The Cry of the Creditors upon Bankrupt Estates in Scotland Renewed...
Rare Pamphlet Outlining "A Project for Retrieving Credit" [Bankruptcy]. [Scotland]. The Cry of the Creditors upon Bankrupt Estates in Scotland Renewed; Containing a Project for Retrieving Credit, And Advancing Trade, By Preventing Tedious Law-Suits: Again Addressed to the Right Honourable, the Lords of Council and Session, Members of Parliament, And all Scotsmen. Edinburgh: Printed by the Successors of Andrew Anderson, 1721. 24 pp. 12mo. (6" x 4"; 15.2 x 10.2 cm). Disbound stab-stitched pamphlet. Light browning, some soiling to exterior, margins trimmed closely with loss to page numbers and words on a few leaves, legibility not affected. $750. * This urgent, early 18th-century economic tract offers a remarkable window into the systemic financial distress gripping Scotland. The anonymous author soundly illustrates the scale of the crisis, noting that over the preceding forty years, "almost the Fourth Part of all the Estates in Scotland had Changed Masters, or Proprietors, through their becoming bankrupt." To remedy this economic paralysis, the author proposes a radical overhaul of Scottish bankruptcy law and debt collection procedures. By streamlining legal mechanisms and "preventing tedious law-suits," the project aims to unlock frozen assets, protect desperate creditors, and ultimately revive a stagnant merchant trade. The publication of this pamphlet in 1721 is highly significant. It was printed in the immediate, chaotic aftermath of the collapse of the South Sea Company in late 1720. Popularly known as the "South Sea Bubble," this historic event was the world's first global financial crash. The speculative bubble ruined thousands of investors across Great Britain, devastated credit markets, and triggered a wave of high-profile bankruptcies. This tract represents a direct, localized Scottish response to that imperial financial catastrophe, capturing the desperation of creditors trying to salvage what remained of their fortunes. This pamphlet is of the utmost rarity. A single copy is located globally between the OCLC and the English Short-Title Catalogue (housed at the National Library of Scotland). It is notably absent from the premier economic collections of the period. Not in Goldsmiths.' English Short-Title Catalogue T192280.
Price: $750.00
Book number 79295