Tricks and Stratagems,
"first the projectors pretend to find a vein of gold, then they buy a lease for twenty-one years and settle a Company under Articles, divide into shares, usually 400, choose a Committee, a Clerk, and Transfer-Book, and pretend to carry on the work to the benefit of all the Proprietors; who, at the beginning purchase shares at a low rate, viz., Ten Shillings, Twenty, or a Guinea, then all of the sudden they whip up the shares to Three, Five, Ten, nay; Fifteen Pounds a Share; then they fall to speculation as well as trade in the shares which infallibly ruins these, and all other Projects; those principally concerned, sell their Interest draw off, and wholly quit the Affair, which by this and other means of underhand dealing, tricking, and sharping one another, falls to the Ground, and is abandoned by everybody."
.......Anonymous author
Angliae Tutamen
Curiously familiar sounding isn't it?
Marty |
