David R. Green

Who comprised the nation of shareholders? Gender and investment in Great Britain, c. 1870–1935

This article explores the widening ownership of stocks and shares in Great Britain between 1870 and 1935. It demonstrates the extent of that growth and the increasing number of small investors. Women became more important in terms of the number of shareholders and value of holdings. Factors that encouraged this trend included the issue of less risky types of investments, and legal changes relating to married womens property. We examine the ‘deepening’ importance of stocks and shares for wealth holders, arguing that the growing significance of these kinds of financial assets was as important as the growth in the investor population.

Pauper protests: power and resistance in early nineteenth-century London workhouses

Under the new poor law, the workhouse was designed to be ‘an uninviting place of wholesome restraint . . . thus making the parish fund the last resource for the pauper, and rendering the person who administers the relief the hardest task-master and the worst paymaster that the idle and dissolute can apply to’. The classification and separation of paupers, the imposition of strict rules and the overbearing monotony of day-to-day life in the workhouse were central facets of this deterrent policy. Running parallel with this disciplinary system came innovations in workhouse design and construction that served to allocate and separate paupers according to their particular status and form of treatment. Inmates were taught to know their place, from the ritual of initial application through to the medical examination that confirmed their status as able bodied or infirm and determined their physical separation in separate spaces inside the workhouse. Once there the authority of the workhouse master and the decisions made by Boards of Guardians under the watchful gaze of the Poor Law Commissioners apparently provided little room for negotiation or discretion between paupers and officials. In this manner, the creation of docile bodies amenable to the reforming power of the poor law was deliberately designed to be a central part of the pauper experience. The choice apparently open to paupers was either to accept what was on offer or to seek assistance elsewhere, a choice which for many was tantamount to choosing whether to eat or starve. However, paupers themselves could be feisty, as the letters written by the Essex outdoor poor to their parish overseers testify, and although destitution drove many into the workhouse, it would be a mistake to assume that once there they were powerless to alter their situation.

London : a new metropolitan geography

London, one of the largest and most diverse cities in the world, has particular problems, trends and potentials which make its investigation an essential component of urban studies. The contributors examine the economic, social and political dimensions of its existence. The text analyzes aspects of London which have hitherto received little attention, such as gender divisions of labour and the impact of Londons boroughs on life in the capital and examines the city in its regional, national and international context.

Pauper capital : London and the Poor Law, 1790-1870

Contents: Preface Introduction: the context of Poor Law reform London and the regions under the old Poor Law Metropolitan geographies of pauperism: the old Poor Law Parish politics and the coming of the new system Building the workhouse system Negotiating poor relief: pauper encounters with the Poor Law Paying for pauperism: urban change and fiscal stress Reforming relief: from removals to redistribution Appendix Bibliography Index.

Metropolitan Estates of the Middle Class, 1800–50: Probates and Death Duties Revisited

This article compares the nature of probate records with the death duty registers and explores some of the ways in which these data can be used to analyse wealth-holding in London in the first half of the nineteenth century. Shortcomings of the probate data are discussed and suggestions made as to how such data can be interpreted in relation to wealth-holding in the urban middle class. In the context of London, the paper demonstrates how probate records can be used to examine the geography of wealth, the relationships between occupations and wealth, and the role of gender.

Geographies of wealth

This article explores the composition and geographies of individual wealth holding in England and Wales in the late nineteenth century. It draws on various forms of death duty records to determine the individual ownership of wealth including both personal property and real estate. By combining information on these different kinds of property, it is possible to explore how different strata of wealth holders accumulated specific forms of wealth at the time of their death. The article then examines how the composition of that wealth varied according to the wealth holders location in the urban hierarchy and distance from London. It points out important geographical differences in both the scale and nature of wealth holding and raises questions about the implications of these findings.

Geographies of Wealth: Real Estate and Personal Property Ownership in England and Wales, 1870–1902

This article explores the composition and geographies of individual wealth holding in England and Wales in the late nineteenth century. It draws on various forms of death duty records to determine the individual ownership of wealth including both personal property and real estate. By combining information on these different kinds of property, it is possible to explore how different strata of wealth holders accumulated specific forms of wealth at the time of their death. The article then examines how the composition of that wealth varied according to the wealth holders location in the urban hierarchy and distance from London. It points out important geographical differences in both the scale and nature of wealth holding and raises questions about the implications of these findings.

Icons of the New System: Workhouse Construction and Relief Practices in London under the Old and New Poor Law

Abstract The construction of new workhouses lay at the centre of poor law reform after 1834. In London, however, such prominent displays of the new system were relatively rare. This article explores why that was the case, arguing that the absence of new workhouses was not necessarily a reflection of the reluctance of London parishes to adopt the reforms but rather because adequate provision already existed or other forms of indoor relief were considered to be more appropriate. Prior to 1834, several London parishes embarked on extensive enlargement or rebuilding of workhouses, notably in rapidly growing districts surrounding the City. During the 1820s, in the wake of financial stringencies, relief practices were tightened. Therefore, when the Poor Law Amendment Act came into force in 1834, many London parishes had already embarked on reforms that pre-dated those recommended by the legislation. In the following years, rather than build new workhouses to accommodate the growing number of paupers, London vestries chose to cooperate and build specialist institutions: district schools for children and county asylums for the lunatic poor. Economies of scale arising from the spatial proximity of numerous large parishes and unions made this approach feasible. The lack of new workhouses, therefore, should not be taken as evidence that London parishes refused to implement the spirit of the new poor law. Far from it: early construction and tighter relief regimes prior to 1834 and the continuing dominance of indoor relief throughout the period suggest that London led rather than followed developments elsewhere in the country.

City visions and urban theory

The nightmare (or is it challenge?) that surely all reviewers face at one time or another is to be provided with a set of books that have little or nothing in common. Conversely, the nightmare that review editors face is to have these books collect dust in the same proportion as their conscience grows. The challenge is to reduce the proportion of guilt and dust in sufficient measure whilst at the same time avoiding posing an impossible task for the hapless reviewer. Though all have their merits to a greater or lesser extent, in this case the reader is left to judge for him- or herself whether there is much, if any, coherence to the books under review.