Bloodsuckers of the Commonwealth : monopolies, petitioning, and the public sphere in early modern England / Ellen Paterson.

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Bloodsuckers of the Commonwealth : monopolies, petitioning, and the public sphere in early modern England / Ellen Paterson.

9781526189097 (electronic bk.)
1526189097 (electronic bk.)
1526189089
9781526189080

Manchester : Manchester University Press, [2025]

English

1 online resource (xii, 259 pages)

HD2757.2 .P38 2025eb

338.82094209031

"At the turn of the seventeenth century, subjects across the English realm found their trades and livelihoods infringed by a particularly contentious financial policy: patents of monopoly. As the cash-strapped Crown sought to raise revenues, petitioning emerged as a key mechanism utilised by subjects to protest infringements on their industries. This book offers the first in-depth exploration of anti-monopoly petitioning agitation in early modern England between 1590-1625. The issues of monopoly and corporatism led subjects, from coal merchants in Newcastle to clothiers in Oxfordshire, to engage with broader matters of political import as they negotiated the effects of this central crown policy on their lives. Yet the boundary between monopoly and legitimate corporation was an unclear one, and this period also witnessed petitioning for the chartering of new companies. These tensions received expression in petitioning campaigns, targeted to local authorities, the Privy Council, commissions, Parliament, and the Crown. This book focuses especially on campaigns launched by, and against, London’s livery and overseas trading companies, as the issues of monopoly and corporatism generated political action in the metropolis. Drawing on a range of overlooked manuscript petitions, this book explores the intersection between economics and politics by revealing the importance of economic grievances and debates to the nascent public sphere. Whilst much historiography has focused on issues of religion and high politics, this book offers a vital and fresh perspective on the period, arguing for the need to re-integrate analyses of economics into our understandings of late-Elizabethan and early-Stuart politics."-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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text file

Online resource; title from digital title page (JSTOR, viewed October 17, 2025)

Politics, culture, and society in early modern Britain.

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