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Attitudes to Credit in Britain, 1680–1790*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Julian Hoppit
Julian Hoppit
Affiliation:
University College London
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Extract

The history of economic ideas in Britain is dominated by a great tradition which in its early stages focuses on Adam Smith. For the century before the publication of the Wealth of nations in 1776, economic ideas are most often studied in relation to the ‘arrival’ of Smith and commented on with regard to the degree to which they may be considered precursors of his ideas. Though this imposes a sense of order and establishes some principles with which to select from the vast range of economic writings, the dangers of certain whiggishness in this approach are readily apparent. Writers can appear to be winners or losers depending on the extent to which their ideas were denied, adapted or adopted by Smith and the other classical economists.1 Such problems have been acknowledged by many historians, not least by those who have fruitfully examined the political and philosophical bases of the emergence of political economy, particularly with regard to the Scottish enlightenment. Despite this, the force of the great tradition remains very strong. The authors and ideas that are examined are the ‘major’ ones, that is to say contributions that were, or attempted to be, either comprehensive or clearly attached to what, with hindsight, were the main strands of development. The emphasis has been upon theories or systematic explanations of the economic order. Not surprisingly the unsystematic and more casually formulated reflections of non-economists and ‘amateurs’, such as Defoe, are often swept under the carpet, even if their ideas on economic matters were more widely disseminated (and perhaps more influential) at the time. Consequently, our perception of economic ideas between the Restoration and the Wealth of nations continues to be highly and perhaps atypically selective.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , June 1990 , pp. 305 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

1 Vickers, Douglas, for example, in his valuable book, Studies in the theory of money 1690–1776 (1959), p. 7Google Scholar, wrote that ‘It is not our purpose to present an exhaustive treatment of the theory of money between 1690 and 1776. We shall endeavour to establish, on the other hand, new and historically more meaningful categories of thought and to exhibit the mainstream of development. A selection had been made of the more important authors, either for their influence on contemporary thought or for the inherent worth and scientific importance of their contributions.’

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32 Horace Walpole loved detailing the huge debts of some of the elite. He notes how the young Lord Foley and his brother had run up debts of £220,000 and Charles James Fox £100,000. The Tale edition of the correspondence of Horace Walpole, 48 vols. (1937–1983); XXVIN, 392Google Scholar; XXM, 498–9.

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36 Defoe had ‘nothing of Merit to plead for…this Evil’; ‘I lay it down as a state Rule, that to this one Article of Retail-Credit, we owe almost all the Deficiencies of Trade, Bankrupt Tradesmen, loss of Honour, and ill Compliance with Bills and Payments.’ D. Defoe, Defoe's review, reprinted in 22 vols. (New York, 1938), VI, 26, 15 Jan. 1706; VI, 33, 18 Jan. 1706. In 1788 Lord Rawdon complained about ‘that unbounded credit which was too promiscuously given…tradesmen gave credit to those who had no right to expect it’. Cobbett, W. (ed.), The parliamentary history of England, 36 vols. (1806–1820), XXVN, 549Google Scholar.

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42 30 George II, c. 2; Colquhoun, ‘A plan for raising a revenue’, fo. 287; The Times, 11 July 1788, p.2.

43 Generally, Israel, J., European Jewry in the age of mercantilism 1550–1750 (Oxford, 1985), ch. 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Endelman, T., The Jews of Georgian England 1714–1830 (Philadelphia, 1979), pp. 30, 99–104Google Scholar.

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68 Defoe's review, XVII, 221, 5 Aug. 1710; for the same sentiment see also VI, 8, 3 Jan. 1706; An essay upon publick credit (1710).

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