Investments Edited by Nancy Henry and Cannon Schmitt bleed area x Victorian New Perspectives on Finance and Culture Victorian Investments Victorian Investments New Perspectives on Finance and Culture edited by nancy henry & cannon schmitt Indiana University Press Bloomington and Indianapolis This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA http://iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail iuporder@indiana.edu © 2009 by Victorian Studies and Indiana University Press All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984 Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Victorian investments : new perspectives on finance and culture / edited by Nancy Henry and Cannon Schmitt p cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-0-253-22027-1 (pbk : alk paper) Investments— Great Britain—History—19th century Finance—Social aspects—Great Britain—History—19th century Finance in literature I Henry, Nancy, date II Schmitt, Cannon HG5432.V53 2008 332.60941′09034—dc22 2008017202 14 13 12 11 10 09 To Tom and Dana Contents Introduction: Finance, Capital, Culture Nancy Henry and Cannon Schmitt PART A Prehistory of Victorian Investment “Signum Rememorativum, Demonstrativum, Prognostikon”: Finance Capital, the Atlantic, and Slavery 15 Ian Baucom PART Cultures of Investment Writing about Finance in Victorian England: Disclosure and Secrecy in the Culture of Investment 39 Mary Poovey The First Fund Managers: Life Insurance Bonuses in Victorian Britain 58 Timothy Alborn Limited Liability, Market Democracy, and the Social Organization of Production in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Britain 79 Donna Loftus Fair Enterprise or Extravagant Speculation: Investment, Speculation, and Gambling in Victorian England 98 David C Itzkowitz Ladies of the Ticker: Women, Investment, and Fraud in England and America, 1850–1930 120 George Robb PART Fictions of Investment Trollope in the Stock Market: Irrational Exuberance and The Prime Minister 143 Audrey Jaffe “Rushing into Eternity”: Suicide and Finance in Victorian Fiction 161 Nancy Henry Rumor, Shares, and Novelistic Form: Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo 182 Cannon Schmitt Afterword 202 Martin Daunton Bibliography 221 List of Contributors 241 Index 243 viii Contents Victorian Investments Schwarz, Daniel R “Conrad’s Quarrel with Politics in Nostromo.” College English 59.5 (Sept 1997): 548–68 Scotter, C J Lost in a Bucket Shop: A Story of Stock Exchange Speculation London: Field and Tuer, Leadenhall Press; Simpkin, Marshall; Hamilton Adams, n.d [1890] Scottish Provident Institution Report of the Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting of Contributors Edinburgh: privately printed, 1842 Scratchley, Arthur Observations on Life Assurance Societies, and Savings Banks London: J W Parker, 1851 Searle, G R Morality and the Market in Victorian Britain Oxford: Clarendon, 1998 Seymour-Smith, Martin “Introduction.” Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard, by Joseph Conrad 1904 Reprint, Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1983 7–24 Shachtman, Tom The Day America Crashed New York: Putnam, 1979 Shammus, Carole “Re-assessing the Married Women’s Property Acts.” Journal of Women’s History (Spring 1994): 9–30 Shand, A Innes “Speculative Investments.” Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine 120 (Sept 1876): 293–316 Shannon, H A “The Coming of General Limited Liability.” In Essays in Economic History, vol Ed E M Carus Wilson London: Arnold, 1954 358–79 “The First Five Thousand Limited Companies and Their Duration.” Economic History 2.7 (1932): 396–424 Sherry, Norman Conrad’s Western World Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971 Shiller, Robert Irrational Exuberance Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000 Shrimpton, Nicholas “ ‘Even These Metallic Problems Have Their Melodramatic Side’: Money in Victorian Literature.” In Victorian Literature and Finance Ed Francis O’Gorman Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007 17–38 Sidgwick, Henry “What Is Money?” Fortnightly Review 31 (1 April 1879): 563–75 Sigsworth, E M Black Dyke Mills: A History Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1958 Simon, Daphne “Master and Servant.” In Democracy and the Labour Movement Ed J Saville London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1954 Simpson, A W Brian “General Editor’s Preface.” In Private Property and Abuse of Rights in Victorian England: The Story of Edward Pickles and the Bradford 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Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984–1994 4: 83–119 Smith, S A “Talking Toads and Chinless Ghosts: The Politics of ‘Superstitious’ Rumors in the People’s Republic of China, 1961–1965.” American Historical Review 3.2 (April 2006): 405–26 Society Herald: A Weekly Record of Social, Political, Theatrical, Literary, and Financial Events London Somers, Margaret R “Narrativity, Narrative Identity, and Social Action: Rethinking English Working-Class Formation.” Social Science History 16.4 (1992): 591–629 Somerset, Sophia Vernon A Good Investment; or, For Love or Money London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden and