A Cultural History of Money in the Age of Enlightenment by Bloomsbury Publishing

Author:Bloomsbury Publishing [Publishing, Bloomsbury]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Social History, Business & Economics, Economic History, Antiques & Collectibles, Coins; Currency & Medals, Money & Monetary Policy, Modern, 18th Century, General
ISBN: 9781350253520
Google: BIImEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2021-03-11T03:34:46+00:00

Farthing

730

197

Farthings

296

Farthing(s) Total

493

Penny

1,649

Pence (pennies)

4,143

2,569

Pence Total

5,792

Shilling

4,067

Shillings

10,124

6,277

Shilling(s) Total

10,354

Guinea(s)

9,362

Banknote(s)

5,939

Notes of hand

151

Promissory note(s)

146

Total notes

6,236

FIGURE 4.2Total mentions of different types of currency in trial reports from the Old Bailey Criminal Court (1680–1820). Author’s own.

Although only approximate, what can be seen from this data is how much the guinea features in the stock of money in cases of theft. Shillings predominate, but only slightly, and as Figure 4.3 demonstrates, this is because they were mentioned much more often at the beginning of the nineteenth century, probably as a result of the introduction of stamped Spanish silver dollars worth five shillings in 1804.31 We also need to remember that a shilling was worth less than one-twentieth of the value of a guinea. The small number of farthings and the almost total lack of tokens is also notable, but as mentioned above, there were probably a greater number in circulation but held by poor people who would have been robbed less frequently. But it is significant that banknotes form 19 percent of the total. We can further see in Figure 4.3 how the number of mentions of banknotes rose over the course of the century, with a very large increase occurring in the early nineteenth century together with a concurrent drop in the number of mentions of guineas. Since the number of cases obviously varied from year to year, and generally increased over time as the population of the capital continued to rise, it is probably more accurate to examine such mentions as a percentage of the total cases of theft, as presented in Figure 4.4. This figure measures change over time in terms of the percentage of all theft cases mentioning each different currency. Here we can see that the trends are roughly the same except for the 1810s, which saw a rise in the number of cases not involving any of these items of currency, but especially shillings.

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