This is a satirical engraving from the important account of one the most infamous financial meltdowns in history. In the foreground a merman in a boat with the arms of the seven cities of the Noorderkwartier is pulled by mermaids with the city of Enkhuizen in the distance. Enkhuizen, a harbor-town of the VOC, aspired to be the most important harbor city in the Netherlands. However the harbor had silting problems that formed a large sandbank, called Pampus. Its city fathers devised a plan, financed in part by stock speculation, to change the sandbank into a sea channel. The whole scheme went bankrupt during the financial turmoil that swept Europe in 1720.

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