Impunity and Capitalism: The Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690–1830 PDF
Preview Impunity and Capitalism: The Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690–1830
Impunity and Capitalism Whose fault are financial crises, and who is responsible for preventing themorrepairingthedamage?ImpunityandCapitalismdevelopsanew approachtothehistoryofcapitalismandinequalitybyusingtheconcept of impunity to show how financial crises stopped being crimes and becamenaturaldisasters.TrevorJacksonexaminesthelegalregulation ofcapitalmarketsinaperiodofunprecedentedexpansioninthecom- plexityoffinance,rangingfromthebankruptcyofEurope’srichestman in1709,totheworld’sfirststockmarketcrashin1720,tothefirstLatin Americandebtcrisisin1825.Heshowshow,aftereachcrisis,popular anger and improvised policy responses resulted in efforts to create a more just financial capitalism but succeeded only in changing who couldactwithimpunity,andhow.Inthenineteenthcentury,financial crises came to seem normal and legitimate, caused by impersonal international markets, with the costs borne by domestic populations andnobodyinparticularatfault. Trevor Jackson is Assistant Professor of History at The George WashingtonUniversity. Published online by Cambridge University Press Published online by Cambridge University Press Impunity and Capitalism The Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690–1830 Trevor Jackson GeorgeWashingtonUniversity Published online by Cambridge University Press UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi–110025,India 103PenangRoad,#05–06/07,VisioncrestCommercial,Singapore238467 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781316516287 DOI:10.1017/9781009029605 ©TrevorJackson2022 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2022 AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN978-1-316-51628-7Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Published online by Cambridge University Press Contents Listof Figures page vi Listof Maps vii Listof Tables viii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Part I Preface:Impunity at the Origins ofFinancial Capitalism 26 1 Professionalizing Impunity: From the Failures of 1709 to the Crisis of1720 35 2 TheCrisis of1720 and the Invention ofDiscredit 63 3 Between Independence and Impunity: TheLegitimacy of Central Banking after the Crisisof 1720 104 Part II Preface:Revolutionary Impunity 134 4 TheEnd ofthe Old Financial Regime, 1781–1793 141 5 Recasting Financial Capitalism, 1796–1821 177 Part III Preface:TheGoldStandardandImpunitywithStability,1815–1830 216 6 ThePanic of1825 and the Systematization ofImpunity 219 Conclusion: Monetary Policy as Conscience Management 260 Bibliography 274 Index 303 v Published online by Cambridge University Press Figures 2.1 Number ofEnglish-language publications on the South Sea Company, 1711–33 page 93 5.1 Bank restrictionnote, 1819 178 6.1 Deposits into “Account H,” in pounds sterling 250 vi Published online by Cambridge University Press Maps 4.1 Étienne Clavière’s financial network in the 1780s page 151 6.1 Bankfailures, 1825–6 244 vii Published online by Cambridge University Press Tables 5.1 Account ofpersonsprosecuted, convicted, and costs page 206 6.1 Capital of various private banks, circa 1825 226 6.2 Bank ofEngland notes in circulation and securities and bullion held, 1821–6 230 6.3 Sovereign bondissuesin London 232 viii Published online by Cambridge University Press Acknowledgments Inhis2003poem“TotheBook,”W.S.Merwinwrote,“Goonthen/in yourowntime/thisisasfar/asIwilltakeyou.”Asusual,hewasright. These acknowledgments are the last part to be written. This is as far as Iwilltakethisbook,andintimeitwillgoonfrommetoyou,thereader. I have carried it a long way, but nothing of value is ever produced by anyone alone; meaning is social, the result of shared struggle, and what meaning this book carries is the result of the kindness, community, and assistance of agreat many people. This book began life as a somewhat strange dissertation, filed at the UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley,inthespringof2017.Iwasfortunate thentobethelastgraduatestudentsupervisedbyJandeVries.Fortunate inmorethanoneway:Thereareveryfeweconomichistoriansinhistory departments these days, and I know of nobody in this profession who is more universally respected than he is. This has not turned out to be a verydeVriesianbook,buteverypageisstampedbywhatIlearnedfrom himabouthowtobeawriterandascholar.WhileatBerkeley,Iwasalso lucky to learn from and be advised by Barry Eichengreen, Carla Hesse, and James Vernon. I continue to read them and reflect on what they taughtme,andIhopethatiftheyreadthesewords,theywillseethatthis bookisinpartacontinuedconversationwitheachofthem.Andfurther, thelongerIamin thisjob,the moreIfindnew ways thatJames Vernon hasbeenamodelofhowtobewiseandhumane.Formakingthoseyears in Berkeley the magical time that they were, thanks to Tom and Kathy Brady, Angelo Caglioti, Gillian Chisom, John Connelly, Ari Edmundson, Sarah Gold McBride, Nicholaus Gutierrez, John Handel, Katie Harper, Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, Angela Hur and Henrik Johansson, Will Jenkins, Ahmed Kanna, Joey Kellner, Danny Kelly, Elena Kempf, Emiliana Kissova, Kit Kowol, Tom Laqueur, Erica Lee, Mabel Lee, Camilo Lund, Brendan Mackie, Ron Makleff, Ivana Mirkovic, Jason Morton, Krzysztof Odyniec, John Olmstead, Martha Olney, Mark Peterson, Knightcarl Raymond, Sam Robinson, Jason Rozumalski, Kerry Shannon, Muhammad Siddiq, Yana Skorobogatov, ix Published online by Cambridge University Press
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