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> Values, promotions, and speculation in Miami in the mid-1920s marked the culmination of earlier plans. Some dated back to the turn of the century. Combined with the times--a high point for U.S. industrialization, the onset of World War I in Europe, a burgeoning military presence in Florida, and the robust American economy of the 1920s--the speculative ventures exceeded sustainable limits.
Fueled by dramatic promotions by the state, the lure of Florida's natural habitat, the times, and myriad developments, bank reserves flowed into Florida to assure even greater increases in bank credit and prices for the fast-moving properties that came on the market as agricultural lands were platted and wetlands drained.
In Florida the boom acquired a momentum that could be sustained only by layering excesses on top of one another. As the boom accelerated, supplies and foodstuffs became scarce, the shipment of building materials lagged further behind, an embargo on freight shipments came about, and natural disasters intervened, as we will recount. LAND AND VALUE
Prime untouched shoreline, tropical marshes and waterways, and a natural underground water supply existed in Florida at the onset of World War I. The conditions in Florida called for capital and labor, and both flowed into the state. These--land, labor, and capital--moreover, have long been pointed to as factors of production.
In the early British tradition of economics, David Ricardo ( 1772- 1823) dealt with them, where he saw agricultural production pushed to the use of the more marginal (and unproductive) land, which he considered a fixed quantity. According to Ricardo, as labor and capital were For the most part, the inhabitants of Florida and those from outside who played a major role in the boom reacted similarly to the same events and circumstances. They did so as the boom proceeded, reached a turning point, and then unraveled.
Gestalt-like, groups responded in unison even though some players differed as to their roles, positions at a fixed time, their past experiences, the extent of their delirium, and the timing of their reactions to circumstances.
Noting the poor timing of Addison Mizner's efforts at Boca Raton, in this chapter we turn to that development and explore the interplay of different roles that unraveled in the frenzy of the burst in the speculative and promotional enterprises. Some of the players proved more sensitive in the timing of their reactions than others, but for the most part, the shared reactions to the times and the events made the boom and the bust.
As a legal reformer, Raymond Vickers wrote with the hindsight of a regulatory zealot. "To finance paradise," he said, "bankers became promoters and promoters became bankers. Operating under a spell of greed, these bankers corrupted Florida's economic and regulatory system" ( Vickers 1994, 32). Even though hope, power, desire, and anticipated outcomes from the speculative events interacted and became manifest as the events unfolded, we later dispute parts of Vickers's work and the role he attributes to greed, fraud, and interlocking directors as the factors that caused the banks to fail. In fact, he got it all wrong.
For now, we simply write of hope, monuments, and achievements that extend beyond greed, fraud, and interlocking directors. Unlike Vickers, we see no universal conspiracy of evil men and women solely out to loot society.