Welsh, 1891 Spangler, George M “Suicide and Social Criticism: Durkheim, Dreiser, Wharton, and London.” American Quarterly 31.4 (Autumn 1979): 496–516 Sparkes, Boyden, and Samuel Taylor Moore Hetty Green: A Woman Who Loved Money New York: Doubleday, 1930 Sporting Life London Sporting Opinion London Sporting Times [The Pink ’Un] London Sprague, Thomas Bond A Treatis [sic] on Life Assurance Accounts London: C and E Layton, 1874 Srebrnik, Patricia Thomas “Mrs Riddell and the Reviewers: A Case Study in Victorian Popular Fiction.” Women’s Studies 23 (1994): 69–84 Standard Life Assurance Company Proceedings at a General Meeting for the Purpose of Receiving the Report by the Directors upon the Investigation of the Company’s Affairs and Division of Profits Edinburgh: privately printed, 1840 Star Life Assurance Society, Board Minutes ST 1/5/1, Zurich Financial Service Group Archives, Cheltenham, UK Stebbings, Chantal The Private Trustee in Victorian England Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002 “Stockbroking and the Stock Exchange.” Fraser’s Magazine 14, New Series (July 1876): 84–103 Stock Exchange Answers London Stone, Irving “British Direct and Portfolio Investment in Latin America before 1914.” Journal of Economic History 37.3 (Sept 1977): 690–722 Sturrock, John The Principles and Practice of Life Assurance Dundee, Scotland: W Middleton, 1846 Stutfield, G Herbert The Law Relating to Betting, Time-Bargains and Gaming 2nd ed London: Waterlow, 1886 “Suicide in Cornhill.” Times (4 March 1868): 10 Supple, Barry The Royal Exchange Assurance: A History of British Insurance 1720–1970 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970 Supplement to the Journal of the Society of Arts London Sutherland, John “Introduction.” In The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope 1875 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982 vii–xxviii Swiney, Frances The Cosmic Procession London: Ernest Bell, 1906 Swingle, L J Romanticism and Anthony Trollope: A Study in the Continuities of Nineteenth-Century Literary Thought Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1990 Szockyj, Elizabeth, and James G Fox Corporate Victimization of Women Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1996 Bibliography 237 Taggart, M Private Property and Abuse of Rights in Victorian England: The Story of Edward Pickles and the Bradford Water Supply Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 Talib, I S “Conrad’s Nostromo and the Reader’s Understanding of Anachronic Narratives.” Journal of Narrative Technique 20.1 (Winter 1990): 1–21 Taylor, James “Commercial Fraud and Public Men in Victorian Britain.” Historical Research 78 (2005): 230–52 Creating Capital: Joint-Stock Enterprise in British Politics and Culture, 1800–1870 Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2006 Taylor, Miles The Decline of British Radicalism, 1847–1860 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995 Thompson, F M L Gentrification and the Enterprise Culture: Britain, 1780–1980 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001 “Life after Death: How Successful Nineteenth-Century Businessmen Disposed of Their Fortunes.” Economic History Review, Series 2, 43.1 (1990): 40–61 Thorpe, C H How to Invest and How to Speculate London: Grant Richards, 1901 Thrift, Nigel “Performing Cultures in the New Economy.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 90.4 (2000): 674–92 Times London Todhunter, Ralph “On the Requirements of the Life Assurance Companies Act, 1870.” Journal of the Institute of Actuaries 35 (1899): 1–41 Train, John The New Money Masters: Winning Investment Strategies of Soros, Lynch, Steinhardt, Rogers, Neff, Wanger, Michaelis, Carret New York: Harper, 1989 Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 1860 “Trappers of Women.” Ladies Home Journal (Jan 1920): 43 Trebilcock, Clive Phoenix Assurance and the Development of British Insurance vols Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985–1998 Trollope, Anthony An Autobiography 1883 Ed Michael Sadleir and Frederick Page Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 Can You Forgive Her? 1865 Ed Andrew Swarbrick Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991 The Last Chronicle of Barset 1867 Ed Sophie Gilmartin London: Penguin, 2002 The Prime Minister 1876 Ed David Skilton Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1994 The Prime Minister 1876 Ed Jenny Uglow Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001 The Three Clerks 1858 London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1884 The Way We Live Now 1875 Ed Frank Kermode Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1994 The Way We Live Now 1875 Ed John Sutherland Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982 Turnbull, Annmarie “Learning Her Womanly Works: The Elementary School Curriculum, 1870–1914.” In Lessons for Life: The Schooling of Girls and Women, 1850– 1950 Ed Felicity Hunt Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987 83–100 Tuttle, Florence The Awakening of Woman New York: Abington Press, 1915 Tyson, R E “The Sun Mill Company: A Study in Democratic Investment, 1858–1959.” Unpublished MA thesis, University of Manchester, 1962 238 Bibliography