British scientist Newton is often selected as the greatest scientist and the greatest person in human history, and has a particularly high historical status.
Outside the scientific field, many people also know about Newton's experience in making huge losses in stocks.
1720 years, the British fell into a stock market boom. Many British companies publicly issue stocks, and British people, from princes and nobles to ordinary people, are keen to speculate in stocks. Sir Newton, then president of the Royal Society and director of the England Mint, was also affected and began to buy stocks.
Newton bought the stock of the British South Sea Company, which was only more than 100 pounds per share at that time, and first bought the stock of 7,000 pounds to try it out. Soon the stock skyrocketed, and Newton quickly sold it, netting more than £7,000. The stock of South China Sea company has been rising, and soon rose to more than 900 pounds. Newton regretted that the shares were sold too early, and decided to enter again, raising more than 20,000 pounds, and buying South Sea Company's shares again at 1,000 pounds per share.
Unexpectedly, a few months after Newton bought the stock this time, the South Sea Company's stock plummeted from £1,000 to £124. Newton sold his shares at a loss of £20,000. £20,000 was a huge sum in Britain at the time, equivalent to Newton's income for ten years.
Newton exclaimed: I can calculate the orbits of celestial bodies, but I cannot predict the madness of human nature. For the rest of his life, Newton never traded in stocks, and devoted himself to the study of culture and religion.
Many people regard Newton's experience as a stock speculation . Actually, there is one more thing here, that is, Newton invested in the slave trade. Because the South Sea Company invested by Newton, similar to the British East India Company, was a colonial trading company whose business scope included slave trade.
1711, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer took the lead, attracting many wealthy businessmen to join, and established the South Sea Company.The South China Sea Company purchased a large amount of government bonds in exchange for the government's authorization of the South China Sea Company's trade monopoly rights in South America and Pacific island countries, including the black slave trade, as well as the franchise rights of tobacco, wine, vinegar and other commodities. Whether it includes opium trade I don't know, anyway, at that time East India Company was already selling opium to China.
is clearly a colonial company. If it develops well, it may become a giant like the East India Company. Although this company also made some money from the colonial trade, it did not develop smoothly in general. Later, the stock market became very popular, and it used stocks to deceive people. The company claims that the slave trade in South America and the Pacific is very profitable, and recently discovered gold mines in South America, causing stock prices to soar.
Finally, in 1720, the stock bubble burst, many British people went bankrupt, nobles became wage earners, and Sir Newton lost £20,000.
Newton's investment in the South Sea Company was purely for profit, but he certainly knew the scope of the company's business. He not only knew, but also understood that selling black slaves, mining and looting gold and silver in the Americas, and other colonial acts could make a lot of money, so he spent huge sums of money to buy shares in the South Sea Company.
After the stock market crash in 2017, the South China Sea Company did not go bankrupt. After all, it still had the trade monopoly in South America, which was also very valuable. However, it was acquired by the British East India Company and the Bank of England after the reorganization.
Newton's stock speculation can definitely be regarded as the real hammer of Newton's investment in foreign colonization and slave trade. This matter is actually very serious.You can think about it, if a Chinese scientist invests in human trafficking, what will happen to him?
In modern history, the United Kingdom was a colonial empire, a country developed by foreign colonization and plundering. Most of the British were the beneficiaries of colonial behavior. Almost all rich people in the United Kingdom once invested in colonial trade, including investing in black slaves. It is no secret that almost all British scientists served British foreign colonization.
Summary: Newton once invested in the slave trade, and the scientists of the colonial countries were just tools for the colonizers' aggression and expansion. Newton was indeed a great scientist, but he definitely did not deserve to be called a great man. If Europe and the United States had not held the right to speak in the world, he would have been scolded as a slave trader long ago.
You can say what you think.
