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These two unabridged chapters from Charles Mackay's two-volume evergreen work, Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841) deal with the disastrous South Sea Bubble and the extraordinary outbreak of Tulipomania in Holland. The South Sea Company, a British joint stock company founded in 1711, was granted a monopoly to trade in Spain's South American colonies. In return, the company took on the national debt of England. Speculation in the company's stock led to a great economic bubble known as the South Sea Bubble in 1720, which caused financial ruin for many, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Aislabie. Mackay describes this exciting period with great relish and in considerable detail. Tulipomania was an equally bizarre and tragicomic period in Dutch history when almost the whole population began trading and speculating in tulip bulbs, leading to the financial ruin of thousands. At the height of tulip mania, in 1637, a single tulip bulb might sell for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. It is often considered the first recorded economic bubble.For those interested in contemporary finance, economics or social history these incidents are sure to delight and horrify in equal measure. Also included is Mackay's amusing chapter on the passing fashions in slang in London. The South Sea Bubble and Tulipomania: Financial Madness and Delusion is read by Greg Wagland for Magpie Audio.

This unabridged chapter, titled Witch Mania, is from Charles Mackay's evergreen work, Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Published in 1841 it is a stylish and comprehensive dissection of the witch mania which beset much of Europe in the 16th and 17th century. In his easygoing journalistic style Mackay describes in some detail many celebrated outbreaks of this hysteria including the trials of Dr. Fian and Gellie Duncan in Scotland, the progress of Matthew Hopkins through East Anglia as the self-styled Witch-Finder General, and further episodes in New England, Wurzburg and Geneva. Herein are speeches made from the dock, the scaffold, from the foot of the 'bonnie fire' itself, gruesome accounts of the many tortures endured and several chilling spells and incantations. It begins with a discussion of medieval attitudes to the devil and Satan, misinterpretations of Mosaic Law, of what comprised a typical Witches' Sabbath, of the brutal extirpation of the Knights Templar and the brave but futile resistance of the little-known Stedinger in Holland.'Witch Mania' is, in short, not only an exciting introduction to the history of witchcraft and a worthy addition to the libraries of folklorists, social historians and students of Wicca, but also a moving memorial to the countless innocent lives lost. Greg Wagland narrates for Magpie Audio.