The Sophia Naturalization Act passed by the English Parliament in December 1705 naturalizes Sophia of Hanover and the "issue of her body" as English subjects.

Parliament has also established the first turnpike trusts, which place a length of road under the control of trustees drawn from local landowners and traders.

The turnpike trusts borrow capital for road maintenance against the security of tolls; this arrangement will become the common method of road maintenance for the next one hundred and fifty years.

The Whigs, within a year of George's accession, win an overwhelming victory in the general election of 1715.

The Prince of Wales (the future King George II) is in the same year elected as Governor of the South Sea Company at the election of directors.

Both the new King, George I, and his son, the Prince of Wales, have significant holdings in the company, as do some prominent Whig politicians, including James Cragg, the Earl of Halifax and Sir Joseph Jekyll.

James Cragg, as Postmaster General, is responsible for intercepting mail on behalf of the government to obtain political and financial information.

All Tory politicians are removed from the board and replaced with businessmen.

Whigs Horatio Townshend, brother in law of Robert Walpole, and the Duke of Argyll are elected directors.

The new government leads to a revival of the companies share value, which had fallen below its issue price.

The previous government had failed to make the interest payments to the company for the last two years, owing more than one million.

The new administration insists the debt be written off, but allows the company to issue new shares to stockholders to the value of the missed payments.

At around ten million pounds, this now represents half the share capital issued in the entire country.

The company in 1714 had two thousand to three thousand shareholders, more than either of its rivals.

Several members of the defeated Tory Party sympathize with the Jacobites, and some disgruntled Tories side with a Jacobite rebellion which becomes known as "The Fifteen".

The Jacobites seek to enthrone Anne's Catholic half-brother, James Stuart (called "James III" by his supporters and "the Pretender" by his opponents).

The Pretender's supporters, led by Lord Mar, an embittered Scottish nobleman who had previously supported the "Glorious Revolution", instigates rebellion in Scotland where support for Jacobitism is stronger than in England.

"The Fifteen", however, is a dismal failure; Lord Mar's battle plans are poor, and the Pretender arrives late with too little money and too few arms.

The rebellion by the end of the year has all but collapsed.

Lady Mary Pierrepont had contracted smallpox in December 1715; she survived, but while she was ill someone circulated the satirical “court eclogues” she had been writing.

One of the poems was read as an attack on Caroline, Princess of Wales, in spite of the fact that the "attack" was voiced by a character who was herself heavily satirized.

Disgraced and unable to return to court, Lady Mary leaves London in August 1716 to accompany her husband on his embassy to Istanbul.

Mary was born in London on May 15, 1689; her baptism took place on May 26 at St. Paul's Church in Covent Garden.

She is a daughter of Evelyn Pierrepont, 5th Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull, and his first wife, Lady Mary Fielding.

Her mother had had three more children before dying in 1692.

The children were raised by their Pierrepont grandmother until Mary was nine.

Lady Mary was then passed to the care of her father upon her grandmother's death.

She began her education in her father's home.

Family holdings were extensive, including Thoresby Hall and Holme Pierrepont Hall in Nottinghamshire, and a house in West Dean in Wiltshire.

She used the library in her father’s mansion, Thoresby Hall in the Dukeries of Nottinghamshire, to “steal” her education, teaching herself Latin.

Thoresby Hall has one of England's finest private libraries, which she loves; it will be lost when the building burns in 1744.

Lady Mary had by fourteen written two books filled with poems, a brief epistolary novel, and a prose-and-verse romance modeled after Aphra Behn's Voyage to the Isle of Love (1684).

She also corresponded with two bishops, Thomas Tenison and Gilbert Burnet, who supplemented the instructions of a governess she despised.

Lady Mary will later describe her governess' teachings as "the worst in the world".

By 1710, she had had b two possible suitors to choose from: Edward Wortley Montagu and Clotworthy Skeffington.

Mary's father, now Marquess of Dorchester, had rejected Wortley Montagu as a prospect because he refused to entail his estate on a possible heir.

