Money Pits: British Mining Companies in the Californian and Australian Gold Rushes of the 1850s

Between 1849 and 1853, shares in nearly 120 public companies to exploit the booming goldfields of California and Australia were offered to the British public. The companies were collectively capitalised at over £15 million, but in the end only some £1.75 million was raised between 42 of them, with only one company surviving what the newspapers of the day described as a ‘gold bubble’. This is the first detailed investigation of the British gold bubble companies and their involvement in the almost simultaneous gold rushes on both sides of the Pacific.