Anne L. Murphy

The Financial Revolution in England

This chapter explains the processes by which the British created a system of state finance that could command the trust of the investing public and sustain the ever-increasing debts that resulted from the wars of the long eighteenth century.

Lotteries in the 1690s : investment or gamble?

Original article can be found at : http://journals.cambridge.org/ Copyright Cambridge University Press

Demanding ‘Credible Commitment’: Public Reactions to the Failures of the Early Financial Revolution

North and Weingasts notion of ‘credible commitment’ arguably offers a reasonable understanding of the factors that allowed the development of a trusting relationship between the state and its potential creditors over the long term. Yet, they failed to recognize the difficulties that were encountered along the way. This article highlights some of those difficulties and shows that at times when credible commitment was in doubt, supporters of the financial revolution held the government to account through the published media and by direct action. This is important for two reasons. First, the contemporary debate regarding the financial revolution, as it is presented by some historians, may lead us to presume that there would have been little public outcry had the government reneged on its debt. Indeed, we might argue that hostility towards financiers had always made default popular with many segments of the population. Yet, clearly opinion was not quite so one‐sided and the reaction against potential default was considerable. Second, the fact that the public creditors were willing to act to protect themselves shows that credible commitment was not just created from above by the Glorious Revolution and the subsequent development of the institutions of government; it was demanded from below by the people who invested in the financial revolution.

Trading options before Black-Scholes: a study of the market in late-seventeenth-century London

This article uses data from the ledgers of the financial broker Charles Blunt to explore the market in equity options that emerged in London during the stock market boom of the early 1690s. Blunts ledgers provide a unique opportunity to observe the workings of an early modern derivatives market. They reveal a broadly based and highly active trade in options. The market functioned well, determined value using agreed criteria, and was utilized by a diverse range of individuals to facilitate both risk-seeking and risk-averse investment strategies.

Learning the business of banking: The management of the Bank of England's first tellers

This article focuses on what appears from the surviving records to have been the most troublesome of the new Bank of Englands functions: the telling of money. The Banks tellers had a complex job and the mistakes they made often proved costly, thus careful consideration was given to the means by which errors could be limited and servants incentivised to perform at their best. The methods used to motivate the tellers and manage the department, therefore, can reveal much about the men who implemented Britains financial revolution and can give insights into the reasons for the Bank of Englands business success and subsequent longevity.

‘Writes a fair hand and appears to be well qualified’: the recruitment of Bank of England clerks, 1800–1815

The financial strains of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars had a significant impact on the Bank of England. In its position as banker to the state and manager of the states debt, it experienced a significant increase in workload and thus was forced rapidly to expand its workforce. From a complement of around 300 in the mid 1780s, the number of clerks employed had increased to over 900 in 1815. Using a unique set of records preserved in the Banks archives, this article investigates the backgrounds and skills of the men recruited during the expansion of the early nineteenth century. It finds a significant gap between the skills required by the Bank and the skills possessed by its potential workforce.

‘You do manage it so well that I cannot do better’: the working life of Elizabeth Jeake of Rye (1667–1736)

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the debate around early modern women’s work. It concerns not waged labour but rather the unpaid contributions made by women to both home and the business undertaken by their husband. It focuses on Elizabeth Jeake, the wife of Samuel Jeake, a merchant from the Sussex port of Rye. Through the letters exchanged between the family, it explores Elizabeth’s skilled work in support of her husband. This included giving instructions to contractors, gathering and disseminating business and investment information, negotiations with Samuel’s business partners and acquaintances, managing property and tenants, negotiating credit relationships and purchasing and selling commodities.

State Cash Resources and State Building in Europe 13th-18th century

Anne L. Murphy, Katia Beguin, Eds., ‘State Cash Resources and State Building in Europe 13th-18th Century’, (Paris: Institut de la gestion publique et du developpement economique, 2017), ISBN 978-2-82185565-6.

The origins of the English financial markets : investment and speculation before the south sea bubble

Introduction 1. Londons first stock market boom 2. The rise of the public funds 3. The contemporary debate 4. The development of a financial press 5. Networks of information 6. The investors 7. Stock-jobbing the market 8. Investment strategies Conclusion Appendices Bibliography.