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164 points Anon84 | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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duttish ◴[] No.46189143[source]
I'll throw the British South Sea Trading Company into the ring for that title of most overvalued company ever.

It had the king himself on the board. The company value represented a decent fraction of the national gdp at the time. All without actually never producing anything of actual value. It was just bribes and speculation all the way through. It's wild.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sea_Company

Extra History did a more easily digestible series, which was how I learned about it in the first place. https://youtu.be/k1kndKWJKB8

replies(2): >>46189620 #>>46190588 #
petesergeant ◴[] No.46189620[source]
> The company value represented a decent fraction of the national gdp at the time.

The company's market-cap was almost 3 times national GDP

replies(2): >>46189649 #>>46189694 #
1. duttish ◴[] No.46189649[source]
Oh wow, thanks. I misremembered, thought it was like 1/3 and didn't have time to look it up again.