City of Capital - Hardcover

Carruthers, Bruce G.

4.12

8 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691044554 ISBN 13: 9780691044552

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1996

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While many have examined how economic interests motivate political action, Bruce Carruthers explores the reverse relationship by focusing on how political interests shape a market. He sets his inquiry within the context of late Stuart England, when an active stock market emerged and when Whig and Tory parties vied for control of a newly empowered Parliament. Carruthers examines the institutional linkage between politics and the market that consisted of three joint-stock companies--the Bank of England, the East India Company, and the South Sea Company--which all loaned large sums to the government and whose shares dominated trading on the stock market. Through innovative research that connects the voting behavior of individuals in parliamentary elections with their economic behavior in the stock market, Carruthers demonstrates that party conflict figured prominently during the company foundings as Whigs and Tories tried to dominate company directorships. For them, the national debt was as much a political as a fiscal instrument.

In 1712, the Bank was largely controlled by the Whigs, and the South Sea Company by the Tories. The two parties competed, however, for control of the East India Company, and so Whigs tended to trade shares only with Whigs, and Tories with Tories. Probing such connections between politics and markets at both institutional and individual levels, Carruthers ultimately argues that competitive markets are not inherently apolitical spheres guided by economic interest but rather ongoing creations of social actors pursuing multiple goals.

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About the Author:

Bruce G. Carruthers is Associate Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University. In 1998 he published Rescuing Business: The Making of Corporate Bankruptcy Law in England and the United States, and he has recently completed a textbook on economic sociology.

Review:

"City of Capital is the new economic sociology at its best--theoretically sophisticated, empirically rich, and lucidly written."---William G. Roy, American Journal of Sociology

"A fabulous book. The arguments about its broad themes are compelling, the attention to detail is overwhelming but absolutely necessary and the lessons drawn are important."---Ruben Lee, Financial News

"By demonstrating that in this crucial period, in this crucial market, politics affected 'economic' behavior, Carruthers poses important questions for sociologists and economists. There is plenty here for historians, too. His reflections on the social meaning of debt relations and of economic exchange, for example, have wider implications for our understanding of the early modern economy."---Michael Braddick, American Historical Review

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