Economic History

J.R.S. Whiting recalls an era when tokens were used for propaganda rather than as currency.

Henry Marsh describes how England and Scotland became the first European countries to begin freeing their serfs, towards the close of the twelfth century.

Eynon Smart describes how, when the third Dutch War began in 1672, Charles II and his Ministers were faced with financial needs; a reprieve for the Exchequer was their answer, but it disturbed the country’s banking system.

Iris Macfarlane describes how the Malabar coast in western India was the earliest scene of European sea-borne trade.

C.R. Boxer describes how the Spanish and Portuguese empires were troubled by smugglers and interlopers on the high seas.

B.G. Gokhale takes us on a visit to Surat, where the English adventure in India began.

P.W. Kingsford describes how, for many years, Sir William Baker became Walpole’s chief ally in the eighteenth-century City.

Harold Kurtz traces colonial influence from the days of Cromwell, to those of Napoleon.

Harold Kurtz analyses Spanish predominance in the sixteenth-century West Indies.

Stephen Usherwood describes how, in 1544, reports of a marvellous new flower, the tulip, first reached Western Europe, where it soon aroused a ‘fever of excited speculation’.