Post-1800

Abstract

However, the financial aspects of the Fire and specifically the Corporation’s defaulting on its debt have not been fully examined yet. The late seventeenth century is considered to be a period in which sovereigns, city-states and others experimented with new instruments of public credit to support their strategies of borrowing, but as the authors show, the Corporation drew on well-established instruments, private, short-term, interest-bearing deposits, to meet the financial challenges of rebuilding their part of the City. The Great Fire placed a heavy burden on the Corporation already known for its deep financial troubles. Because it did not adapt to new financial opportunities and relied on its reputation based on meeting repayments, the financial consequences for this urban institution were dramatic.