It's difficult to see why there should be a link: the crash's impact was very limited, much of the loss being of wealth that only existed on paper, and falling on those better able to sustain the blow. Trade fell in 1721 but was back up a year later and by 1724 was breaking all records.

While contemporaries wrote of rising crime in the 1720s and 30s, there seems no clear evidence. The volume of crime reporting was certainly on the increase (and Old Bailey records are complete only from 1715), and many penalties had become harsher, all of which might have suggested to observers that there was a surge in crimes being committed.

That there was a rise over the century as a whole is widely accepted, though its scale and timing are unclear. One reason might be urbanisation which drew upwards of 1½ million newcomers into the towns; another the price increases which in the last half made it ever harder for many to make ends meet, especially in the southern towns, despite unprecedented economic growth.

But the Bubble's role is likely to have been small, if it had one. For most, life went on as before and (apart from crises in the late 1720s and early 1740s) conditions generally improved.