Economic History

Cesar Chavez on march from with the United Farm Workers in Redondo Beach, California, 9 July 1975. The Regents of the University of California (CC BY-4.0).

‘Eli and the Octopus’ by Matt García review

Eli and the Octopus: The CEO Who Tried to Reform One of the World’s Most Notorious Corporations by Matt García is a human story amid mergers, sales, profits and losses.

Salvador Allende announces the nationalisation of copper, Rancagua, Chile, 15 July 1971.

Pinochet’s Shadow: Privatisation in Chile

Privatisation of Chile’s natural resources was a pillar of Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship.

Dividend Day at the Bank of England, 1770.

‘Virtuous Bankers’ by Anne L. Murphy review

‘A day in the life’ of the 18th-century Bank of England.

The Shrimp Girl, by William Hogarth, c.1745.

Hawk this Way

London used to ring with the cries of street sellers. Changes for the city brought changes to their way of life.

In the Shadow of the Poor Law

Britain has been a high inequality, high poverty nation for most of the last 200 years.

Winston Churchill and a donkey loaded with taxes, by Bernard Partridge, 1920s.

Unintended Consequences

Over three centuries of muddle, messy compromise and financial mismanagement.

Detail of a playing card from a South Sea Bubble crash-themed pack, 1720s. Courtesy Harvard University.

Trading Places

Women and the birth of England’s stock market.

James and Audrey Callaghan shopping in an experimental decimal coinage supermarket, 12 May 1967.

On the Money

The introduction of decimal coinage to the UK was a long while coming. But the transition was surprisingly smooth.

Does Boom Always Follow Bust?

Four historians consider whether the sudden collapse of the world economy caused by the Covid-19 pandemic will be followed by an equally dramatic resurgence.