| From the second half of the seventeenth century, England experienced profound economic and commercial expansion. The half-century following 1690 saw vast changes brought about by the advent of the "Financial Revolution." Both the management of the national debt and the promotion of trade became paramount public policy concerns. The new economic order did not, however, have only positive consequences.;After the Glorious Revolution, with regular annual parliamentary sessions, the legislature became the focus for policy debate. Most economic and financial legislation dealt either with revenue, measures concerning the national debt, or with economic regulation the merits of which were contested by competing interest groups. This study, however, examines general economic regulation and concentrates on three central issues: contemporary perceptions of the problem, the intellectual and political context of the debate surrounding that problem, and finally, the attempted solution and its degree of success. The theme which binds all of them together is contemporary concern about fraud.;Part I deals with accountability and the public, exploring attitudes toward the regulation of speculation. The first two chapters contrast the campaign to suppress private lotteries with the lack of regulation of state-sponsored lotteries and the ancillary activities of the financial sector. Chapters 3-5 examine attempts to impose restraints on the securities markets during this period. Both sets of legislation were largely regulatory failures, and this section enumerates the institutional, legal, political, fiscal and economic elements which led to this result.;Part II turns to accountability and the individual. The first section examines legislation concerning debtor-creditor relationships. Chapter 6 discusses attempts to set up institutional means to settle cases for small debts. Chapter 7 contrasts insolvency and bankruptcy legislation over the period. These issues are examined as centers around which to explore competing ideas concerning commercial accountability. The last chapter ventures outside the legislative context and studies a set of criminal trials dealing with fraud in commercial and financial instruments. It explains how these were accomplished and how seriously "white-collar" crime was regarded. |
