Call for Papers – Money, Power and Print: An Interdisciplinary Colloquium on the Financial Revolution

**We are looking for 3-4 papers by PhD candidates to add to this year’s  Money, Power and Print Colloquium. ** 

This colloquium, the ninth in a biennial series and the first to be held in the Republic of Ireland,  invites scholars from a variety of disciplines to enrich their mutual understanding of the intersections  between public finance, politics, and print during a period some scholars call the ‘financial  revolution’ from around 1688 to 1776. The subject matter has been broadened slightly for 2022 to  include the histories of personal credit and central banking. 

Papers for the colloquium should be grounded in one of the following five general areas: 

• the operations, theoretical and practical, of institutions such as banks (including central  banking), joint-stock companies, public debt, and/or paper money 
• the effect of diverse understandings of emerging financial instruments and theories upon  contemporary political debates as demonstrated in the literature and legislative debates of  the period 
• the influence of the successes and failures of specific legislative and/or financial proposals  on the development of political and economic programs throughout this period
• the impact of literature and legislative debates of the period on people’s perceptions of the  financial revolution and/or its political consequences 
• the evolution of personal credit and attitudes towards it, and their impact on the course of  the financial revolution 

‘Money’ is used broadly to cover the core economic components of the financial revolution. ‘Power’  is taken to mean the contest between royalty, aristocracy, gentry, merchants, financiers, and other  formal or informal groupings for influence and standing. ‘Print’ refers to how the interplay of money  and power were explained, analysed, explicated, and misrepresented (whether deliberately or not)  in newspapers, pamphlets, novels, plays, illustrations, and other printed material intended for  circulation. 

In all cases, consideration should be given to the degree to which the print material under discussion  shaped the development of institutions and the implementation of financial policies, and influenced  political discourse.  

Although primarily focussed on the ‘financial revolution’ in Britain (in the widest geographical  sense), the colloquium welcomes papers which comparatively explore public finance in Britain  alongside that of the Continent. Colloquium participants tend to adopt an empirical, rather than a  statistically driven, approach to historical enquiry. 

We recommend that all participants read selected excerpts from classic texts on the ‘financial  revolution’ as well as excerpts from more recent works that deal with the ‘credible commitment’ thesis. (Such readings will be assigned and made available in advance of the meeting.) Reading  selections from these classic and recent works of scholarship on our topic help us to gain a shared  basis for dialogue, and underpin our comparative discussions.

Papers will be distributed in advance and presented in two-hour sessions, at which all colloquium  participants are present. Presenters will have five minutes to summarise their papers. The remainder  of each session will be given over to questions and discussion, in which the goal is to enrich our  mutual understanding by eliciting insights from all of the disciplines represented at the table.  Authors are therefore expected to write for a non-specialist audience, avoiding jargon, making  concepts from their own discipline readily accessible to all those present, seeking to identify areas of  general interest, and focusing on questions on which scholars of various disciplines will have  something to contribute. 

Because we are adding papers to an already substantial programme, we will need expressions of  interest of 250 words or fewer as soon as possible or by 28 February 2022. The final decision about  which papers to include will follow very soon afterwards. 

Expressions of interest, questions, and submissions should be directed to: 

Charles Larkin

Anne Murphy

Natalie Roxburgh

About Money, Power and Print: 

Money, Power, and Print began as an association of scholars interested in interdisciplinary studies of  contemporary attitudes toward the ‘financial revolution’ in early-modern Britain, specifically  focusing on the rise of banks, paper money, joint-stock corporations, stock markets, and public  credit. Over time, its focus has gradually evolved and the interest now is on how those practices  developed across early modern Europe. The group remains committed to interdisciplinary discussion  (as free as possible from the use of jargon) for an understanding of contemporary contexts. The  association’s focal point is a series of biennial colloquia.  

The 2020 meeting was cancelled owing to the pandemic. The 2018 meeting took place from 7-9 June  in Siegen, Germany, and was organised by Natalie Roxburgh (University of Siegen), Felix Sprang  (University of Siegen), and Anne Murphy (University of Hertfordshire). This event’s aim was to  reconsider our understanding of the ‘financial revolution’ by incorporating more perspectives from  Continental Europe, and it was titled “Reassessing the Financial Revolution”.