At the Restoration of 1660, there was no distinctive banking sector, and banking services were provided by a variety of traders, most notably the London goldsmiths. In the later seventeenth century, the first specialists appeared against a background of rapid economic change, and they were often attacked for their greed and self-interest. Historic associations with usury were slow to dissipate, but in the mid-Georgian period a more distinctive cadre of bankers had established itself, thanks to their pivotal role in the service of both landed and commercial elites. These private bankers provided core retail services to thousands of customers, and their premises became well-known sites within the metropolitan landscape. By 1800, the characteristics of the profession were well-developed, to the extent that its members were often seen as establishment figures by both critics and admirers, lauded or vilified in turn for their contribution to national prosperity or instability. The great financial crisis of 1825-6 had a disastrous impact on many private bankers, heralding the rise of the joint-stock bank, but their professional ethos endured as a permanent legacy of their Georgian achievement.
The London Private Banker: A Social History, 1660-1825 examines the societal impact of the London private bankers between 1660 and 1825 for the first time. Economic historians have clarified their commercial development, but their distinctive role as retail bankers offers insight into an array of dynamic social forces in eighteenth-century Britian, especially the relationship between the middling and upper orders. Using a sample of some 300 partners, the book examines the development of London private banking from its uncertain late Stuart origins to its established place on the late Georgian high street. Their experiences illuminate the solidity and adaptability of the social order, and their importance is tracked through their commercial services, public lives, and private pleasures. Their advancement renders them a remarkable social phenomenon with a uniquely broad archival record, whose influence ranked alongside the metropolitan merchants and the early industrialists, and whose study has wide-ranging implications for broader understandings of social, cultural, and political life in Georgian England.
