Banking Projecting And Politicking In Early Modern England

Banking, Projecting, and Politicking uncovers a previously understudied and unacknowledged financial institution in late-seventeenth-century England known as Thompson and Company. Whilst the institution has been briefly mentioned in literary studies focusing on the poet and politician Andrew Marvell, it has never been the sole focus of an economic, financial, commercial, or political study in its own right. As such, nothing is known of how it operated, where it sits in the history of English finance, why it collapsed, or what it can tell us about wider Restoration society and its economic and political culture. Through a microhistorical study, the book reconstructs the institution of Thompson and Company, the social networks of its partners, the identity of its creditors, and the events and circumstances that led to its collapse. The book situates the reconstructed institution within its economic, commercial, financial, and political contexts, using the evidence accrued to question the traditional narrative of financial and commercial development, credit systems, the relationship between economics, finance, commerce and politics, and the place of risk and strategy in gendered relations, credit, and social status. The book will be of interest to academics and students in economic history, financial and business history.

This is widely acknowledged as a scholarly and well-documented study of early banking in England. It bridges gaps in the early history of English banking and deals with the operations of the pre-Bank of England bankers, the evolution of English paper money and the remarkable transactions of the early directors of the Bank of England. Although the main body of the book concentrates on the 16th and 17th centuries, the volume includes a brief survey of English banking in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Excerpt from The Early History of Banking in England This book is an attempt to bridge certain gaps in the early history of English banking. It deals primarily with the operations Of the pre - Bank of England bankers, the evolution of English paper money, _ and the remarkable transactions of the early directors of the Bank of England during the first six years of its eventful history. The main inquiry is, therefore, confined to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with particular reference to the second half of the latter century. A brief survey, how ever, is given Oi English banking in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The first chapter describes the activities of the pioneers of English banking. The second and third chapters give a detailed account Of the part played by the goldsmith bankers in the development of banking technique, in the trade expan sion of Stuart England, and in financing the Government of the day. The fourth chapter examines the earliest English banking schemes, including the ill-fated experiments of the City of London, the short-lived Million Bank, and the extraordinary land bank projects of the closing years of the seventeenth century.. The fifth, sixth and Seventh chapters deal with the foundation and early history of the Bank of England. The eighth chapter describes the salient features of English banking between. 1700 and the Bank Act of 1833. The ninth and concluding chapter examines the economic, political and religious conditions under which banking emerged in England, and traces the evolution of English banking theory and practice. Though use has been made Of the contemporary printed books and pamphlets, and of the newspapers of the day. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Nine Years' War with France was a period of great institutional innovation in public finance and of severe monetary turmoil for England. It saw the creation of the Bank of England; a sudden sharp fall in the external value of the pound; a massive undertaking to melt down and recoin most of the nation's silver currency; a failed attempt to create a National Land Bank as a competitor to the Bank of England; and the ensuing outbreak of a sharp monetary and financial crisis. Histories of this period usually divide these events into two main topics, treated in isolation from one another: the recoinage debate and ensuing monetary crisis and a 'battle of the banks'. The first is often interpreted as the pyrrhic victory of a creditor-dominated parliament over the nation's debtors, one that led very predictably to the ensuing monetary crisis. The second has been construed as a contest between whig-merchant and tory-gentry visions of the proper place of banking in England's future. This book binds the two strands into a single narrative, resulting in a very different interpretation of both. Parliamentary debate over the recoinage was superficial and misleading; beneath the surface, it was just another front for the battle of the banks. And the latter had little to do with competing philosophies of economic development; it was rather a pragmatic struggle for profit and power, involving interlocking contests between two groups of financiers and two sets of politicians within the royal administration. The monetary crisis of summer 1696 was not the result of poor planning by the Treasury; rather it was a continuation of the battle of the banks, fought on new ground but with the same ultimate intent - to establish dominance in the lucrative business of private lending to the crown.

This study examines the darker side of England's culture of economic improvement between 1640 and 1720. It is often suggested that England in this period grew strikingly confident of its prospect for unlimited growth. Indeed, merchants, inventors, and others promised to achieve immense profit and abundance. Such flowery promises were then, as now, prone to perversion, however. This volume is concerned with the taming of incipient capitalism - how a society in the past responded when promises of wealth creation went badly wrong. The notion of 'projecting' played a key role in this process. Thriving theatre, literature, and popular culture in the age of Ben Jonson began elaborating on predominantly negative images of entrepreneurs or 'projectors' as people who pursued Crown's and their own profits at the public's expense. This study examines how the ensuing public distrust came to shape the negotiation in the subsequent decades over the nature of embryonic capitalism. The result is a set of fascinating discoveries. By scrutinising greedy 'projectors', the incipient public sphere helped reorient the practices and priorities of entrepreneurs and statesmen away from the most damaging of rent-seeking behaviours. Far from being a recent response to mainstream capitalism, ideas about socially responsible business have long shaped the pursuit of wealth, power, and profit. Taming Capitalism before its Triumph unravels the rich history of broken promises of public service and ensuing public suspicion - a story that throws fresh light on England's 'transition to capitalism', especially the emergence of consumer society and the financial revolution towards the end of the seventeenth century.