Her father had pressured her to marry Clotworthy Skeffington, heir to an Irish peerage.

Although Lady Mary had fallen in love with another unidentified man, in order to avoid marriage to Skeffington, she had eloped with Wortley.

They were married on August 23, 1712 in Salisbury.

The early years of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's married life had been spent in seclusion in the country.

She had a son, Edward Wortley Montagu the younger, on May 16, 1713, in London.

Her husband had become Member of Parliament for Westminster in 1715, and shortly afterwards had been made a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury.

When Lady Mary joined him in London, her wit and beauty soon made her a prominent figure at court.

She is among the society of George I and the Prince of Wales, and counts among her friends Molly Skerritt, Lady Walpole, John, Lord Hervey, Mary Astell, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, Alexander Pope, John Gay, and Antonio Schinella Conti.

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Two thousand six hundred and eighty slaves had been carried in 1714, and thirteen thousand  for 1716–1718, but the trade continues to be unprofitable.

An import duty of thirty-three pieces of eight is charged on each slave, although for purposes of payment slaves are not counted individually, but might only be counted as part slaves according to quality.

Mortality among the slaves is higher than average among more experienced slavers.

One of the extra trade ships had been sent to Cartagena in 1714 carrying woolen goods, despite warnings there was no market for them there, and they had remained unsold for two years.

By the time of the next director's elections in 1718, politics has changed again, with a schism within the Whigs between Walpole's faction supporting the Prince of Wales and James Stanhope supporting the King.

Argyll and Towshend are dismissed as directors, as are surviving Tories Sir Richard Hoare and George Pitt, and King George I becomes Governor.

Four members of parliament remain directors, as do six people holding government financial offices.

The Sword Blade Company remains bankers to the South Sea, and indeed has flourished despite the company’s doubtful legal position.

Blunt remains a South Sea director, as does Sawbridge and they have been joined by Gibbon and Child.

Caswall has retired as a South Sea director to concentrate on the Sword Blade business.

Sub-Governor Bateman, then shortly after Deputy Governor Shepheard, both die in November 1718.

Leaving aside the honorary position of Governor, this leaves the company suddenly without its two most senior and experienced directors.

They are replaced by Sir John Fellowes as Sub-Governor and Charles Joyce as Deputy.

War breaks out in 1718 with Spain once again.

The company's assets in South America are seized, which the company claims cost it three hundred thousand pounds.

Any prospect of profit from trade, for which the company has purchased ships and has been planning its next ventures, disappears.

Events in France now come to influence the future of the South Sea company.

A Scottish economist and financier, John Law, exiled after killing a man in a duel, had traveled around Europe before settling in France.

Here he has founded a bank, which in December 1718 had become the Banque Royale, national bank of France, while Law himself has been granted sweeping powers to control the nation’s economy, which operates largely by Royal decree.

Law's remarkable success, known throughout Europe in financial circles, now comes to inspire Blunt and his associates to make greater efforts to grow their own concerns.

Craggs explains to the House of Commons in February 1719 a new scheme for improving the national debt by converting the annuities issued after the 1710 lottery into South Sea stock.

By Act of Parliament, the company is granted the right to issue eleven hundred and fifty pounds of new stock for every one hundred pounds of annuity that is surrendered.

The government will pay five percent on the stock created, which will halve their annual bill.

The conversion is voluntary, amounting to two and a half million pounds in new stock if all convert.

The company is to make an additional new loan to the government pro-rata up to seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds, again at five percent.

The South Sea company chooses to present the offer to the public in July 1719.

The Sword Blade Company arranges to spread a rumor that the Pretender himself has been captured, and the general euphoria encourages the South Sea share price to rise from one hundred pounds where it had been in the spring to one hundred and fourteen pounds.

Annuitants are still paid out at the same money value of shares, the company keeping the profit from the rise in value before issuing.

Approximately two thirds of the available annuities are exchanged.

The 1719 scheme is a distinct success from the government's perspective and they seek to repeat it.

