At the end of the seventeenth century, English investors began to see money-making in a new light. A piece of paper – a share or a bond - could be as profitable as holdings in land and far less cumbersome to administer. Furthermore, while land was taxed, profits from these new securities were not. This inevitably led to abuse. In this short-form book, New York Times bestselling author Robert Wernick traces the remarkable history of the South Sea Bubble, one of the greatest financial scandals of all time.