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Publications Pages Publications Pages. CertainlyBarnwell understands that money essentiallypurchases Millwood's "love," but that is cast as an exchange. Sexual incontinence,as such, is "bad"; onlya fineline separates unauthorizedsexual activity, theft and murder. But the ballad does not suggesta connection between the systemsof economy and sexuality. The dedication praises Eyles and observes that "[t]he proprietors in the South Sea. Company, gave. Eyles, by implication,was facilitating theSouth Sea Company's transitionfromone financialmode to another.
Itis instructive thatfollowing thestockscandalfromwhichitis best known, theSouth Sea Company existed as a corporate - actually entity initemsfrom trading theWestIndies - wellintothenineteenth While century.
The "many" were the apprentices, merchants and individualsof the middlingclasses on which the play focuses. Explicitly writingabout the power of prose and the sentimentality of his text,Lillo lays the groundworkforthe largersystemsunder review- not dramatic genres but fundamentaleconomic activity. Such a binaiyvisionofeconomic relationsis consistentwiththeplay'sbourgeois agenda, but the text expands its representationand uses oppositional constructionsof sexualityto reinforcethese financialrelationships.
The sexual and thefinancialoperate as mutuallyreinforcing,indeed necessarily contingent,social practices. Enteringinto specific kinds of economic relationships entails structurallyparticipatingin a certain model of sexuality. The friendshipbetween Barnwell and his fellow apprentice Trueman,a relationshipabsent fromtheoriginalballad, acts as a model of economic and social interactionas well as emotional intimacy.
Their intense homosocial relationshipillustratesthe principlesof mercantilism which the textconstructsas a systembased on mutuality, rationalityand exchange. Bycontrast, Barnwell's relationshipwiththe prostituteMillwood, exclusivelysexual in nature,structurallyimitatestheworld of speculative investment.
Like an investor,or perhaps a stockjobber,Barnwell- driven bydesire and thepower ofhis imagination28 - expends financialresources in anticipationof future sexual profits. While theirsexual interactionis "real" ifnotwitnessed bytheaudience , Barnwellresiststhequid pro quo inherent in prostitutionby embracing the passions "love" and simultaneously experiencing the memory of past encounters and anticipating futureones.
These intangibleifnot imaginarysignifiersare what drive Barnwell,not his "possession" or "purchase" of Millwood's body. Lillo constructsan ad hoc dialectic thatnot onlyignoresthe role of the landed aristocrat displacing some of the negative - associations luxury, - self-indulgence ontoMillwood and thetraditionof Freeman Flaws" complexly "Tragic howthosegeneric details alsorecord shifts a moreprofound inexactly shift thekinds andgendered offinancial herein relationship under discussion.
Obviously, - andespecially culture theworld dependson ofadvertising- arousing thoseemotions precisely inpotential here,and As I am suggesting customers. But his relentlessrepresentation, targeted foran audience primarilycomprised of apprentices, is all the more suggestive for its absolutism; the text works to shore up the precarious image of commercial trade and distance itas faras possible from negative associations with speculative investment.
By screening economy throughsexuality,the textmediates culturalanxietyabout the economic directionof the country,the lingeringafter-shocksof the South Sea Bubble, and the perceived instabilityof masculine sexuality. Within thetraditionof civichumanism a greatdistinctionexistsbetweenthe "gentleman" andanyeconomic maninvolved incommerce. Thetextnotonlyexcludes the mention ofanymembers ofthegentry oraristocracy exceptwhendisplacing libertine attributesontoMillwood butalso subsumes thediscourse ofcivichumanism intothe mercantile class.
Forexample, Thorowgood observes that"Asthe name of merchant never degrades thegentleman, sobynomeansdoesitexclude Hisdaughter, him" I. The emergence of modemsexuality and,particularly thedistinctionbetween homosexual practiceandhomosexual identityhasbecomeincreasingly importantinthe discussion ofeighteenth-century culture dramatic particularly and the representations formation ofthemodemsubject.
He diminishesthe importanceof the profit motive, insisting"I would not have you only learn the method of merchandiseand practiceithereaftermerelyas a means ofgettingwealth" IIl. Instead, he describes the "dignityof our profession"and highlightsthe virtuesof honest Britishmerchantswho "may sometimes contributeto the safetyof theircountryas theydo at all times to its happiness" Li.
