Tory history: Thomas Salmon’s Modern History

Abstract

England underwent a financial revolution in the 1690s, as attempts by its Whig governments to raise money for the nation's war efforts led to a series of changes in the management of government revenue. This chapter opens with an outline of these developments before exploring how 'Court Whig' and 'Patriot' writers of the 1720s and 1730s dealt with them in their historical commentaries. It then proceeds to its principal subject: the work of Tory historian, Thomas Salmon. His Modern History (1724–38), it is argued, drawing on both Court Whig and Patriot histories, used its narrative of England's Tudor and Stuart monarchs to develop a scathing attack on contemporary innovations in commerce and credit. As a consequence, Salmon's work is a useful example of the ways in which debates about modern economic practices were frequently fought on historical terrain.