‘I promise to pay the bearer’: connecting present and past via a microhistorical examination of an 18th century banker’s diary

Abstract

ABSTRACT The detailed methods and intense scrutiny of microhistorians have much to offer management and organization scholars and historians. However, traditional applications have placed certain limitations both on how widely applicable they can be and how they can be related to current preoccupations. This paper introduces the concept of a ‘back bearing’ which is designed to enhance the utility of microhistory in management and organization history in two ways. First, it offers a way of extending any period under review, linking the synchronic to the diachronic by locating a historical source which falls under a line traced backward from contemporary research. This opens up a wider range of historical periods for consideration while at the same time providing a method for justifying what is legitimately relevant. Second, by remaining true to the microhistorians’ focus on detailed scrutiny of individual sources otherwise left on the margins of history, it enables richer theoretical development linking past to present through the lives of individuals. In this case, a line taken from the study of 20th century banking practices back to the diary of an 18th century Edinburgh banker foregrounds what really matters to a banker who is quite literally under fire.