Night Wind Hawkers
"Night wind hawkers" were people who sold stock on the streets during the South Sea Bubble, one of the first documented popular delusions.
The South Sea Bubble occurred when ‘The South Sea Company’ was founded in 1711 by an Act of Parliament. Unbeknownst, the company was the first Ponzi scheme in history. The attractiveness of owning stock became overhyped, and the subsequent story is a terrible illustration of what may happen when people succumb to "group think." The fact that it was a catastrophic financial collapse and that some of the best intellectuals of the day, including Isaac Newton himself, perished as a result is without dispute. According to various estimates, Newton may have lost as much as £40 million in today's currency in the plan.
The South Sea Bubble
The South Sea Company was a public and private partnership that was designed as a way of consolidating, controlling and reducing the national debt and to help Britain increase its trade and profits in the Americas. It was given a commercial monopoly in the area in 1713 to allow it to achieve this. The asiento, which permitted the trade of African slaves to the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, was a component of this. Slave revenues had increased significantly over the past two centuries, and the people had great faith in the plan since many believed that this trend would continue, especially when the War of the Spanish Succession ended and commerce could resume in earnest. However, things didn't exactly turn out that way.