Cloth Seal, Company, 1711 - 1853, South Seas & Fisheries

Cloth Seal, Company, 1711 - 1853, South Seas & Fisheries, Image & Found by José de Sousa.
Found in the Algarve, Portugal, 32.1mm, 7.15g.

Cross pattée in circle with six splayed spokes separating S S & (E) C crown

This is presumably one disc from a four-disc seal, see BSG.CS.00286.

This is a seal from the infamous "South Sea Bubble" company, officially ‘The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of fishing’. Set up with government help to consolidate national debt and, hopefully return a profit from being granted a monopoly on trade with South America. Being at war with Spain, the colonial ruler of South America at the time, meant there was little prospect of reasonable profit on this front, but the company’s stock rocketed on its growing dealings in government debt, peaking in 1720 before dropping to near its original price. By selling-off most of its trading rights in 1750 it managed to survive and surprisingly continued until 1853. Seals BSG.CS.00286 and others found in Texas and Tierra del Fuego, show that some South American trade did take place. The seal above is the only known one from Portugal and indicates trade with this country also.

A sketch of this company's seal is all that remains in the British Museum [Egan, G. 1994, M.12 Fig.48] and another sketch has been reproduced elsewhere [Egan, G., 1991b, Fig. 2.11].

Michel Royer has shown that the initials are often SS&EC rather than SS&FC possibly standing for the 'Encouragement of fishing' as in the official title of the company. See Euro-Plombs.