A fact from Neale, James, Fordyce and Downe appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 11 April 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that Neal, James, Fordyce and Down was a Scottish banking house which collapsed in 1772 precipitating the collapse of almost every private bank in Scotland?
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As far as I can see, Fordyce was not a Ponzi, the distinctive mark of which is paying dividends to old investors with the funds received from new ones. John Law was the great C18 Ponzi - Fordyce was more a Nick Leeson, and, through the Ayr Bank, an over-relaxed property bubble lender, like modern banks. Johnbod (talk) 16:43, 16 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
