Bubble Act

Defined in 4 dictionaries — Cyclopedic (1922), Bouvier (1914), Black's (1910), Anderson (1889)

The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary

Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922

The name given to the several extravagant and unwarrantable practices therein mentioned." See '2 P. Wms. 219.

Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia

John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914

The name given to the statute 6 Geo. I. c. 18 (1719), intended "for restraining several extravagant and unwarrantable practices therein mentioned." See 2 P. Wms. 219.

Black's Law Dictionary

Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910

The statute 6 Geo. I. c. 18, "fur restraining several extravagant and unwarrantable practices herein mentioned," was so called. It prescribed penalties for the formation of companies with little or no capital, with, the intention, by means of alluring advertisements, of obtaining money from the public by the sale of shares. Such undertakings were then commonly called "bubbles." This legislation was prompted by the collapse of the "South Sea Project," which, as Blackstone says, "had oeggared half the nation." It was mostly repealed by the statute 6 Geo. IV. c. 91.

A Dictionary of Law

William C. Anderson · 1889

The statute of 6 Geo. I (1720), c. 18 (enacted after the South Sea project had beggared half the nation), made all unwarrantable undertakings by unlawful subscriptions, then known as "bubbles," subjects of praemunire.* By 6 Geo. IV (1826), the greater portion of that statute was repealed, and illegal companies left to be dealt with by the common law.^ "Bubble Acts" and "bubble companies" are still in use in speaking of persons who have been defrauded by subscribing to the stock of companies organized either without real capital or business, or with capital but for dishonest speculation.