City of Capital

Politics and Markets in the English Financial Revolution

Bibliographic Data

ID23397889
AuthorsBruce G Carruthers (0000-0002-2703-3107, corresponding author)
Year1996
Pages320
Publication date1996-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueCity of Capital (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPrinceton University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1515/9781400822102
OpenAlexW4246006318
Open LibraryOL29022084M
ISBN9781400822102
LanguageEN
Citations received135

While many have examined how economic interests motivate political action, Bruce Carruthers explores the reverse relationship by focusing on how political interests shape a market. He sets his inquiry within the context of late Stuart England, when an active stock market emerged and when Whig and Tory parties vied for control of a newly empowered Parliament. Carruthers examines the institutional linkage between politics and the market that consisted of three joint-stock companies--the Bank of England, the East India Company, and the South Sea Company--which all loaned large sums to the government and whose shares dominated trading on the stock market. Through innovative research that connects the voting behavior of individuals in parliamentary elections with their economic behavior in the stock market, Carruthers demonstrates that party conflict figured prominently during the company foundings as Whigs and Tories tried to dominate company directorships. For them, the national debt was as much a political as a fiscal instrument. In 1712, the Bank was largely controlled by the Whigs, and the South Sea Company by the Tories. The two parties competed, however, for control of the East India Company, and so Whigs tended to trade shares only with Whigs, and Tories with Tories. Probing such connections between politics and markets at both institutional and individual levels, Carruthers ultimately argues that competitive markets are not inherently apolitical spheres guided by economic interest but rather ongoing creations of social actors pursuing multiple goals.

Archaeology · Capital (architecture) · Geography · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Scottish History and National Identity · 1689-1702 · 17th century · 18th century · Bank of england · Capital market · East India Company · Finance · Great britain · History · politics and government · South Sea Company

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