Credit and Debt in Eighteenth-Century England: An Economic History of Debtors' Prisons

ISBN-13: 9780367514297 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022 / 266 str.

Opis

Throughout the eighteenth-century hundreds of thousands of men and women were cast into prison for failing to pay their debts. Credit and Debt demonstrates for the first time the fundamental contribution of debt imprisonment to the early modern economy.

Spis treści

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One: Indebtedness and Insolvency in Eighteenth-Century England Chapter Two: Enlightened Capitalism: Use and Structure of Debtors’ Prisons Chapter Three: Coercive Contract Enforcement: Debtors' Prisons as Economic Institutions Chapter Four: The Debtor Economy: Obtaining Release from Debtors’ Prisons Chapter Five: The Insolvency Acts: When Debtors’ Prisons Failed Chapter Six: Private Enterprise: Operating a Debtors’ Prison Chapter Seven: Reform and the Unmaking of Debtors’ Prisons Conclusion Bibliography Index