Power of Attorney signed by a South Sea Company shareholder
January 11, 1721
Letterpress with pen, ink, and wax additions
Among the reams of paperwork the bubbles generated were power of attorney documents authorizing stock traders to act on a client’s behalf. This certificate is decorated with the seal of the South Sea Company and its Latin motto, A Gadibus usque Auroram (From Cádiz to the Dawn). The motto is a reference to both the Company’s right to trade in the Spanish Indies (since Spanish galleons typically set off from Spain’s port of Cádiz) and its ambitions to dominate commerce from West to East. The letter empowers Thomas Shank, a banker operating out of Lombard Street near Exchange Alley in London, to sell, assign, and transfer Company stock owned by Arthur Lord Viscount Irwin, a British landowner and Member of Parliament.
The New York Public Library believes that this item is in the public domain under the laws of the United States, but did not make a determination as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. This item may not be in the public domain under the laws of other countries.