University Life Assurance Society, Board Minutes Guildhall Ms 24,933 Ursa Minor [pseud.] On the Science and Practice of Stock Exchange Speculation London: W W Gibbings, 1891 Valenze, Deborah The Social Life of Money in the English Past Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006 Vernon, James Politics and the People: A Study in English Political Culture, 1815–1867 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993 Vernon, John Money and Fiction: Literary Realism in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1984 Vicinus, Martha Independent Women Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985 Von Arnim, Elizabeth The Enchanted April New York: Pocket Books, 1992 Walford, C The Insurance Cyclopaedia vols London: Layton, 1871–1880 Walker, Stephen P The Society of Accountants in Edinburgh 1854–1914: A Study of Recruitment to a New Profession New York: Garland, 1988 “A Warning! Insurance Frauds.” Eye-Opener (29 June 1912): Watt, Ian Conrad in the Nineteenth Century Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979 Watts, Cedric “Nostromo and Wild Scenes Again.” Review of English Studies, New Series, 48.190 (May 1997): 211–17 A Preface to Conrad London: Longman, 1982 Watts, Reverend J Stockwell The Greatest Crime of the Nineteenth Century and What the Churches Say to It London: Liberator Building Fund, 1893 Weiss, Barbara The Hell of the English: Bankruptcy and the Victorian Novel Lewisburg, Penn.: Bucknell University Press, 1986 Wells, H G Tono-Bungay 1909 New York: Signet, 1960 Weskett, John A Complete Digest of the Theory, Laws, and Practice of Insurance London: Frys, Couchman, and Collier, 1781 Westbrook, Wayne W Wall Street in the American Novel New York: New York University Press, 1980 Wharton, Edith The Custom of the Country 1913 Ed R W B Lewis New York: Library of America, 1985 The Letters of Edith Wharton Ed R W B Lewis and Nancy Lewis New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988 The Writing of Fiction New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925 Whiting, Robert The Labour Party and Taxation: Party Identity and Political Purpose in Twentieth-Century Britain Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000 Whitlock, Tammy C Crime, Gender and Consumer Culture in Nineteenth-Century England Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005 Wiener, Martin J English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit, 1850–1980 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981 “Market Culture, Reckless Passion and the Victorian Reconstruction of Punishment.” In The Culture of the Market: Historical Essays Ed T Haskell and R Teichgraeber Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993 136–60 Wilde, Oscar The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays London: Penguin, 1986 Wills, W S., and Charles Dickens “Two Chapters on Bank Note Forgeries, Chapter II.” Household Words (1850): 615–20 Wilson, Edmund The Shores of Light: A Literary Chronicle of the Twenties and Thirties New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1952 Bibliography 239 Wilson, Henry Hints to Railroad Speculators: Together with the Influence Railroads Will Have upon Society, in Promoting Agriculture, Commerce, and Manufactures London: Henry Wilson, 1845 “A Woman and Her Money.” Spectator (24 Sept 1892): 413–14 “A Woman’s Adventure in Investments.” World’s Work (Dec 1913): 144 “The Woman’s Bank of Boston.” Bankers’ Magazine (1880): 351–52 Woodmansee, Martha, and Mark Osteen, eds The New Economic Criticism: Studies at the Intersection of Literature and Economics New York: Routledge, 1999 “Taking Account of the New Economic Criticism: An Historical Introduction.” In The New Economic Criticism: Studies at the Intersection of Literature and Economics Ed Martha Woodmansee and Mark Osteen New York: Routledge, 1999 3–50 Yaeger, Mary A Women in Business vols Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1999 Zelizer, Viviana A Rotman Morals and Markets: The Development of Life Insurance in the United States New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1983 Zimmerman, David A Panic! Markets, Crises, and Crowds in American Fiction Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006 Žižek, Slavoj The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology London: Verso, 1999 240 Bibliography Contributors Timothy Alborn is Associate Professor of History at Lehman College and the City University of New York Graduate Center He has published Conceiving Companies: Joint-Stock Politics in Victorian England (1998) and articles on British business and culture in the Journal of Modern History, Business History Review, Victorian Studies, Journal of Victorian Culture, and Journal of Interdisciplinary History Ian Baucom, Professor of English at Duke University and Chair of the Duke English Department, is author of Out of Place: Englishness, Empire and the Locations of Identity (1999) and Specters of the Atlantic: Finance Capital, Slavery, and the Philosophy of History (2005) and co-editor of Shades of Black: Assembling Black Arts in 1980s Britain (2005) Martin Daunton is Professor of Economic History in the University of Cambridge and Master of Trinity Hall Among his many works