Negotiations take place between Aislabie and Craggs for the government and Blunt, Cashier Knight and his assistant and Caswell.

Janssen, the Sub Governor and Deputy Governor are also consulted but negotiations remain secret from most of the company.

News from France is of fortunes being made investing in Law's bank, whose shares have risen sharply.

Money is moving around Europe, and other flotations threaten to soak up available capital (two insurance schemes in December 1719 each seek to raise three million pounds).

Plans are made for a new scheme to take over most of the unconsolidated national debt of Britain (£30,981,712) in exchange for company shares.

Annuities are valued as a lump sum necessary to produce the annual income over the original term at an assumed interest of five percent, which favors those with shorter terms still to run.

The government agrees to pay the same amount to the company for all the fixed term repayable debt as it had been paying before, but after seven years, the five percent interest rate will fall to four percent on both the new annuity debt and also that taken over previously.

After the first year, the company is to give the government three million pounds in four quarterly installments.

New stock will be created at a face value equal to the debt, but the share price is still rising and sales of the spare stock over and above that with a sale value equal to the debt will be used to raise the government fee plus a profit for the company.

The more the price rises in advance of conversion, the more the company will make.

Before the scheme, payments are costing the government one and a half million pounds per year.

In summary, the total government debt in 1719 is £50 million: £18.3m is held by three large corporations: £3.4m by the Bank of England, £3.2m by the British East India Company, £11.7m by the South Sea Company.

Privately held redeemable debt amounts to £16.5m; £15m consists of irredeemable annuities, long fixed-term annuities of seventy-two to eighty-seven years and short annuities of twenty-two years remaining maturity.

The purpose of this conversion is similar to the old one: Debt holders and annuitants might receive less return in total but a difficult to sell investment is transformed into shares which can be readily traded.

Shares backed by national debt are considered a safe investment and a convenient method to hold and move money, far easier and safer than metal coins.

The only alternative safe security, land, is much harder to sell and legally much more complex to transfer ownership.

The government receives a cash payment and lower overall interest on the debt.

Importantly, it also gains security over when the debt has to be repaid, which is not before seven years but then at its discretion.

This avoids the risk that debt might become repayable at some future point just when the government needs to borrow more, and can be forced into paying higher interest rates.

The payment to the government is to be used to buy in any debt not subscribed to the scheme, which although it helps the government also helped the company by removing possibly competing securities from the market, including large holdings by the Bank of England.

Company stock is now trading at one hundred and twenty three pounds, so the issue amounts to injecting five million pounds of new money into a booming economy just as interest rates are falling.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for Britain at this point is estimated as sixty-four point four million pounds.

Eastern Southeast Europe (1720–1731 CE): Cultural Tensions, Migration, and Enlightenment Influence

Settlement and Migration Patterns

Serb Migration into the Habsburg Military Frontier

Continuing throughout the early eighteenth century, thousands of Serbs fleeing Ottoman persecution settled in the Austrian-controlled Military Frontier (Militärgrenze) in Slavonia and southern Hungary. This settlement introduced a large Orthodox Serb population into traditionally Catholic Croatian and Hungarian regions, significantly transforming the demographic and cultural landscape. Despite pressures from Croatian nobles to reincorporate these territories, Austria retained control, using the Serb guards as a cost-effective standing military force. The guards themselves resisted reintegration, valuing their unique privileges under Habsburg protection.

Economic and Social Developments

Serbian Prosperity in Southern Hungary

The Serbs who settled in southern Hungary prospered economically, benefiting from fertile agricultural lands along the Danubian plain. This stability allowed a Serbian middle class to emerge, bolstered by monasteries that became key centers of education and cultural renewal, fostering national pride and identity even among the broader, often illiterate Serbian population.

Ottoman Deterioration and Serbian Hardship

Conversely, the Serbs remaining within Ottoman-controlled territories continued to face deteriorating social and economic conditions. The weakening of centralized Ottoman authority led to increased attacks from rogue soldiers and heightened corruption, exacerbated by the sultan's replacement of local Serbian clergy with exploitative Greek priests.

