Newton, Sir Isaac. Extremely rare autograph document signed, 15 November 1721....

Click the image to load the highest resolution version.

Sold on Jun 11, 2015 for:

$54,400.00 Bid Source: Internet bidder

Get one of these:

Share this lot

Track Item Printable Auction Results

Sell One of These

Description

Auction Info

Guides & Info

Description

Newton, Sir Isaac. Extremely rare autograph document signed, 15 November 1721. Extremely rare autograph document signed ("Is. Newton"), 1 page (5.75 x 3 in.; 146 x 76 mm.), no place, 15 November 1721, To the Accountant General of the South Sea Company". Hinged on left edge to a larger 8 x 5 in. (203 x 127 mm.) leaf of card stock. Minor chip missing at upper margin. Isaac Newton directs the accountant general of the infamous South Sea Company to pay dividends due on his large holding of the company's stock. Newton writes in full: Pray pay to Dr. Francis Fauquier the four per cent dividend due at Midsummer last upon sixteen thousand two hundred & seventy two pound four shillings & nine pence South Sea stock in my name & his receipt shall be your sufficient discharge from Your humble Servant Is. Newton 15 Novem 1721 To the Accountant General of the South Sea Company. Although it is not as well known as his scientific work, Newton became interested in financial matters, partly due to his friendship with Charles Montague, later known as Lord Halifax. It was a peculiarity of Newton's temperament that after he had achieved a pinnacle of scientific accomplishment, often with extreme concentration and mental strain, he would completely divorce himself from any further interest in that matter, and move on to a totally unrelated subject such as financial matters. Newton was among the inner circle of prestigious English financiers and held the high government position of Master of the Mint from 1699 until his death in 1727. Isaac Newton was a major investor in the South Sea Company, which was founded in England in 1711 to trade with the South Seas (South America) in textiles, spices and whatever could be found to be profitable, including the slave trade. The early 1700s in England saw a wave of financial prosperity and the joint stock company came into favor as a means of investment. Since these companies were virtually unregulated in the amount of stock they could issue, insider trading, etc., investors were unknowingly exposed to an extremely high level of risk. An imaginative and preposterous scheme promoted successfully by the South Sea Company was a grand plan which involved the company's assumption of the entire national debt of England in exchange for an annual payment of six percent of the principal assumed by the company. This ultimately almost completely destroyed the English government. Gross mismanagement of the company along with corruption were prevalent as the company's purported success caught on at a fevered pitch. With the frantic buying of South Sea stock came new schemes, many of which proved unsuccessful causing a wave of stock selling and the eventual collapse of these companies, including the South Sea Company, thus ending the age of the first great financial crash.