15 April – Ralph Allen of Bath is appointed to farm Cross and Bye Posts (i.e. to manage mail not going via London), leading to his reform of the system.[2][3]
Parliament approves the Bubble Act (formally the Royal Exchange and London Assurance Corporation Act 1719), prohibiting the formation of joint-stock companies except by royal charter.
12 July – Under authority of the Bubble Act, the Lords Justices attempt to curb some of the excesses of the stock markets during the "South Sea Bubble". They dissolve a number of petitions for patents and charters, and abolish more than 80 joint-stock companies of dubious merit, but this has little effect on the creation of "Bubbles", ephemeral joint-stock companies created during the hysteria of the times.[4]
16 November – English-born pirate captain "Calico Jack" Rackham (captured around 31 October) is brought to trial at Spanish Town in Jamaica; he is hanged at Port Royal two days later. Most of his crew is also hanged but female pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny (his Irish-born wife) are spared.
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