Irish Money on the London Market: Ireland, the Anglo-Irish, and the South Sea Bubble of 1720

London’s emergence as a significant financial center in the decades after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 created new opportunities not just for Londoners, but also for those living either in the English provinces or in the metropolitan provinces of Ireland and Scotland. This article focuses on the new opportunities available to both Irish men and women for accumulating capital and wealth in the City. It examines the growth in Anglo-Irish investment, during what historians call “the Financial Revolution,” and analyzes the development of increasingly complex financial networks, which spanned both sides of the Irish Sea. Its particular focus is on the experience of Irish investors in the South Sea Company, before, during, and after the famous stock-market bubble of 1720. Drawing on a variety of source materials, including private correspondence, exchange-rate data, and banking ledgers, this article shows how Irish investors, both those living in London, and those more normally residing in Ireland, interacted with the London markets. The importance of personal and familial links is emphasized, while the experience of Irish investors is also situated within the broader context of nonmetropolitan investment in the bubble.