are two volumes on the politics of taxation in Britain since 1799 Most recently he has edited a collection titled Wealth and Welfare: An Economic and Social History of Britain, 1851–1951 (2007) He is currently working on an economic history of the world since 1945 Nancy Henry is Professor of English at the University of Tennessee She is author of George Eliot and the British Empire (2002) and The Cambridge Introduction to George Eliot (2008) A co-editor of the Victorian Studies special issue on “Victorian Investments” (2002), she is working on a book about Victorian women and finance David C Itzkowitz, Professor of History at Macalester College, is author of Peculiar Privilege: A Social History of English Foxhunting, 1753–1885 (1977) He has also published articles on the creation of identity among nineteenthcentury English Jews Audrey Jaffe, Professor of English at the University of Toronto, is author of Scenes of Sympathy: Identity and Representation in Victorian Fiction (2000) and Vanishing Points: Dickens, Narrative, and the Subject of Omniscience (1991) Donna Loftus is Lecturer in History at the Open University Her publications include “The Self in Society: Middle-Class Men and Autobiography,” in David Amigoni, ed., Life Writing and Victorian Culture (2006) Mary Poovey is Samuel Rudin University Professor in the Humanities and Professor of English at New York University Her books include A History of the Modern Fact (1998) and Genres of the Credit Economy: Mediating Value in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Britain (2008) George Robb is Professor of History at William Paterson University He is author of White-Collar Crime in Modern England (1992) and British Culture and the First World War (2002) Cannon Schmitt, Associate Professor of English at the University of Toronto, is author of Alien Nation: Nineteenth-Century Gothic Fictions and English Nationality (1997) and Darwin and the Memory of the Human: Evolution, Savages, and South America (forthcoming) 242 Contributors Index Italicized page numbers indicate illustrations Abbott (John) and Company, 107–108 Abraham, Nicolas, 25 accounting, 47–48, 56, 75 Accounting, Business, and Financial History, actuary role, 61–69, 73–74, 76n6 advertising, brokers’, 105–13 Aitken (working man), 93–94 Albert Life Assurance Company, collapse of, 71–74 Alborn, Timothy, 3, 6, 79, 214–15 All the Year Round, 45, 122 Alsanger, Thomas Massa, 42, 43 Americas and images of treasure, 185–86 analepsis and prolepsis, 192, 199–200n12 Anti-Corn Law League, 42 Arcades Project (Benjamin), 16, 22 Argus (insurance company), 64 Arnim, Elizabeth von, 137 Arnold, Matthew, 162, 164, 167, 170 Arrighi, Giovanni, 33, 34 Arondekar, Anjali, Atlas (insurance company), 62 “Autobiography of a Joint-Stock Company (Limited)” (Oliphant), 44–45 Awakening of Woman, The (Tuttle), 138 Aytoun, W E., 46 Babbage, Charles, 89 Badiou, Alain, 19–22 Bagehot, Walter, 42, 44–45 Bailey, Arthur, 72 Bank Charter Act of 1844, 207, 213 Bank of England, 122, Banker’s Magazine, 42, 121, 134 Banker’s Wife, The (Gore), 128 Barboza, David, 182–84, 197–98 Baring, Alexander, 101 Barker’s Trade and Finance, 112–13 Barnards’s Act, repeal of, 101–103, 204 Baucom, Ian, 3–6, 10, 217 Benjamin, Walter: and theory of the event, 16–27; and “Truth-Event,” 19–22 Bennett, Arnold, 194 “Big Meltdown, The” (Krugman), 182 Bignold, Samuel, 69 “Biography of a Bad Shilling, A” (Blanchard), 44–45 Black Thursday crash of 1929, 161–62, 179nn1,2 Blackstone, William, 167 Blanchard, Sidney Laman, 44–45 Blofeld, Thomas, 70 Blue Books (government reports), 42, 44 board games, financial, 131 Board of Trade: and insurance, 73, 75; and joint stock companies, 81; and limited liability, 95–96 Body Economic, The: Life, Death and Sensation in Political Economy and the Victorian Novel (Gallagher), bookmakers, sporting, 11, 99, 105, 108–11, 114, 117 boom and crash cycle, 44, 55, 129, 144–45, 157n1 Bovill, William, 103 Bowen, H V., Bowley, Samuel, 86 Bradford (mayor of ) versus Pickles, legal case, 216–17 British Imperialism: Innovation and Expansion 1688–1914 (Cain/Hopkins), 5, British Nation (insurance company), 72 Briton Medical & General (insurance company), 68 Brown, Samuel, 70 Browning, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert, 139–40 “bubble,” as trope, 144, 151, 152 Bubble Act of 1720, 81 bucket shop brokers, 11, 99, 116–17 bulls and bears, as trope, 106–107, 119n3, 135 “Bulls and Bears” board game, 131 Business of Empire, The: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756–1833 (Bowen), Cain, P J., Can You Forgive Her (Trollope), 164, 167 capitalism: and Christianity, 45; Conrad on, 184, 194; critiques of, 2, 162, 205; “gentlemanly,” 5; and labor, 79–97; and postmodernism, 33–34; speculation as, 157n2 Caruth, Cathy, 25 “case” concept, 31–32 Chadwick, Edwin, 42 Challenge of Affluence, The (Offer), 215 Chamberlain, Joseph, 206 Chance (Conrad), 138–39 Chandler, James, 31–32 Chartists/Chartism, 44, 83 Christian Socialists, 83–88, 92 City, the: depicted in fiction, 164–67, 178; journalism in, 41–42; suicide in, 170 City Argus, the, 107 City of Glasgow Bank collapse, 127 Claflin, Tennessee, 134–36, 135 Clerical, Medical & General (insurance company), 67 Clews, Henry, 133–34 