Within this idealistic portraitmerchantshonorablypractice fairtrade with the exchange of various goods: "the method of merchandise Commerce is not business- it is "mutual love" and "national intercourse. This patternof imageryis consistentwiththe representationof business "as a science. Thorowgood admonishes his apprenticesto rememberthat"[mjethod in business is the surest guide" III. Thorowgood's and Lillo's positiverepresentationis specificto British merchants.
Thorowgood depicts the Spanish merchantsas stockjobbers ofa sort;ratherthanearn theirmoneythroughtradeand participatein this economic order,theyhave taken a loan "at excessive interestand good security"froma Genoese bank in order to financetheirArmada I. Marked by greed, self interestand speculation, "[t]he haughty and revengefulSpaniard" Li. The South Sea Company depended on tradingrights Notcoincidently, andeconomic political England's with relationship Spainwaslong- standing witha seriesofwarsthataffected and fraught theeconomic ofboth situation There countries.
Westport, CT, p. The parametersofthisagreementwere consistently renegotiated and, at the time of The London Merchant,were again a subject in the popular press.
A piece in the Daily Courantdescribes how the efforts of "our industriousPrivateTraders"enable them to "outwit"the Spanish, using "as manyWays and Means, as theWitand ArtofMan could invent. Underpinning the relationship among British merchants is homosociability:the "mutuallove" to which Thorowgood alludes.
Within the mercantileprojectmen establishmutuallybeneficialsocio-economic connections throughthe exchange of goods and symbolic property. Obviously, in a patriarchal context social, economic and political relationshipsare almost exclusivelyamong men. The London Merchant depictsa culturewhere thesehomosocial relationshipsseeminglysupplant all other emotional connections and functionas structuralor what Eve Sedgwick terms "ideological homosexuality.
His wife is dead and his most intenselanguage describes his business and his relationship Sedgwick's well-known workexplores thehomosocial bondsthatdevelop between menthrough theuseofwomenas exchangeable, symbolic property. Reiter NewYork, ,pp. LuceIrigary similarly suggeststhat"all economic ishomosexual organization. Ithaca, ,pp. Though notdiscussed withintheconfinesofthis paper,Thorowgood's attitudetowardhisdaughter Maria, despitehisidealized assertions of concern forherpersonal happiness,operates inthesamemanner.
Even his apparent attemptsfinda husband forhis daughter Maria- to essentially place her in a heterosexual context- underscore this structuralrelationship. When he discusses potentialsuitorsforMaria,he offersto leave thedecision to herbecause he "know s love to be essential to happiness in the marriagestate" I.
This scene elevates the homosocial status of the merchantby fixingall heterosexual interestwithin this power structureon a wife who is altogetherabsent fromtheplay.
Althoughthemerchant'shousehold lacks a wife, it does have Trueman,who recuperates thisdomestic position rhetorically. In all the scenes between Thorowgood and Trueman, the apprenticeparrotshismaster'spoliticalthoughtsand rhetoricwiththekind of understandingthat we mightexpect froma wife submittingto her husband's authority. As Lucinda Cole suggests,"the differencebetween apprenticeship and other forms of servitudewas often expressed in gender-inflected terms. Itwas notunusual,forexample, fortheapprentice to be compared, in positiveterms,to thewife.
His dutyto Thorowgood is a specificallyhomosocial and hierarchicalarrangementthattranscendsany male-femalebond ofa similarnature. The homosocial relationshipbetween Truemanand Barnwellis integral to understandingLillo's play and to the larger discussion of financial practice he advocates. Ultimatelythere is an inextricablelinkbetween sexual and financialidentityin the constructionof the ideal merchant- citizen. When Millwoodasks Barnwellabout his"thoughtson love" I. Barnwell's union withTrueman, the most emotionallyintimatein the text,illustratesthe power of thishomosocial- mercantileconnection.
Cole,"TheLondonMerchant andtheInstitution p. While the outside purviewof this essay,anotherimportantthreadofinterpretation can be teasedoutthrough thetext'streatmentofthefinelinebetween homosocialand homoerotic Anewlevelofcultural behavior.
