Financial Iconography

In the financial field the icons first seen at the time of the South Sea Bubble in 1720 reappear at various times during the century at times of financial crisis (bubbles, puffs, the frenzy of speculation). The icons reflect contemporaneous events ranging from depictions of engines out of control (at the time of the Railway Mania), to depictions of stags and bulls (reflecting the speculative excesses of the time), and to desperate crowds of investors thronging outside failed bank headquarters. External depictions of financial institutions’ buildings reflecting the ambivalence of apparently solid external edifices are contrasted with the corrupt depiction of activities carried on inside such institutions. The images overall depict both the victims and the villains of financial activities. Initially the focus is on the victims (the despair of the investors caught up in the maelstrom of investing) and the naivete of their ‘lemming’ like behaviour. As the century wears on there is increasing depiction in the comic periodicals of the villains, their corruptness and hypocrisy, and the damage they have wreaked on the ‘poor’ investors, hamstrung by inadequate legal redress. The European/US depictions are more satirical and starker in their impact. Only in the 1840s at the time of the railway mania do British depictions reach the visceral emotions of the later international cartoons.