Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Plates, Figures and Tables
- Editorial Note
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Varieties of Innovation: Ireland, Scotland and the Financial Revolution 1688–1720
- 2 Banking and Investment on the Periphery: The Case of Ireland
- 3 Investment from the Periphery: Irish Investors in the South Sea Company in Comparative and Transnational Perspective
- 4 ‘Most of Our Money of This Kingdom is gone over to the South Sea’: Irish Investors and the South Sea Company
- 5 ‘Nothing here but Misery’? The Economic Impact of the South Sea Bubble on Ireland
- 6 ‘A Thing They Call a Bank’: Irish Projects in the South Sea Year
- 7 The Proposals for a National Bank and the Irish Investment Community in 1720
- 8 ‘A Strong Presumption That This Bank May be a Bubble’: Misreading the Bubble and the Bank of Ireland Debates, 1721
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Banking and Investment on the Periphery: The Case of Ireland
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Plates, Figures and Tables
- Editorial Note
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Varieties of Innovation: Ireland, Scotland and the Financial Revolution 1688–1720
- 2 Banking and Investment on the Periphery: The Case of Ireland
- 3 Investment from the Periphery: Irish Investors in the South Sea Company in Comparative and Transnational Perspective
- 4 ‘Most of Our Money of This Kingdom is gone over to the South Sea’: Irish Investors and the South Sea Company
- 5 ‘Nothing here but Misery’? The Economic Impact of the South Sea Bubble on Ireland
- 6 ‘A Thing They Call a Bank’: Irish Projects in the South Sea Year
- 7 The Proposals for a National Bank and the Irish Investment Community in 1720
- 8 ‘A Strong Presumption That This Bank May be a Bubble’: Misreading the Bubble and the Bank of Ireland Debates, 1721
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The financial revolution encompassed more than just innovations in public credit and war financing. These developments coincided and were linked with innovations in banking, exchange and the stock market. For W. R. Scott writing at the beginning of the twentieth century, the period 1690–1720 was the era of the joint-stock company, while Larry Neal has described the same period as the ‘age of financial capitalism’. Such synoptic descriptions, along with Natasha Glaisyer's uncovering of a burgeoning ‘culture of commerce’ in the same decades, capture something of the spirit of the age. These years saw the growth of the English financial markets, the development and expansion of banking structures across the British Atlantic world, and greater acceptance of paper money and bills of exchange as mediums of exchange. This period also saw the expansion of the London stock market as investors increasingly traded stocks and shares in private corporations as well as government debt. The extant print culture of the time clearly demonstrates that contemporaries understood that they were living during a period of great change and innovation. Many participated enthusiastically in this revolution, becoming investors in joint-stock companies, speculating on the financial markets, remitting their rental income through banks, and by becoming more reliant on new mediums of exchange. Others became public creditors, purchasing lottery tickets or acquiring insurance policies.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The South Sea Bubble and IrelandMoney, Banking and Investment, 1690–1721, pp. 43 - 58Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2014