CNBC cable channel, 143–45 Coaks, Isaac, 70 Cobden, Richard, 83 Collingwood, Luke, 15–16, 28, 30, 31 “Commerce” board game, 131, 132 commercial information, publication of, 41, 43 Commercial Life (insurance company), 65–66 Commodity Culture of Victorian England, The (Richards), 70–71 commodity spectacle, semiotics of, 70–71 Companies Act/Law: of 1837, 81; of 1856, 95–97, 98, 106; of 1862, 45, 98, 106; of 1907, 208 Complete Digest of the Theory, Laws, and Practice of Insurance, A (Weskett), 29–30 compound interest, 59 Conference of Capital and Labor, 91–95 Conrad, Joseph: on culture of investment, 184, 188–89, 204; fiction of, 138–39, 185; and imperialism, 6–7, 188–89, 199nn5,8; and Latin American history, 186–89; “material interests” in, 184, 191–92; modernism in, 192–96; realism in, 184–85; and Trollope, 201n19 “consuls,” securities, 106 “contango” fee, 106–107 Conversations in Political Economy (Marcet), 125 Cooper, Walter, 87–88 Cosmic Procession, The (Swiney), 138 Cotton, William, 89 Country Banker, The (Rae), 47 244 Index “cover system,” 113–14 Credit Foncier and Mobilier of England, 44 Crosty, Alice, 128 Culture and Anarchy (Arnold), 162 “Culture and Finance Capital” (Jameson), 33–35 culture of investment: aspects of, 2; Conrad on, 184, 188–89; contemporary, 182–84, 197–98; and finance capital, 10–12; gender in, 120–40; information role in, 50; the novel in, 51–57; as shaping everyday life, 4; spread through increase in shares available, 39–40; as structure of feeling, 51–52 Custom of the Country, The (Wharton), 165, 176–78 Dance, Caroline, 127 Daunton, Martin, 12 Davis, Lance E., 4–5, 122 “delayed decoding,” Watt on, 192, 199–200n12 Derrida, Jacques: 3, 21; on supplement, 48–51, 56–57; on value, 51–52, 54 Deuchar, J J W., 70 Dickens, Charles: 12; fiction of, 52, 79, 159n12, 161–65, 176, 207; and journalism, 44–45, 122 Dickinson, Anna, 138 “Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, The” (Doyle), 132–33 discourse, economic, 82 Doll’s House, A (Ibsen), 138–40 dot-com bubble, Double-Entry Elucidated (Forster), 48 Doyle, Arthur Conan, 132–33 drama, financial themes in, 128–30, 180n7 Duncan, W W., 101–102 Eagle (insurance company), 63, 65 East India Company, 2, 5, 39, 122, 209–10 Economic (insurance company), 64, 76n6 Economist, the, 42, 44–45, 101, 121, 161, 205 Edinburgh Review, the, 41 Egerton, George, 138 “Eldorado Exploring Expedition” (Conrad), 185 Eliot, George, 9, 10, 52–56, 165 employer/employee relations, 91–95, 217–18 Employers’ Liability Act, 218 Enchanted April, The (Arnim), 137 English State Lottery, 98 Equal Rights Party, 135–36 Equiano, Ouladah, 15 Equitable, the (American, insurance company), 66 Equitable Society, 60–66, 76n4 European Assurance Society, collapse of, 72, 73 Evans, David Morier, 44, 45 Exchange Telegraph Company, 116 Eye-Opener, the, 128 Fabian, Ann, 99 family firms, 208, 211–12, 218 Farrow’s Bank for Women, 124–25, 128 feminists, Victorian, 9, 121–22, 128, 134–40 finance capital: cultural logic of, 10–12, 32–35, 36n9; detachment from things, 6, 29–30; and imperialism, 6–7; labor and, 83–84, 91–97, 217–18; and liberal vision of community, 85–86, 206–207; limited liability and, 79– 97; role of insurance in, 6, 29–32, 58–75; women’s, 133–34 Finn, Margot, 218–19 First Report of the Select Committee on Laws Respecting Friendly Societies, 42 Forster, B F., 48 Foster, Le Neve, 92 Fowler, William, 133–35 fraud: insurance, 207–208; joint stock, 81; in speculative projects, 106; as theme in fiction, 127–28, 164–65; and women investors, 8–9, 126–33 free indirect discourse, 194–96 free trade, 207–11 French Revolution, 17, 18, 20, 21 From Dickens to Dracula: Gothic, Economics, and Victorian Fiction (Houston), fund management, origin in life insurance, 60–78 futures trading, 101–13, 149–50 Gagnier, Regenia, Galbraith, John Kenneth, 161 Gallagher, Catherine, Gambling Act of 1774, 61 gambling vs speculation/investment, 11, 61, 98–119, 207 Game of Speculation, The (Lewes), 129–30 Gaming Act of 1845, 100, 102–105, 117 Gaskell, Elizabeth, 9, 162–63 general average concept, 29–30, 35–36nn6,8 “gentleman” role, 146–58, 206 George Eliot and the British Empire (Henry), George Geith of Fen Court (Riddell), 164, 170 Gilbart, James William, 46–47 Gissing, George, 12, 138–39, 164–65, 168–69, 174–76, 178, 179 Gladstone, William, 202, 214–15 global stock market sell-off of 2007, 182–84, 197–98 Globe (insurance company), 62–64 Good Investment, A, or, For Love of Money (Somerset), 130 Gore, Catherine, 9, 128, 130 Gothic images, 175–76 government securities, 43, 106, 212 Grant, Albert, 44, 126–27 Great Eastern Railway, 125 Great Exhibition of 1851, 91–92 Great North of England Railway, 123 Green, Hetty, 136–37 Greenspan, Alan, 144–45 Gregory (George) and Company, 108, 114–16, 115 Grenfell, H R., 45 Gresham and Standard (insurance company), 65–66, 76n8 Grizewood v Blane, 103–105 Grosvenor, Robert, 92 guano boom, late nineteenth century, 185–87 Guildhall Court, 15 Gutteridge (W.) and Company, 114 Halford (H.) and Company, 108, 110 Harraden, Beatrice, 137 Head of the Firm, The (Riddell), 130 Heart of Darkness (Conrad), 185 Hemsley, Fanny, 125 Henry, Nancy, 3–4, 9, 12 Hindley, Charles, 94 Hirst, Francis, 101 history: economic, 203; Latin American, 186– 89, 