Mabel Winter – författare

In seventeenth-century England goldsmiths became what we would now recognise as bankers. Goldsmiths’ shops sold not only gold and silver plate but also instruments of credit, such as bonds and bills of exchange, and offered ‘safe’ places to lodge capital at interest. As well as offering financial services to private individuals, goldsmith bankers also became trusted financial agents to the Crown.

Whilst some goldsmith banks still survive today, and the likes of Coutts are still associated with the Crown, the link between goldsmiths and banking is largely forgotten in modern Britain. This book explores the history of goldsmith banking from its early seventeenth-century origins, through its maturity in the Restoration, the collapse of significant goldsmith banks following the 1672 Stop on the Exchequer, and the continuation of goldsmith banking through the ‘financial revolution’, formation of the Bank of England, and beyond. It combines a general narrative with examples of specific goldsmith banks throughout the period to examine goldsmith bankers’ practices, the instruments they dealt in and popularised, and the innovations in finance they instituted.

This concise introduction to goldsmith banking is ideal for students, academics, and those with a general interest in financial history or early modern London.

In seventeenth-century England goldsmiths became what we would now recognise as bankers. Goldsmiths’ shops sold not only gold and silver plate but also instruments of credit, such as bonds and bills of exchange, and offered ‘safe’ places to lodge capital at interest. As well as offering financial services to private individuals, goldsmith bankers also became trusted financial agents to the Crown.

Whilst some goldsmith banks still survive today, and the likes of Coutts are still associated with the Crown, the link between goldsmiths and banking is largely forgotten in modern Britain. This book explores the history of goldsmith banking from its early seventeenth-century origins, through its maturity in the Restoration, the collapse of significant goldsmith banks following the 1672 Stop on the Exchequer, and the continuation of goldsmith banking through the ‘financial revolution’, formation of the Bank of England, and beyond. It combines a general narrative with examples of specific goldsmith banks throughout the period to examine goldsmith bankers’ practices, the instruments they dealt in and popularised, and the innovations in finance they instituted.

This concise introduction to goldsmith banking is ideal for students, academics, and those with a general interest in financial history or early modern London.

Banking, Projecting, and Politicking uncovers a previously understudied and unacknowledged financial institution in late-seventeenth-century England known as Thompson and Company. Whilst the institution has been briefly mentioned in literary studies focusing on the poet and politician Andrew Marvell, it has never been the sole focus of an economic, financial, commercial, or political study in its own right. As such, nothing is known of how it operated, where it sits in the history of English finance, why it collapsed, or what it can tell us about wider Restoration society and its economic and political culture. Through a microhistorical study, the book reconstructs the institution of Thompson and Company, the social networks of its partners, the identity of its creditors, and the events and circumstances that led to its collapse.