The Capitalist Self

Craig Muldrew is Professor of Early Modern Social and Economic History at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of The Economy of Obligation (1998), which transformed the way we think of the relation of local credit to society.

• Introduction: capitalism and dependence; 1. Early modern capitalism: a concept too big to fail?; 2. Value in motion: the inheritance of merchant capital and debates over credit; 3. The financial revolution in the provinces: the creation of local paper currencies; 4. Little land banks: the mortgaging revolution; 5. An ethical fulcrum: from participation in the body of Christ to the happy self; 6. Practical ethics, the self, and the economy in an era of religious dissent; 7. Litigation decline and the transformation of legal culture; 8. The dark side of thrift: capital and class formation – institutional stability and ethical inequality; 9. The success of the first 'modern' banks: Scotland and the thirteen colonies, and failure in France; 10. The emergence of local bankers in England, savings and Adam Smith's 'Capitalism'; Conclusion; Epilogue: the phantom of liberty.

'This book explores the multiple economic, institutional, moral and social components that enabled capitalism to penetrate down to the village elite and to produce profound social upheavals. Through rich analysis carried out close to the various actors, this book fundamentally renews our knowledge of the birth and development of capitalism in Britain.' Laurence Fontaine, author of The Moral Economy: Poverty, Credit, and Trust in Early Modern Europe