Cultural and Artistic Developments

Greek Cultural Flourishing in Wallachia under Nicholas Mavrocordatos

Under the Phanariot ruler Nicholas Mavrocordatos—who served multiple terms as prince of Wallachia and was reinstated after the Peace of Passarowitz (1718)—significant cultural transformations took place. Nicholas established a lavish Byzantine-inspired court in Bucharest, actively introducing Greek manners, language, and dress to Wallachian society.

Architectural and Intellectual Patronage

Nicholas Mavrocordatos founded important libraries and commissioned notable architectural projects, including the monumental Văcăreşti Monastery and the elegant Stavropoleos Church (1724), constructed by Archimandrite Ioanichie Stratonikeas in central Bucharest. The monastery complex was economically sustained by revenues from a nearby inn, reflecting a prevalent economic model of the era.

Intellectual and Religious Developments

Enlightenment Influence in Wallachia

Nicholas Mavrocordatos was deeply influenced by the European Enlightenment, reflected in his scholarly endeavors and patronage of intellectual figures from across Europe, including Daniel de Fonseca and Stephan Bergler. His private library became one of Europe's most esteemed collections, and he maintained active correspondence with renowned religious and intellectual figures such as Jean Leclerc, William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Chrysanthus, Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Literary Contributions

Nicholas himself authored influential literary and philosophical works, notably the original Greek text Peri kathekonton (Liber de Officiis, published in Bucharest, 1719), and the pioneering Greek novel Philotheou Parerga (The Leisures of Philotheos). His scholarly activities and publications fostered increased Western European awareness of Wallachia, marking significant cultural exchange, exemplified by local chronicler Radu Popescu, who recorded contemporary events in Great Britain, including the ascension of King George II.

Political Dynamics and Regional Rivalries

Austro-Ottoman Struggles and Religious Tensions

Although Austria had taken control of Serbian regions south of the Sava River following the treaty of Passarowitz, Austrian Jesuit missionaries aggressively promoted Catholicism, leading to widespread resentment among Orthodox Serbs, who thus experienced tensions and antagonism toward both their Ottoman and Austrian overlords.

Continuity of Phanariot Rule in Wallachia

Upon Nicholas Mavrocordatos's death in 1730, his son Constantine Mavrocordatos succeeded him as prince of Wallachia, continuing the practice of Greek Phanariot appointments made directly by the Ottoman Porte. Constantine would notably serve multiple terms as prince of both Wallachia and Moldavia until 1769, reinforcing Phanariot influence over these principalities.

Key Historical Events and Developments

• 1724: Construction of the Stavropoleos Church in central Bucharest.

• 1730: Death of Nicholas Mavrocordatos, succeeded by his son Constantine Mavrocordatos as prince of Wallachia, continuing the Phanariot governance established by Ottoman authority.

Long-Term Consequences and Historical Significance

The era from 1720 to 1731 CE significantly shaped Eastern Southeast Europe's cultural, religious, and social landscapes. The migration and establishment of Serbian communities within the Austrian Military Frontier transformed regional demographics and cultural identity. Simultaneously, Wallachia's intellectual flourishing under Phanariot rule introduced Enlightenment ideas, fostering stronger cultural exchanges between Eastern Europe and the West. Despite political instability and religious tensions, these developments laid the groundwork for future nationalist movements and cultural renaissances in the Balkans.

Northwest Europe (1720–1731): Financial Crises, Maritime Consolidation, and Enlightenment Culture

The South Sea Bubble: Financial Crisis and Aftermath

The era opened dramatically with Britain’s South Sea Bubble of 1720, one of Europe's earliest major financial crises. The speculative frenzy around the South Sea Company—created to manage Britain's burgeoning national debt through monopolized trade in South America—led investors to unrealistic expectations, sharply inflating stock values. When the bubble burst, thousands were ruined overnight. The ensuing scandal provoked severe public outrage and parliamentary inquiries, reshaping British financial regulation. Key officials implicated faced disgrace, and the crisis instilled lasting caution toward speculative finance.

