Risk and Failure in English Business 1700–1800

This book is a major study of bankruptcy in eighteenth-century England.

Julian Hoppit (Author)

9780521890878, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 11 April 2002

240 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.39 kg

This major study considers bankruptcy in eighteenth-century England. Typically, business enterprise in this period has been seen as a success story - where men like Boulton, Watt, Wedgwood and Arkwright helped to forge the Industrial Revolution. But this is a myth, for thousands of businesses failed, hounded by their creditors into bankruptcy and ignominy. This book charts their history by looking at the incidence and causes of bankruptcy and by examining contemporary reactions to these. In this way, not only is evidence produced to improve our understanding of the nature of business enterprise, but the dynamics of the eighteenth-century economy over both the short and the long term are uncovered.

List of figures and tables
Preface
1. Business enterprise in eighteenth-century England
2. The bankrupt: friend or foe?
3. Failure and the law
4. The trend of eighteenth-century bankruptcy
5. The structure of eighteenth-century bankruptcy
6. Textiles, food and drink and merchants
7. Fluctuations, the weather and cycles
8. Bankruptcy, wars and financial crises
9. Depths of failure and the role of creditors
10. Contemporaries and failure
11. Conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]