198n3; predictive fragment of, 16–19, 34– 35; as trauma, 25; and Truth-Event, 19–22 Hopkins, A G., horizons of expectation, 16–17 Household Words, 44, 45 Houston, Gail Turley, Hudson, George, 43 Huttenback, Robert A., 4–5, 122 Ibsen, Henrik, 138–39 Ideal Husband, An (Wilde), 138–39 Illustrations of Political Economy (Martineau), 125 image: dialectical, 22; as fragment, 34–35; Gothic, 175–76 imperialism, 5–7, 188–89, 199nn5,8 income, earned vs unearned, 213–14 “Increase Batters Chinese Stocks, but There’s Little Wider Damage” (Barboza), 197–98 Independent West Middlesex (insurance company), 66 information, financial: disclosure of, 39–40, Index 245 49–57, 68–71; markets for, 183; mediation of, 195; rules on, 48; vs rumor, 50, 204 Insatiability of Human Wants, The: Economics and Aesthetics in Market Society (Gagnier), Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, 48 institutional investors, 58 insurance: accountability in, 71–74, 214–15; in culture of investment, 2, 70–71, 75; disability, 112; fire and accident, 75; fraud in, 207–208; general average concept in, 29–30, 35–36n6,8; life, bonus system in, 6, 58–78, 214–15; loss as determining value in, 6, 25, 27–32, 35–36nn5,6,8; marine, on slave cargo, 5–6, 15, 27–32, 217; women and, 128–29 investment: contemporary, 143–46, 157– 58nn1,3,7, 159–60n15, 182–84, 197–98; data on, 4–5; and finance capital, 10; vs gambling, 11, 61, 98–119, 207; industrial, 92–95, 208, 211–12; vs insurance, 64–65; in land, 212–13; middle-class market for, 58– 59, 61, 77n12, 108; by novelists, 9, 128–32; “passive,” 126, 139; vs savings, 202–203, 213–16; in South America, 186–89; vs speculation, 11–12, 45–46, 98–119, 150– 57, 158n7, 191, 203–207, 212; by women, 120–40; working class market for, 11, 85–90 “irrational exuberance,” 144–45 Itzkowitz, David, 3, 11, 204 Jaffe, Audrey, 3, 10–12, 204, 206 Jameson, Fredric, 3, 10, 32–35, 36n9 Jewish financier as stock figure, 12, 147, 154–56, 174 joint-stock companies: and financial journalism, 42–43; labor role in, 83–84, 91–97, 217–18; and limited liability, 84–97, 205– 10; origins of, 81–84; politics of, 207–14; regulation of, 79, 85; and women, 120 Joint Stock Companies Act: of 1844, 81, 85; of 1856, 79 Jones, Ernest, 92, 93 journalism, financial: advertising and, 105–13; contemporary, 143–46,159–60n15, 182–84, 197–98; in culture of investment, 2, 45–46, 57, 204; fiction and, 164–65, 177–78; modes of, 40; moral agenda of, 46–49; origins of, 41–46; role in naturalizing finance, 45–46, 54, 204; secrecy vs disclosure in, 49–57, 204; and sporting press, 109–13; as transforming, 1; trope of woman investor as victim in, 128–40; in women’s magazines, 121, 128–32 246 Index Kant, Immanuel, 3; on signum rememorativum, 16–22, 34–35; and theory of the event, 16–27 Ker, Bellenden, 81 Keynes, John Maynard, 202–203 King’s Bench, Court of, 22, 26–27 Koselleck, Reinhart, 16–17 Krugman, Paul, 182 labor role in joint-stock companies, 83–84, 91–97, 217–18 “ladies rooms” in brokerages, 123–24 “Lady Credit,” 34 laissez-faire economics, 120, 128 Lambert, J Malet, 100 land, investment in as virtuous, 212–13 Last Chronicle of Barset, The, (Trollope), 164–67 Latin America, outside investment in, Leeman’s Act of 1867, 103 Levi, Leone, 82–83, 89, 96 Lewes, George Henry, 129–30, 169 libel, 43 Liberator Building Society failure, 129 Life Assurance Companies Act of 1870, 69, 71, 72–73, 77n16 Life of George Stevenson (Smiles), 129 limited liability: and community, 79–80, 85– 86, 206–207; in culture of investment, 2, 44–46; effect on labor, 7, 80, 85–97, 217–18; and increased company formation, 45; and individual responsibility, 218–19; role in promoting markets, 79–81, 90, 97, 98–99; and social reform, 84–91, 205–206; as transforming, Limited Liability Act: of 1855, 7, 79, 90, 98–99, 106; of 1856, 48, 82; of 1862, 48 literature, Victorian: financial change reflected in, 3, 178–79, 206–207; Gothic in, 175–76; melodrama in, 12, 129–30; romantic in, 169–70; speculator as villain figure in, 12, 126–30, 150–57, 164–65, 191, 216; suicide trope in, 163–79; trade as subject for, 12; women in public sphere depicted in, 129– 30, 137–40 Little Dorrit (Dickens), 159n12, 161–65 Liverpool and London (insurance company), 64 Loftus, Donna, 3, 7–8, 206 London and Westminster Bank, 46 London Assurance Corporation, 72 London Institute of Accountants, 48 London Life (insurance company), 63, 64, 76n6 London Stock Exchange, 39–40, 41, 50, 106–108 London Times, the, 41, 164 Long Twentieth Century, The (Arrighi), 33, 34 Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, 15, 22–32 loss as determining value, 6, 25, 27–32, 35– 36nn5,6,8 Lost in a Bucket Shop: A Story of Stock Exchange Speculation (Scotter), 116 lottery, 98, 106, 113 Lowe, Robert, 95–96 Macfadyen, James, 68–69 Maddison and Company, 107–108 Maltby, Josephine, Mammon and the Pursuit of Empire: The Political Economy of British Imperialism, 1860– 1912 (Davis/Huttenback), 4–5, 122 Mammon, or, The Hardship of an Heiress (Gore), 130 management, delegated, 209, 211–12 Manchester Chamber of Commerce, 212 Mansfield, Lord, 15, 22–29, 32 Marcet, Jane, 125 market, the: democratization of, 79–80, 85– 86, 91–92, 97; global, 182–84, 194, 197–98; identities and, 145; limited liability and, 7, 