The Postilion on a Pig Brings News That the Company Is Full

This Dutch engraving satirizes the speculative frenzy of the South Sea Bubble and similar financial schemes. A rider mounted absurdly on a pig—a beast of burden—rushes through a landscape delivering news that an investment company has reached capacity. The composition, rendered in fine engraved lines, depicts a crowd at left responding to the announcement while figures in the background engage in chaotic activity. The print belongs to the Northern European tradition of satirical prints that preceded 18th-century caricaturists like Hogarth and Gillray. Through exaggeration, visual puns, and narrative detail, it mocks both the gullibility of investors and the shamelessness of promoters who stoked financial manias. The pig, dignified yet ridiculous, embodies the degrading folly of those swept up in get-rich schemes.