Continued Dominance of the United East India Company

During the 1720s, the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, formed in 1708 from the merger of competing companies, solidified its position as Britain's dominant commercial power in Asia. By 1720, fully fifteen percent of British imports originated from India, virtually all controlled by the company, further enhancing its influence within British political circles. This resurgence of influence enabled the company’s powerful lobby in Parliament to secure yet another legislative extension of its exclusive trading privileges in 1730, prolonging the license until 1766 and underscoring the company's lasting grip on Britain's Asian trade.

Maritime Expansion and Naval Dominance

Britain’s maritime dominance steadily expanded during this period, consolidating control over trade routes and colonial territories. The Royal Navy, reinforced through reforms begun under previous monarchs, effectively policed commercial lanes and protected British merchant interests against piracy and rival European powers. British merchant shipping prospered, particularly from lucrative routes connecting Britain, India, and the Americas, fueling the nation's rise as the preeminent Atlantic and Indian Ocean trading power.

However, maritime navigation remained perilous. After long ocean voyages, cumulative errors in dead reckoning frequently caused devastating shipwrecks. Determining a ship’s longitude accurately—its position east or west relative to the prime meridian—became increasingly vital as global trade expanded. Methods relying on astronomical observations, such as those first proposed by Gemma Frisius and supported by scientists including Isaac Newton and Christiaan Huygens, proved inadequate due to difficulties in estimating exact reference times.

Innovations in Longitude Measurement: Harrison and Sully

The challenge of solving the longitude problem attracted the attention of gifted clockmakers. In France, English-born Henry Sully had introduced the innovative Montre de la Mer marine clock in 1716, presenting it to the Académie des Sciences and subsequently publishing details in his Une Horloge inventée et executée par M. Sulli (1726). Sully’s design featured a vertically mounted balance wheel and friction rollers, with oscillations regulated by a pivoted horizontal lever weighted at one end to mitigate thermal expansion errors inherent in steel balance springs. Although his clocks marked pioneering efforts, Sully’s marine timepieces only kept accurate time in calm seas, as their mechanisms proved sensitive to ships' pitching and rolling.

In Britain, the inventive genius John Harrison began tackling the same problem directly through technological innovation. Recognizing the limitations of pendulum clocks affected by temperature, humidity, and the motion of ships, Harrison developed remarkable improvements such as the gridiron pendulum, which used alternating brass and iron rods arranged to offset each other’s thermal expansions and contractions. He also invented the nearly frictionless grasshopper escapement, an ingenious adaptation of the anchor escapement. Made with wooden pallets requiring no lubrication—a significant advantage given the poor understanding of lubricants at the time—this escapement enhanced clock accuracy and durability.

While Newton himself famously doubted that a sufficiently reliable marine clock could ever be devised, suggesting that celestial navigation was more promising, Harrison persevered. Ultimately, his pioneering work during these years set him on a path toward successfully solving the longitude problem, revolutionizing maritime navigation.

Danish-Norwegian Consolidation and Reforms

Under Frederick IV, Denmark-Norway implemented further economic reforms intended to strengthen its maritime economy. Efforts included improvements to shipping and naval infrastructure, and attempts to invigorate agriculture and industry. Trade policies encouraged greater commercial activity within Danish territories, notably through Copenhagen, which emerged as a significant North European trade hub, although still overshadowed by British and Dutch dominance.

The North Atlantic territories—Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Orkney, and Shetland—remained economically marginal and reliant upon fishing and sheep farming. While Danish authority grew incrementally stronger, these areas saw minimal improvement, remaining peripheral, isolated, and largely subsistence-based.

Gaol Fever: Judicial Tragedy and Public Health

In 1730, British society confronted a devastating public health tragedy. At the Lent assizes court in Taunton, a severe outbreak of gaol fever (typhus) swept through participants, killing the Lord Chief Baron, the High Sheriff, the sergeant, and hundreds more. This event highlighted severe prison overcrowding and abysmal sanitation conditions. At a time when executions were common for various capital offenses, far more prisoners succumbed to gaol fever than faced execution throughout the entire British realm, underscoring grave inadequacies in prison hygiene and public health.

