Table Of ContentImpunity 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
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781316516287
DOI:10.1017/9781009029605
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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
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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
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Maps
4.1 Étienne Clavière’s financial network in the 1780s page 151
6.1 Bankfailures, 1825–6 244
vii
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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
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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
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