealed widespread [[fraud]] amongst the company directors and corruption in the Cabinet. Among those implicated were [[John Aislabie]] (the Chancellor of the Exchequer), [[James Craggs the Elder]] (the [[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]]), [[James Craggs the Younger]] (the [[Southern Secretary]]), and even [[James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope|Lord Stanhope]] and [[Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland|Lord Sunderland]] (the heads of the Ministry). Craggs the Elder and Craggs the Younger both died in disgrace; the remainder were [[Impeachment in the United Kingdom|impeached]] for their corruption. The Commons found Aislabie guilty of the "most notorious, dangerous and infamous corruption", and he was imprisoned.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

The newly appointed [[First Lord of the Treasury]], [[Robert Walpole]], successfully restored public confidence in the financial system. However, public opinion, as shaped by the many prominent men who lost money, demanded revenge. Walpole supervised the process, which removed all 33 of the company directors and stripped them of, on average, 82% of their wealth. The money went to the victims and the stock of the South Sea Company was divided between the Bank of England and the East India Company. Walpole made sure that King George and his mistresses were protected, and by a margin of three votes he managed to save several key government officials from impeachment. In the process, Walpole won plaudits as the savior of the financial system while establishing himself as the dominant figure in British politics; historians credit him for rescuing the Whig government, and indeed the Hanoverian dynasty, from total disgrace.<ref>Marshall, pp. 127–130.</ref><ref>Richard A. Kleer (2015), "Riding a wave: the Company's role in the South Sea Bubble", p. 165.</ref><ref>Stephen Taylor (2008), "Walpole, Robert, first earl of Orford (1676–1745)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''</ref>