Women and Their Money 1700–1950: Essays on Women and Finance
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Women and their Money 1700–1950 This book examines women’s financial activity from the early days of the stock market in eighteenth-century England and the South Sea Bubble to the mid twentieth century. The essays demonstrate how many women managed their own finances despite legal and social restrictions and show that women were neither helpless, incompetent and risk-averse, nor were they unduly cautious and conservative. Rather, many women learnt about money and made themselves effective and engaged managers of the funds at their disposal. The essays focus on Britain, from eighteenth-century London to the expan- sion of British financial markets of the nineteenth century, with comparative essays dealing with the United States, Italy, Sweden and Japan. Hitherto, writing about women and money has been restricted to their management of household finances or their activities as small business women. This book examines the clear evidence of women’s active engagement in financial matters, much neglected in historical literature, especially women’s management of capital. This book charts the sheer extent of women’s financial management and pro- vides for economic, social, cultural and gender historians material grounded in empirical research essential for understanding women’s place in capitalist societies. Anne Laurence is Professor of History at the Open University and author of Women in England 1500–1760: A Social History. Josephine Maltby is Profes- sor of Accounting and Finance, University of York. Janette Rutterford is Pro- fessor of Finance at the Open University and author of Introduction to Stock Exchange Investment. Routledge international studies in business history Series Editors: Ray Stokes and Matthias Kipping 1 Management, Education and Competitiveness Europe, Japan and the United States Edited by Rolv Petter Amdam 2 The Development of Accounting in an International Context A Festschrift in honour of R. H. Parker T. E. Cooke and C. W. Nobes 3 The Dynamics of the Modern Brewing Industry Edited by R. G. Wilson and T. R. Gourvish 4 Religion, Business and Wealth in Modern Britain Edited by David Jeremy 5 The Multinational Traders Geoffrey Jones 6 The Americanisation of European Business Edited by Matthias Kipping and Ove Bjarnar 7 Region and Strategy Business in Lancashire and Kansai 1890–1990 Douglas A. Farnie, David J. Jeremy, John F. 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Sluyterman 12 The Formative Period of American Capitalism A materialist interpretation Daniel Gaido 13 International Business and National War Interests Unilever between Reich and Empire, 1939–45 Ben Wubs 14 Narrating the Rise of Big Business in the USA How economists explain Standard Oil and Wal-Mart Anne Mayhew 15 Women and their Money 1700–1950 Essays on women and finance Edited by Anne Laurence, Josephine Maltby and Janette Rutterford Women and their Money 1700–1950 Essays on women and finance Edited by Anne Laurence, Josephine Maltby and Janette Rutterford First published 2009 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2009 Selection and editorial matter, Anne Laurence, Josephine Maltby and Janette Rutterford; individual chapters, the contributors. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Women and their money 1700–1950: essays on women and finance/edited by Anne Laurence, Josephine Maltby and Janette Rutterford. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Women–Finance, Personal–History. 2. Finance–History. I. Laurence, Anne. II. Maltby, Josephine. III. Rutterford, Janette. HG179.W5765 2008 332.0240082'0903–dc22 2008025174 ISBN 0-203-88599-6 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0-415-41976-X (hbk) ISBN10: 0-203-88599-6 (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-41976-5 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-88599-4 (ebk) Contents List of figures x List of tables xi List of contributors xiii 1 Introduction 1 ANNE LAURENCE, JOSEPHINE MALTBY AND JANETTE RUTTERFORD 2 Women and finance in eighteenth-century England 30 ANNE LAURENCE 3 Women in the city: financial acumen during