TY - JOUR
T1 - 'Country Rag Merchants' and English Local Currencies in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century
AU - Frame, Iain
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 The Author.
PY - 2015/12
Y1 - 2015/12
N2 - In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, communities across England used country bankers' notes almost as much as they used coins and Bank of England notes. Accounting for the relative success of these alternative currencies is challenging, however, due to the frequency of financial crisis during the period. If, during a crisis, all note holders attempted to enforce the promise to pay in gold coin against the issuing banker, the `law-finance paradox' would leave some note holders with gold coin, but would leave many more with merely `country rags' or worthless pieces of paper. Building on both the credit approach to money and the relational approach to contract, this article shows note-using communities successfully responding to financial crisis. They frequently did so by formalizing the bonds of reciprocity and trust tying the community to its note-issuing banker-bonds sometimes made all the stronger by legal enforceability.
AB - In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, communities across England used country bankers' notes almost as much as they used coins and Bank of England notes. Accounting for the relative success of these alternative currencies is challenging, however, due to the frequency of financial crisis during the period. If, during a crisis, all note holders attempted to enforce the promise to pay in gold coin against the issuing banker, the `law-finance paradox' would leave some note holders with gold coin, but would leave many more with merely `country rags' or worthless pieces of paper. Building on both the credit approach to money and the relational approach to contract, this article shows note-using communities successfully responding to financial crisis. They frequently did so by formalizing the bonds of reciprocity and trust tying the community to its note-issuing banker-bonds sometimes made all the stronger by legal enforceability.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84946721874&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2015.00726.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2015.00726.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84946721874
SN - 0263-323X
VL - 42
SP - 588
EP - 610
JO - Journal of Law and Society
JF - Journal of Law and Society
IS - 4
ER -