Intellectual and Cultural Enlightenment

Northwest Europe experienced vibrant intellectual and cultural growth during these years. Figures such as Jonathan Swift, whose satirical masterpiece Gulliver’s Travels appeared in 1726, critically examined British politics and society, highlighting the Enlightenment’s characteristic blend of rational critique and social commentary.

In architecture and design, British society continued evolving refined tastes. The early eighteenth-century popularity of specialized furniture, exemplified by the reading chair (previously misnamed "cockfighting chair"), reflected a broader embrace of domestic comfort, intellectual pursuits, and sophisticated leisure activities among elites and rising middle classes.

Ireland: Economic Hardship and Emigration

Ireland continued suffering under restrictive British policies. The harsh enforcement of the Penal Laws severely limited Catholic rights and economic opportunity, resulting in widespread hardship and emigration. Many Irish sought better prospects abroad, particularly in North America. Dublin and Belfast saw modest urban growth, but the countryside languished under economic stagnation.

Jacobite Agitations and Stability of Hanoverian Rule

Though the major Jacobite rebellion of 1715 had been decisively suppressed, underlying unrest continued. Jacobite sentiment persisted in Scotland and parts of England, particularly among Highland clans and certain disaffected nobles. Still, the Hanoverian dynasty under George I (died 1727) and subsequently George II (ascended 1727) firmly maintained its position. The relative stability permitted Britain to focus outward, intensifying colonial and commercial expansion rather than internal strife.

Between 1720 and 1731, Northwest Europe faced dramatic economic upheaval, expanded maritime supremacy, and profound cultural and scientific advancements. Despite setbacks like the South Sea Bubble and public-health crises exemplified by gaol fever, Britain and Denmark-Norway pressed forward. Innovations such as Harrison’s groundbreaking work on marine chronometers laid the groundwork for safer global navigation, reinforcing Northwest Europe's role at the forefront of maritime commerce, technological innovation, and global influence.

Robert Walpole, who had resigned as First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Excheque to join his brother-in-law, Lord Townshend, in the Parliamentary Opposition, has often congregated with like minded politicos at Leicester House, the home of the Prince of Wales, to form political plans.

Walpole and Townshend believe that George I has been conducting foreign affairs with the interests of his German territories—rather than those of Great Britain—at heart.

The Cabinet’s Stanhope-Sunderland faction, however, has the King's support.

Walpole has continued to be an influential figure in the House of Commons; he had been especially active in opposing one of the Government's more significant proposals, the Peerage Bill, which would have limited the power of the monarch to create new peerages.

Walpole had brought about a temporary abandonment of the bill in 1719, and the outright rejection of the bill by the House of Commons in the next year.

Walpole has also became a close friend of the Prince of Wales's wife, Caroline.

He improves his position in 1720 by bringing about a reconciliation between the Prince of Wales and the King.

A partial reconciliation, the result of the bill’s defeat, takes place early in 1720 between the parties of Stanhope and Townshend, and in June of this year the latter becomes Lord President of the Council; Walpole returns to the Cabinet as Paymaster of the Forces.

By returning to the Cabinet, however, he loses the favor of the Prince of Wales (the future King George II), who still harbors disdain for his father's Government.

Soon after Walpole’s return to the Cabinet, England is swept by a wave of over-enthusiastic speculation which leads to the South Sea Bubble.

The Government has established a plan whereby the South Sea Company would assume the national debt of Great Britain in exchange for lucrative bonds; it is widely believed that the Company will eventually reap an enormous profit.

Many in the country, including Walpole himself, invest in the company.

The company by the latter part of 1720 has begun to collapse, however, as the price of its shares plunges.

Walpole is saved from financial ruin by his banker, who had earlier advised him to sell his shares; other investors, however, are not as fortunate.