CURRENTS: Humanities Work Now

Amy Froide (History)

Location

Performing Arts & Humanities Building : 216

Date & Time

April 23, 2018, 12:00 pm1:00 pm

Description

Spring 2018 Works-in-Progress Talks

Eighteenth-Century England's Charitable Corporation: A Cautionary Tale of Micro-lending, Financial Fraud, and Government Bailouts

Amy Froide, Professor, History, and 2018 Dresher Center Residential Faculty Fellow

Amy Froide is writing the story of London's Charitable Corporation, a forgotten experiment in eighteenth-century microfinance and a neglected example of the financial fraud endemic to the heady years of the early English stock market. This 1731 scandal involved financial mismanagement and embezzlement of micro-loans meant for the poor; it resulted in Parliament stepping in to solve the crisis. How does a 300-year financial bubble connect to today's financial scandals and government bail outs of institutions deemed too big to fail?
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