Dr Mabel Winter
Research Associate
I undertook my undergraduate, master's and PhD degrees at the University of Sheffield, and have since held research positions on two AHRC-funded projects. The first position was research associate on the ‘Middling Culture’ project at the University of Kent, and the second is my current role as research associate on the project ‘The Politics of the English Grain Trade, 1315-1815'.
Research Interests
I work on the social, economic, and cultural history of early modern England. My doctoral thesis, first article, and first monograph focused on the relationship between commerce, politics, and economics through the lens of a late-seventeenth-century financial institution. I took a microhistorical approach, examining the London-based institution of Thompson and Company, the social networks of its partners, the identity of its creditors, and the events and circumstances that led to its collapse. The book situates the reconstructed institution within the wider commercial, financial, and political contexts of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England, using the evidence accrued to question the traditional narrative of financial and commercial development; credit systems; the relationship between economics, finance, commerce and politics; and the place of risk and strategy in gendered relations, credit, and social status.
A subsequent publication took my interest in politics and projecting to bear on provincial England and the provision of water. This article was a result of my work on the ‘Middling Culture’ project and examines the relationship between the urban ‘middling’ sort and public services in provincial England in the period 1540 to 1640, through a case study of water provision in three urban centres.
My current work for ‘The Politics of the English Grain Trade’ project further explores the history of everyday provision through a study of mills and milling. Outputs underway include a case study article of mills in Devon, which examines the role of mills in economic and social life in early modern England, as well as two co-written articles exploring mill litigation and the business of milling over a long period. Through the project more broadly I am investigating the legal and social history of the grain trade, its technological development, and its cultural associations.
Publications
Goldsmith Banking: A History
In seventeenth-century England goldsmiths became what we would now recognise as bankers. Goldsmiths’ shops sold not only gold and silver plate but also instruments of credit, such as bonds and bills of exchange, and offered ‘safe’ places to lodge capital at interest. As well as offering financial services to private individuals, goldsmith bankers also became trusted financial agents to the Crown.
Whilst some goldsmith banks still survive today, and the likes of Coutts are still associated with the Crown, the link between goldsmiths and banking is largely forgotten in modern Britain. This book explores the history of goldsmith banking from its early seventeenth-century origins, through its maturity in the Restoration, the collapse of significant goldsmith banks following the 1672 Stop on the Exchequer, and the continuation of goldsmith banking through the ‘financial revolution’, formation of the Bank of England, and beyond. It combines a general narrative with examples of specific goldsmith banks throughout the period to examine goldsmith bankers’ practices, the instruments they dealt in and popularised, and the innovations in finance they instituted.
This concise introduction to goldsmith banking is ideal for students, academics, and those with a general interest in financial history or early modern London.