A Run on the Bank of the Person: A crisis in London's informal credit market, 1761

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• Alexander Wakelam, Cambridge
• Thursday 25 January 2024, 17:00-19:00
• History Faculty Room 11.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Amy Erickson.

In the summer of 1761, London commerce appeared on the verge of collapse. Newspapers spoke of the end of trade, thousands were hurried into debtors’ prison, and civic authorities demanded the immediate intervention of parliament. As quickly as the Compulsive Clause crisis arose – a result of misinterpretation of otherwise mundane insolvency legislation – it was forgotten, commerce restored unaltered as if nothing had occurred. This paper examines this previously unexplored panic in informal credit networks to reveal the surprising fragility of mid-century trade and highlight the contribution of population growth in the development of modern transactional mechanisms.

This talk is part of the Early Modern Economic and Social History Seminars series.

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• AUB_Cambridge Seminars
• Department of Geography
• Early Modern Economic and Social History Seminars
• Economic and Social History Seminars
• History Faculty Room 11
• history

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