This crisis originated in London and quickly spread to the rest of Europe. In the mid-1760s the British Empire had accumulated an enormous amount of wealth through its colonial possessions and trade. This created an aura of overoptimism and a period of rapid credit expansion by many British banks. The hype came to an abrupt end on June 8, 1772, when Alexander Fordyce—one of the partners of the British banking house Neal, James, Fordyce, and Down—fled to France to escape his debt repayments. The news quickly spread and triggered a banking panic in England, as creditors began to form long lines in front of British banks to demand instant cash withdrawals. The ensuing crisis rapidly spread to Scotland, the Netherlands, other parts of Europe, and the British American colonies. Historians have claimed that the economic repercussions of this crisis were one of the major contributing factors to the Boston Tea Party protests and the American Revolution.
