Investigate Fresh Approaches to the South Sea Bubble Through ECCO III Research
The Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is about to undergo a significant change with the arrival of ECCO III in 2026. This update, the most substantial in two decades, will expand the archive's geographic reach and deepen its digitization of materials from the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe.
Originally, ECCO contained digital facsimiles of approximately 150,000 works published between 1701 and 1800, focusing primarily on the British Isles and North America. However, ECCO III will significantly extend the collection's geographic scope by incorporating previously underrepresented regions such as Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia, and more.
This expansion will allow scholars to study eighteenth-century history, literature, and culture in a broader, more inclusive global context beyond Europe and North America. The new materials in ECCO III will complicate traditional narratives and invite new forms of scholarly inquiry into global history, gender, empire, linguistics, and colonial knowledge systems.
One of the unique aspects of ECCO III is its focus on the South Sea Bubble, a financial crisis that occurred in 1720. The South Sea Company, originally chartered to manage Britain's national debt and secure overseas trade rights, collapsed due to insider manipulation and political complicity, causing widespread devastation among investors.
The official records of the South Sea Company have not survived, so our understanding of the crisis relies on competing narratives that proliferated in print, often hyperbolic and partisan. ECCO III preserves these competing claims, including satirical broadsides and moral commentaries that reinforced the discourse around women's involvement in the South Sea Bubble, as well as counterpoints to caricature-figures like Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough.
Navigational maps, such as Thomas Jeffery's 1769 engravings of the Cape of Good Hope, transformed far-off coastlines into something concrete. Illustrated books, such as A Description of the Four Parts of the World (1776), and voyage collections tied to Captain Cook's expeditions provided richly detailed accounts of global commerce and exploration.
These materials, along with the preserved wreckage left behind when the South Sea Bubble burst, will be brought together in the new interactive exhibit, Bursting the Bubble, demonstrating the capabilities of ECCO III in revisiting inherited narratives and reexamining the evidence on which they rest.
For instructors, ECCO III provides an opportunity to move beyond the canon and bring students into contact with ephemeral sources that record the empire's formation from the edges of its influence. The term "South Sea" in the early 18th century referred specifically to South America and its surrounding waters. However, the routes for trade with South America were narrow, tightly regulated, and far less profitable than the directors implied.
The routes' limited profitability and the company's name and vague, expansive language created a fantasy of distant, untapped markets and imperial access. This fantasy is reflected in the materials preserved in ECCO III, offering a unique insight into the mindset of the time.
In conclusion, ECCO III is not just an extension in volume but a crucial enhancement in geographic and thematic coverage. It provides researchers with broader access to eighteenth-century texts reflecting the global reach of British and European expansion and encounters during the period. This expansion will undoubtedly contribute significantly to our understanding of the eighteenth century, both in Europe and beyond.
Data-and-cloud-computing technologies play a crucial role in ECCO III's development, enabling the scaling and management of the vast amount of digital data in the collection.
The expansion of ECCO III's geographic reach, driven by advancements in technology, allows scholars to reevaluate and reinterpret global history and culture during the Eighteenth Century in a more comprehensive and inclusive manner.