the South Sea Bubble 33 ANN M. CARLOS, KAREN MAGUIRE AND LARRY NEAL 4 Women, banks and the securities market in early eighteenth-century England 46 ANNE LAURENCE 5 Women investors and financial knowledge in eighteenth-century Germany 59 EVE ROSENHAFT 6 Accounting for business: financial management in the eighteenth century 73 CHRISTINE WISKIN viii Contents 7 Women and wealth: the nineteenth century in Great Britain 86 LUCY A. NEWTON, PHILIP L. COTTRELL, JOSEPHINE MALTBY AND JANETTE RUTTERFORD 8 Between Madam Bubble and Kitty Lorimer: women investors in British and Irish stock companies 95 MARK FREEMAN, ROBIN PEARSON AND JAMES TAYLOR 9 Female investors in the first English and Welsh commercial joint-stock banks 115 LUCY A. NEWTON AND PHILIP L. COTTRELL 10 To do the right thing: gender, wealth, inheritance and the London middle class 133 DAVID R. GREEN 11 Women and wealth in fiction in the long nineteenth century 1800–1914 151 JANETTE RUTTERFORD AND JOSEPHINE MALTBY 12 Octavia Hill: property manager and accountant 165 STEPHEN P. WALKER 13 Female investors within the Scottish investment trust movement in the 1870s 178 CLAIRE SWAN 14 Women clerical staff employed in the UK-based Army Pay Department establishments, 1914–1920 197 JOHN BLACK 15 Women and money: the United States 218 NANCY MARIE ROBERTSON AND SUSAN M. YOHN 16 ‘Men seem to take delight in cheating women’: legal challenges faced by businesswomen in the United States, 1880–1920 226 SUSAN M.YOHN Contents ix 17 ‘The principles of sound banking and financial noblesse oblige’: women’s departments in US banks at the turn of the twentieth century 243 NANCY MARIE ROBERTSON 18 Women, money and the financial revolution: a gender perspective on the development of the Swedish financial system, c.1860–1920 254 TOM PETERSSON 19 Women’s wealth and finance in nineteenth-century Milan 271 STEFANIA LICINI 20 The transformation from ‘thrifty accountant’ to ‘independent investor’?: the changing relationship of Japanese women and finance under the influence of globalization 290 NAOKO KOMORI Index 303 Figures 3.1 Prices of Royal African Company senior shares, Ps, and engrafted shares, Pe and Bank of England shares (BOFE) 37 4.1 Number of women’s stock and lottery purchases through Hoare’s Bank 1718–25 51 4.2 Number of women’s stock and lottery sales through Hoare’s Bank 1718–25 51 4.3 Number of women’s dividend and interest payments and lottery prizes though Hoare’s Bank 1718–25 52 4.4 Value of women’s stock and lottery purchases through Hoare’s Bank 1718–25 53 4.5 Value of women’s stock and lottery sales through Hoare’s Bank 1718–25 53 4.6 Value of women’s dividends and interest payments and lottery prizes through Hoare’s Bank 1718–25 53 8.1 Women as a percentage of shareholders in British and Irish stock companies, 1780–1851 99 8.2 Women as a percentage of first shareholders in new joint-stock companies, Britain and Ireland, 1780–1850 100 8.3 Women as a percentage of shareholders in British and Irish stock companies, by decade 101 8.4 Women’s share of share capital in British and Irish stock companies, 1780–1851 102 10.1 Time elapsed between making a will and the date of probate 1830 139 Tables 3.1 Women’s transactions by value and number by social and marital status in Bank of England stock 39 3.2 Number of unique women sellers and buyers by number of transactions in Bank of England stock 39 3.3 Number of transactions by women sellers and buyers by block size transferred in Bank of England stock 40 3.4 Transactions by women in senior and engrafted stock by month for Royal African Company 42 4.1 Proportions of Hoare’s Bank customers with stock in chartered companies or lottery tickets 51 8.1 Ratio of average female shareholdings to overall average shareholdings, by decade and by sector 102 8.2 Women’s per caput investment in joint-stock companies by sector, 1780–1851 103 8.3 Women’s share of share capital in joint-stock companies by sector, 1780–1851 104 9.1 Subscriptions to bank shares, 1827–1833 118 9.2 Subscriptions to bank shares, 1835–1836 119 9.3 Ownership of bank shares by women, 1847–1864 121 9.4 Bank shares: prices and dividends, 1844 123 9.5 Bank shares: prices and dividends, 1854 124 10.1 Occupational