Returninghome aftera nightaway, Barnwell worries that Trueman's "officiouslove will pryinto the secrets of my soul" Il. Sounding more likean abandoned wifethana fellowapprentice,Truemanquestions whythe "beloved" Barnwellis so "cold and silent"when his own "heartis fullof joy foryour return,why do you turnaway?
Why thus avoid me? He cannot "bear thisusage froma friend,one whom tillnow I ever foundso loving,whom yetI love" Il. Truemancomplains that "Since we parted last nightI have slept no more thanyou,but pensive in mychamber sat alone and spentthetedious nightinwishes foryoursafety and return" II.
How am I altered since you saw me last? Or rather,what have you done? And why are you thus changed, forI am stillthe same" Il.
Bamwell observes that "it mightbe better forus both that now you loved me less" II. He wants Bamwell to "share" his grief- '"Twillease yourpain. He offers"generousfriendship" II. By contrast,Barnwell's relationshipwith Millwood exists completely outside this mercantile system. An independent woman shorn of any patriarchalconnections,Millwoodcannot participateas agent or object in the homosocial, mercantile economy. While this makes her the only woman withany albeit limited agency,Millwoodlamentsher inabilityto participate legitimatelyin the socio-economic relationshipsshe sees apprenticeship Seefor structure.
JonathanGoldberg [Durham,]. As hasbeenwelldocumented, homosexual between activity apprenticeswasnotuncommon andwas evenidentified as a potentialproblem byRichardson inhisVadeMecum. Ata structural relevance leveltheinterpretative degreeofintimacy oftheapprentices' islimited; however itdoesraisesomevery interesting interms questions ofhowthisplaywouldhave beenunderstood - orperhaps readina codedmanner - byanaudience For ofapprentices.
Had 1been a man, I might,perhaps, have been as happy in yourfriendshipas he [Trueman] who now enjoys it" I. As Vivien Jones observes, in eighteenth-century representations,"theprostitute seduces consumers away fromproductive labor into un re productive spending, mocking authentic exchange throughthe renewable, but indivisible,capital resource of her body.
Parityand exchange do not exist in Barnwell's dealings withMillwood- thereis no mutual love. Instead, he effectively replicatethe pattern 'invests'in her and his actions structurally ofa stockjobberratherthana merchant. Tradingon expectationsforfuture gain, the investormust relyon imaginationwhich fuels the passions and fantasiesnecessary forfinancialinvestmentin a fluctuating market. The investorspeculativelyinvestsin imaginativelyrealized property stocks, lotterytickets and partswithtangiblegoods or currencywitha desire for imagined returns.
MillwoodeasilyinstillsdesireintheinexperiencedBarnwellwho readily partswiththe money she requests. Experiencinga sensation [he] "never Theonlyheterosexual relationshipinthetextis theone betweenMillwood and Barnwell.
Trueman hasnoapparent friends beyondBarnwell, Thorowgood's wifeis dead, andMaria, theexemplary womaninthetext, ina primarily functions passive andcertainly asexual manner.
I amgratefultoMichael Kwassforbringing this essaytomyattention. Later,Barnwell observesthatMillwood has "firm possession [of]myheartand governsthere withsuchdespotic Lillosimilarly sway" III. Shesimilarly describes lawsas "theinstrument andscreenofallyourvillainies" Following IV. Seducedby theprostituteMillwood, Barnwell embezzles fromThorowgood, betrayshisfriendshipwith Trueman, andultimately murders hisuncle.
LikeMillwood, heissentenced todeathatthe endoftheplay. As Pococknotes,if "property was bothan extension and a prerequisite of then"weshould personality," beawareofthepossibility that modesofproperty different may beseenasgenerating orencouraging modesofpersonality.
Thisis thetermgiventothedevelopments inthefinancial system primarilythe introductionofpapercredit initsvariousmanifestations that fundamentallychanged theway individualsregarded money andproperty.
