Casualties of Credit : The English Financial Revolution, 1620–1720

Modern credit, developed during the financial revolution of 1620¬–1720, laid the foundation for England’s political, military, and economic dominance in the eighteenth century. Possessed of a generally circulating credit currency, a modern national debt, and sophisticated financial markets, England developed a fiscal-military state that instilled fear in its foes and facilitated the first industrial revolution. Yet a number of casualties followed in the wake of this new system of credit. Not only was it precarious and prone to accidents, but it depended on trust, public opinion, and ultimately violence. Carl Wennerlind reconstructs the intellectual context within which the financial revolution was conceived. He traces how the discourse on credit evolved and responded to the Glorious Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, the founding of the Bank of England, the Great Recoinage, armed conflicts with Louis XIV, the Whig-Tory party wars, the formation of the public sphere, and England’s expanded role in the slave trade. Debates about credit engaged some of London’s most prominent turn-of-the-century intellectuals, including Daniel Defoe, John Locke, Isaac Newton, Jonathan Swift and Christopher Wren. Wennerlind guides us through these conversations, toward an understanding of how contemporaries viewed the precariousness of credit and the role of violence—war, enslavement, and executions—in the safeguarding of trust. Contents 8 Introduction 14 I. Alchemy and Credit 28 1. The Scarcity of Money Problem and the Birth of English Political Economy 30 2. The Alchemical Foundations of Credit 57 II. Death Penalty and Credit 94 3. The Epistemology of Credit 96 4. Capital Punishment in Defense of Credit 136 III. Slavery and Credit 172 5. Public Credit and the Public Sphere 174 6. The South Sea Company and the Restoration of Public Credit 210 Epilogue 248 Notes 262 Acknowledgments 350 Index 354 9780674047389 Harvard University Press With a circulating credit currency, a modern national debt, and sophisticated financial markets, England developed a fiscal-military state that instilled fear and facilitated the first industrial revolution. Yet this new system of credit was precarious and prone to accidents, and it depended on trust, public opinion, and ultimately violence.