Banking and Commerce

This chapter discusses banking and commerce. Banking and commerce were risky activities in the early nineteenth century. For instance, of the thirteen nabobs who invested their Indian wealth in banks and sat in the Commons between 1790 and 1820, no fewer than five saw the bank fail and lost at least part of their fortune. It was this insecurity that helped underpin the social prejudice against trade. A landed gentlemen might prove a wastrel and ruin his estate, but most of his land was generally entailed, and even if it was not, his extravagance could be detected well before the final crash. But a merchant or a banker might appear prosperous and secure until, overnight, his fortune vanished or at least was severely reduced.