Muchhasbeenwritten aboutthisperiod inBritain's economic development. Inaddition tothediscussions mentioned infootnote 1, texts that This content downloaded from England long privileged the increasinglynostalgic image ofthelanded gentleman,whose ownership of land ensured his commitmentto the nationand placed him withinan idealized traditionof civic humanism. Differentformsof property e.
Speculative investorsor stockjobberswere depicted as overcome bytheir emotions, hystericalabout theirstocks,overlydependent on the word in the marketplace.
To the extenttheydepended on emotions, gossip and theirimaginativepredictionson the futureof theirstocks, they can be "masculine" considered to leave therealmofrational,solid and, therefore, action.
Pocock has characterized them as feminized, or effeminate creatures forleaving the rationalsphere of intellectfora more visceral, emotional even hystericalrealm of desire.
Located between thelanded aristocratand theeconomic man was the merchantand the cultureof "mercantilism"thatwere in manyways the explore thecultural effectsincludealsoIsaacKramnick, Bolingbroke andHisCircle: The ofNostalgia Politics intheAgeofWalpole Cambridge MA. Cambridge, , among others.
Kramnick discusses thenostalgicdesire for idealized this tradition inBolingbroke and. Certainly, hisCircle thefigureofthelibertine threatenstodisruptthis reconstruction, nostalgic butwhilehecirculates ofeconomic andsexual excessinRestoration as a figure comedy and,later,infiction mostnotably, ofcourse,inSamuelRichardson's heiscarefully Clarissa , elidedfrom thepoliticaldiscourse oftheperiod.
InLillo'stextthesexuallyandfinancially avaricious Millwood hasthelibertineattributes. Thischaracterization offeminizationhascomeunderscrutiny. This content downloaded from Trade and investment,exchange and speculation were mutuallyreinforcing behaviors.
Nevertheless,as JoyceApplebyhas demonstrated,seventeenth- centurydiscussions ofpoliticaleconomy questioned some ofthepatterns of mercantile behavior. FollowingtheSouth Sea Bubble, participantsand beneficiariesoffinancialculturetriedto distance themselves from the seeming instabilityand unpredictabilitythat characterized these new financialmodels. Hirschman has characterized as transforming - was in place. Iusetheterm "mercantilism,"which appears throughout theessay,intwoways.
First, and most simply,I mean to suggestthe practice,method,or habits of merchants - commercialism. Yet,as articulated inTheLondon Merchant, theideologyof merchants likeThorowgood corresponds quiteclosely withthetraditional of understanding mercantilism ineconomic history e. Withinthe context oftheplay, therefore,mercantilism occupies a positionthatpointedlyandpowerfully contrasts withspeculative investment. As Pocockdetails,themerchant, within a neo-Harrington philosophy,never represented thesamekindofthreat as theneweconomic man.
Thedanger laywith theowner ofcapital, orsmall, great whoinvested itin systems ofpubliccreditand so transformed therelationsbetween government andcitizens,andbyimplication thosebetween allcitizens into andallsubjects, relationsbetween debtors andcreditors" Virtue, Commerce , andHistory,p. During thisperiodTheCraftsman noet.
The nature of financial practice- what was thebest activityforEngland,fortheindividual,forthe publicand privatecitizen- was increasingly discussed.
Whilemercantilism and financialspeculation- or good trade and bad paper credit- co- existed withina capitalist continuum with the mechanisms of credit essential to the operationsof most of the economic activityof England , theywere often presented adversarially. The discourse surrounding Lillosimilarly the Excise Crisisoftenfiguredthe moral London merchantas a victimto the grubbingand sinisterforces forExcise.
Who was really contributingto England'snationaland financialprosperity? The merchantswho would be most sharplyaffectedbythese taxes. London, This content downloaded from Withitsstatedtopic "the Use ofRiches," thepoem simultaneouslyaddresses paper creditand the impendingExcise Bill. As Pope demonstratesthroughhis idealized portraitoftheMan ofRoss lines , money should be used charitably, reciprocally and in moderation- the very qualities that distinguishmercantilism in The London Merchant.
This profligatebehavior is facilitatedby the introductionof "blessed paper-credit"which "lends corruptionlighter wings to fly. Balaam, who provides the poem's object lesson, demonstrates the dangers ofwealth used unwisely,as well as speculative investment,both of which remove the sober merchantfromhis world of rationalityand reciprocity.