79–97; morality of, 79–80, 91–92, 203–207; self-regulating, 120–21; and social change, 12, 84–91, 205–206; tropes of, 131, 143–45, 155–57 Marshall, Alfred, 211–12 Marshall, Emma and Hugh, 131 Martineau, Harriet, 82, 125, 169–70 Marx, Karl: on capital, 30, 33, 205; Derrida on, 21 Marxism, 2, 10, 19, 21–22 Marxism and Form (Jameson), 10 Master Manufacturers of the Hyde District, 94–95 Maud (Tennyson), 162–63 McGann, Tara, 171–72, 196–97 Meason, Ronald Laing, 44, 45, 47 melancholy, 25–26 melodrama, language of, 12, 129–30 Men of Capital (Gore), 130 Metropolitan (insurance company), 64 Mill, John Stuart, 7, 83–84, 86–87, 89, 209–10 Mill on the Floss, The (Eliot), 10, 52–56 Milne, Joshua, 64 Mitre Court (Riddell), 130 modernism: as articulated in a field of signs, 18; and finance capital, 10; in Conrad’s Nostromo, 192–96, 199n13; temporal structures in, 192, 199–200n12 money: culture of, 10; feelings about, 150–51, 154–57; and finance capital, 6, 36n9; as form of value, 30, 197; mystification of, 152; replacing older forms of relation, 197; reproductive power of, 59–61 monopoly power, 209–10, 216 “Moral and Religious Duties of Banking Companies” (Gilbart), 46–47 morality: and economic policy, 202–205, 207, 209–10; and journalism, 46–49; and the market, 79–80, 91–92, 203–207; of speculation, 100–119; women’s, 138–39 Morgan, William, 60, 62–63 Morning Chronicle, the, 41 Morton, Charles, 64 Napoleonic Wars, 60, 62 narrative: cultural, 146–58; and economic relations, 91–92, 203; of the market, 155–57; secrecy vs disclosure in, 52–57, 152–54 National Anti-Gambling League, 116 National Association for the Promotion of Social Sciences, 91, 96 national debt, redemption of, 202–203 “National Debt and the Stock Exchange, The” (Aytoun), 46 New Amsterdam National Bank, 124, 125 New Economic Criticism, The: Studies at the Intersection of Literature and Economics (Osteen/Woodmansee), New York Life (insurance company), 66 New York Stock Exchange, 130, 134–36 New York Times, 182–84, 197–98 North and South (Gaskell), 162–63 Norwich Union (insurance company), 62–63, 65, 69–71, 72–73, 76n4 Nostromo (Conrad): and culture of investment, 6–7, 189–92, 204; modernism in, 192–96, 199n13; New World in, 186–89; speech in, 194–95 novel, the: bankruptcy metaphor in, 163; and culture of investment, 55, 163, 178– 79, 182–92; feeling and value in, 147–48; form of, 9–10, 163–64, 192–96; modernism in, 192–96; plot in, 2, 10–11, 52–56, 57n3, 147–58, 161, 180n7; realism in, 11–12, 52, 56, 164, 169–71, 184–85, 196–97; social class in, 146–58; speculator as villain figure, 12, 126–30, 150–57, 164–65, 191, 216; suicide in, 164–78; trustee fraud theme in, Index 247 127–28; woman investor as victim in, 9, 128–40 O’Connell, Daniel, 69 Offer, Avner, 215 Oliphant, Laurence, 44 Oliver, William Lemon, 127 Osteen, Mark, “Our Indicator” stock tip column, 112–13 Our Mutual Friend (Dickens), 52, 79 Owen, Robert, 92 ownership vs control, separation of, 125–26, 208–12 Palmerston, Henry, 95 Parliamentary Select Committee on the Audit of Railway Accounts, 43 partner role, 208 “Paying Investment, A” (Dickinson), 138 Peel, Robert, 207 Pickles, Edward, 216–17 plots, literary: financial vs romantic/ sentimental, 2, 10–11, 52–56, 57n3, 147–58, 180n7; suicide as device in, 156–57, 161–79 Poovey, Mary, 3, 10–11, 80, 204 Portland, Duke of, 22–23, 27 postmodernism, 33–34 Post Office Savings Bank, 202, 215 Price, Bonamy, 45 Price, Richard, 64 Prime Minister, The (Trollope), 10–11, 145–58, 162, 168, 173–74 Principles and Practice of Life Insurance (Sturrock), 64 property rights vs public benefit, 216–17 Prudential (insurance company), 68, 75 public sphere, women in, 129–40 Quarterly Review, the, 83–85 Rae, George, 47 railroad bubble of 1840s, 42, 43, 105, 129, 207 Railway Courier and Stock-Exchange PriceCurrent, the, 105 Railway Investment Guide, 106 realism, literary, 11–12, 52, 56, 164, 169–71, 184–85, 196–97 Refuge Insurance Company, 128 “Regeneration of Two, The” (Egerton), 138 Registrar of Joint Stock Companies, 81–82 Report of the Select Committee on Joint-Stock Companies, 42 248 Index Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain, 42 Richards, Thomas, 70 Richardson, R J., 44 Riddell, Charlotte, 9, 130, 164, 170, 178 risk, distinction in types of, 101–102 Robb, George, 3–4, 8–9, 216 Robinson, Frederick John, 85 Rock (insurance company), 63 romantic tradition, 169–70 Rothschild, Nathaniel Mayer de, 104 Royal Commission on Mercantile Law, 82, 89–90 Royal Commission on the London Stock Exchange, 104–105 Royal Society of Arts, 91–96 rumor: and finance capital, 10; in global markets, 182–84, 194–98; vs information, 50, 204 Rutterford, Janette, savings: vs consumption, 215–16; vs investment, 202–203, 213–14 Schmitt, Cannon, 3–4, 6–7, 204 scholarly approaches to Victorian investment, changes in, 2, 204–19 Scott, S R., 104 Scotter, C J., 116 Scottish Equitable (insurance company), 68 Scottish Provident (insurance company), 64, 66 Scottish Temperance Life Office, 128 Scratchley’s (insurance company), 68 secrecy vs disclosure, 49–57, 68–71, 152–54, 204 Select Committee on Investments for the Savings of the Middle and Working Class, 85–90 “Self-Murder” (Martineau), 169–70 Senior, Nassau, 83 sexuality linked to financial relations, 