Analyses how bankruptcy was litigated within the court to gain a more nuanced understanding of early modern bankruptcy.
This book examines cases involving bankruptcy brought before the court of Chancery - a court of equity which dealt with civil disputes - between 1674 and 1750. It uncovers the numerous meanings attached to financial failure in early modern England. In its simplest sense, personal financial failure occurred when an individual defaulted on their debts. Because they had not fulfilled their responsibilities and behaved in a trustworthy and credible manner, bankrupt individuals were seen to be immoral. And yet bankruptcy was linked to wider notions of credibility, trustworthiness, and morality. Financial failure was described and debated not just in economic terms, but came to rely on a combination of social, community, and religious values.
Bankruptcy cases involved an interconnected network of indebtedness, often including relatives, neighbours, and traders from the local community. As such, conceptions of failure implicated individuals beyond just the bankrupt. As people began to look back and appraise the actions and words of those involved in trade, a far wider network of creditors, debtors, and middlemen were blamed for the knock-on effect of an individual failure. Ultimately, the book investigates the negative aspects of early modern trade networks and the active role of the court when such networks broke down, providing unique access to contemporary understandings of what was considered right and wrong, honourable and deceitful, and criminal and compassionate within the moral landscape of debt recovery during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
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Analyses how bankruptcy was litigated within the court to gain a more nuanced understanding of early modern bankruptcy.
Preface and Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Conventions and Monetary Values
Introduction
1. The Court of Chancery
2. Disparity Between Legal Theory and Day-to-Day Practice
3. Knowledge and Circulating Judgements of Failure in Bankruptcy Pleadings
4. Collaborative Narratives of Failure in Country Depositions
5. The Finality of Enrolled Decrees
Conclusion
Appendix One: Sample of Cases for Each Chapter
Appendix Two: Table of Pleadings
Bibliography
Index
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Product details
ISBN
9781837651900
Published
2024-10-29
Publisher
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Weight
380 gr
Height
234 mm
Width
156 mm
Age
P, 06
Language
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Number of pages
248
Author