For Pope, the road to hell is paved withpaper credit. George Lillo's The London Merchantcontributedto the complicated process ofculturalinterrogation, aligningthediscourse inpart,byexplicitly of sexualityand the discourse of economy.
Produced on the eve of the Excise Crisis,The London Merchantcreates a verysharp dualityforboth economic and sexual activity.
Itfiguresnormativeeconomic activity - and - by extension normativemasculinity withinan exclusivelyhomosocial and at times seemingly homoerotic context. By contrast, active heterosexualpursuitsare cast as unreliableand unremunerative, just like the speculative financial models they implicitlyemulate.
Although Bateson Pope,vol. Similarly, his representationof the apprentices' homosocial relationshipas normative and economically necessary incorporateshomosexual behavior though not identity into the definitionof masculine sexualitycontested at this time. These cpntemporaneous culturaldiscourses reveal Lillo's attempts to constructa stable and fundamentally oppositionalmodel ofsexual and financialrelationsthatprivilegesthe ideologyof mercantilecapitalism in service of his intendeddidacticism.
As a result,the textreconfiguresnot justnotionsofappropriatefinancialactivity butalso demonstrateshow the language of money entered domains of thoughtthat were not strictly economic - in thisinstance, the representationof gender and gendered relationships.
Homo social Economus FirstperformedJune 22, , The London Merchantis an idealized, sentimentaldepiction of the merchantclass designed, in part,as moral, politicaland economic exemplar. In TheApprentice'sVadeMecum 1 Samuel Richardson writesthat,"I know butofone Instance,and thata verylate one, where the Stage has condescended to make itselfuseful to the City-Youthby a dreadfulExample of theArtificesofa lewd Woman, and the Seduction of an unwaryyoung Man; and itwould favortoo much of Partiality, not to Muchoftheworkon TheLondonMerchant attempts itgenerically toclassify or oraddress philosophically, as itrelates theissueofclass,typically totheplay'sdidacticism.
Whilethatkindofessayhasincreased mygeneral understanding ofthetext, thosemost tothisparticular useful reading focusmoreonitseconomic concerns. Suchessaysinclude: RichardE. Quarterly This content downloaded from I mean, the Play of George Barnwell,which has met withthe Success thatI thinkitwell deserves; and I could be contentto compound withtheyoungCityGentry,thattheyshould go to thisPlay once a Year, if theywould condition,not to desire to go oftner,tillanother Play of an equally good Moral and Design were acted on the Stage.
It instillsa normativemode of economic and sexual behavior- and inextricably linksthe two. Lillo drew the plot fromthe seventeenth-century ballad, "The Storyof George Barnwell,"thatwas allegedlybased on a murderthatoccurred in Shropshire. The differencesbetween theballad and theplayare instructive in consideringhow financialrelationships,and in turnconstructionsof sexuality,gain an added complexity;how, in the intervening decades, the language of money informs the language of morality and sexuality.
Significantly, the ballad- which Lillo cleverlydistributed in advance ofhis play's debut to generate - interest focuses onlyon therelationship between Barnwell and Millwood, completely eliminatingthe homosocial and economic context so central to The London Merchant. Barnwell begins to give Millwood money "twice three pound," "forty pounds," "ten pounds, nor ten times ten" thathe embezzles fromhis Notonlywereperformances sanctionedthroughthesponsorshipoftheFreemasons, buttheirinitial cast-members, management andaudience consisted largely ofMasonsand their See,for relatives.
The specificity oftheamounts underscoresboththerelativevalue of money in the seventeenth centuryand the straightforward formof accounting accessible to the audience. Throughout,money is, basically, money. The "reckoning" he gives his master is purely a financial accounting that reveals he is two hundred pounds short; there is no commensurate 'moral' accounting. CertainlyBarnwell understands that money essentiallypurchases Millwood's "love," but that is cast as an exchange.
Sexual incontinence,as such, is "bad"; onlya fineline separates unauthorizedsexual activity, theft and murder. But the ballad does not suggesta connection between the systemsof economy and sexuality. The dedication praises Eyles and observes that "[t]he proprietors in the South Sea. Company, gave. Eyles, by implication,was facilitating theSouth Sea Company's transitionfromone financialmode to another.