153, 159n14 Shadow of Ashlydyat, The (Wood), 131 shadow story, 156–57 Shanghai Stock Exchange, 182–84, 197–98 shareholders: as category, 86–87; female, 7–9, 122–23; separation from corporate directors, 125–26, 208–12 shares: futures of, 101–13; vs government bonds, 43; increase in number and kind of, 39–40, 98–99; price of, 41, 210–11 Sharp, Granville, 15, 22–27, 32 Shaw, John, 108, 117 “ ‘She Possessed Her Own Fortune’: Women Investors from the Late Nineteenth to the Early Twentieth Century” (Rutterford/Maltby), “Shock Wave from Shanghai, A” (Barboza), 182–84 Shrimpton, Nicolas, 197 Sidgwick, Henry, 45 signum rememorativum, demonstrativum, prognostikon (historical sign), 16, 17–18, 22, 32 Sir William’s Speculations, or, the Seamier Side of Finance, 45 Slack, Ann and Emma, 127 Slaney, Robert A., 83, 85–89, 92, 94 slave trade, 5–6, 15–32, 217 Smiles, Samuel, 129, 205, 215 Smith, Mr (suicide), 163, 164, 167 Smith, Sidney, 92 Social Science Association, 96 Somerset, Sophia Vernon, 130 South Sea Bubble of 1720, 131 speculation: definition of, 106–108, 151, 158– 59n10; vs investment, 11–12, 45–46, 98–119, 150–57, 158n7, 191, 203–207, 212; in literature, 128–40, 150–57, 159n12, 164–65, 191; regulation of, 61, 99–105, 116–17; and women, 121, 128–32 speculator as villain figure, 12, 126–30, 150–57, 164–65, 191, 216 Spencer, Herbert, 205, 209 Sporting Life, 109–10 Sporting Times, the, 113 Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 137–38 “Stockbroking and the Stock Exchange” (Anonymous), 46 Strahan, Paul, and Bates Bank failure, 130 strikes, 91, 94 structure of feeling, 51–57 Sturrock, John, 64 Stutfield, G Herbert, 103–105 “Suicide in Life and Literature” (Lewes), 169 suicide in response to financial loss: and English law, 167–69; as myth, 161–62, 179nn1,2; as trope in fiction, 12, 156–57, 161–79 Sun (insurance company), 64 supplement, the, 48–51, 56–57 Swiney, Frances, 138 tariffs, 209–10 Taylor, James, 218–19 Tennyson, Alfred, 162–63 Ten Hours Act of 1847, 83–84 Thompson (Thomas) and Company, 108, 109 Three Clerks, The (Trollope), 127–28 time bargain, 102–103, 118–19n2 tontine offices, 65–66 Torok, Maria, 25 trade associations, 92–95 transformation, 12 trauma-theory, 25 Trebilcock, Clive, 67 Trepsack, Mary, 139–40 Trollope, Anthony: approaches to, 9–12; and Conrad, 201n19; and Eliot, 165; feeling and value in, 147–48, 150–51; financial plots in, 145–58, 162–76; and Greenspan, 145; fiction of, 52, 79, 106, 127–28, 196–97; physical vs spiritual fate in, 167–69; speculation vs investment in, 150–57, 204, 206, 212; suicide in, 162–76; and Wharton, 176–79 “Truth-Event,” 19–26 Tufnell, Henry, 92 Tuttle, Florence, 138 value: Derrida on, 51–52, 54; feeling and, 147– 48, 150–51; loss as determining, 6, 25, 27–32, 35–36nn5,6,8; money as, 30, 197; of reputation, 196; specters of, 34; theory of, 29–32 Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 134 Victorian Studies, visual representations of investing, 135, 143– 45, 144, 150–51 wage/price standards, 93–95 wagering contracts, 100, 102–105, 117, 118n1 Wall Street: in fiction, 176–77; women in, 130, 134–36 War of the Pacific, 187, 198n3 Watt, Ian, 192 Way We Live Now, The (Trollope), 52, 79, 106, 164–69, 171–72, 196–97 Weekly, the, 128 Weskett, John, 29–30 West Middlesex Fire and Life Insurance Co., 207 West of England Bank failure, 131 Westminster Review, the, 84–85 Wharton, Edith, 12, 165, 176–79 Where Your Treasure Is (Harraden), 137 Whirlpool, The (Gissing), 138–39, 164–65, 168–69, 174–76 Wilde, Oscar, 138–39 Wilson, Edmund, 162 Wilson, James, 42 Woman’s Bank of Boston, 134 “Woman’s Romance in Wall Street, A,” 130 women investors: as authors, 128–32; “begging letters” by, 129; brokers catering to, 123–24, 134–36; as financial professionals, 134–37; as irrational, 215; in key sectors, 122–23; as Index 249 “passive,” 126, 139; property rights of, 7–8, 121–23, 125, 140nn6,7, 215; tropes of in fiction and journalism, 128–40; unmarried, 7–8; as victims of fraud, 8–9, 126–33, 216 Women’s Rights Convention, 137–38 Wood, Mrs Henry, 9, 131 Woodhull, Claflin and Company, 134–36 Woodhull, Victoria, 128, 134–37, 135 Woodmansee, Martha, working class: as investors, 11, 85–90; limited liability and, 7, 84–97, 217–18 Working Tailors Association, 87–88 Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1897, 218 250 Index writing, financial: accounting as genre of, 47– 48, 56; conventions common to journalism and fiction, 40; and culture of investment, 39, 43, 54–55, 83; historical vs literary paradigms in, 55–57; modes of as “supplement,” 48–51, 56–57; origin of, 39–40; women in, 120–40 York, Newcastle and Berwick railway, 43 Zižek, Slavoj, 19–22, 31 Zong slave ship insurance case, 5–6, 15–16, 22–32, 217 .. .Victorian Investments Victorian Investments New Perspectives on Finance and Culture edited by nancy henry & cannon... of scholarship on the Victorian economy, investment included; they also risk eliding the historical, cultural, and textual specificity to which the contributors to Victorian Investments: New Perspectives... shares a title, Victorian Investments brings together work by historians and literary and cultural critics that illuminates and interrogates the place of finance capital not only in the Victorian period