Itis instructive thatfollowing thestockscandalfromwhichitis best known, theSouth Sea Company existed as a corporate - actually entity initemsfrom trading theWestIndies - wellintothenineteenth While century. The "many" were the apprentices, merchants and individualsof the middlingclasses on which the play focuses.
Explicitly writingabout the power of prose and the sentimentality of his text,Lillo lays the groundworkforthe largersystemsunder review- not dramatic genres but fundamentaleconomic activity. Such a binaiyvisionofeconomic relationsis consistentwiththeplay'sbourgeois agenda, but the text expands its representationand uses oppositional constructionsof sexualityto reinforcethese financialrelationships.
The sexual and thefinancialoperate as mutuallyreinforcing,indeed necessarily contingent,social practices. Enteringinto specific kinds of economic relationships entails structurallyparticipatingin a certain model of sexuality. The friendshipbetween Barnwell and his fellow apprentice Trueman,a relationshipabsent fromtheoriginalballad, acts as a model of economic and social interactionas well as emotional intimacy.
Their intense homosocial relationshipillustratesthe principlesof mercantilism which the textconstructsas a systembased on mutuality, rationalityand exchange. Bycontrast, Barnwell's relationshipwiththe prostituteMillwood, exclusivelysexual in nature,structurallyimitatestheworld of speculative investment. Like an investor,or perhaps a stockjobber,Barnwell- driven bydesire and thepower ofhis imagination28 - expends financialresources in anticipationof future sexual profits.
While theirsexual interactionis "real" ifnotwitnessed bytheaudience , Barnwellresiststhequid pro quo inherent in prostitutionby embracing the passions "love" and simultaneously experiencing the memory of past encounters and anticipating futureones. These intangibleifnot imaginarysignifiersare what drive Barnwell,not his "possession" or "purchase" of Millwood's body. Lillo constructsan ad hoc dialectic thatnot onlyignoresthe role of the landed aristocrat displacing some of the negative - associations luxury, - self-indulgence ontoMillwood and thetraditionof Freeman Flaws" complexly "Tragic howthosegeneric details alsorecord shifts a moreprofound inexactly shift thekinds andgendered offinancial herein relationship under discussion.
Obviously, - andespecially culture theworld dependson ofadvertising- arousing thoseemotions precisely inpotential here,and As I am suggesting customers. But his relentlessrepresentation, targeted foran audience primarilycomprised of apprentices, is all the more suggestive for its absolutism; the text works to shore up the precarious image of commercial trade and distance itas faras possible from negative associations with speculative investment.
By screening economy throughsexuality,the textmediates culturalanxietyabout the economic directionof the country,the lingeringafter-shocksof the South Sea Bubble, and the perceived instabilityof masculine sexuality.
Within thetraditionof civichumanism a greatdistinctionexistsbetweenthe "gentleman" andanyeconomic maninvolved incommerce. Thetextnotonlyexcludes the mention ofanymembers ofthegentry oraristocracy exceptwhendisplacing libertine attributesontoMillwood butalso subsumes thediscourse ofcivichumanism intothe mercantile class. Forexample, Thorowgood observes that"Asthe name of merchant never degrades thegentleman, sobynomeansdoesitexclude Hisdaughter, him" I.
The emergence of modemsexuality and,particularly thedistinctionbetween homosexual practiceandhomosexual identityhasbecomeincreasingly importantinthe discussion ofeighteenth-century culture dramatic particularly and the representations formation ofthemodemsubject. He diminishesthe importanceof the profit motive, insisting"I would not have you only learn the method of merchandiseand practiceithereaftermerelyas a means ofgettingwealth" IIl.
Instead, he describes the "dignityof our profession"and highlightsthe virtuesof honest Britishmerchantswho "may sometimes contributeto the safetyof theircountryas theydo at all times to its happiness" Li. Within this idealistic portraitmerchantshonorablypractice fairtrade with the exchange of various goods: "the method of merchandise Commerce is not business- it is "mutual love" and "national intercourse.
This patternof imageryis consistentwiththe representationof business "as a science.
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