The Charitable Corporation for the Relief of Industrious Poor: Philanthropy, Profit and Sleaze in London, 1707–1733

Abstract

AbstractThe Charitable Corporation's mission was to offer small loans on pledges on fair terms, thereby supplanting as a source of credit those pawnbrokers who were believed to be exploiting the poor. However, it was poorly served by its management, who allowed fraud to run unchecked for many years. Shedding new light on a neglected experiment during Britain's ‘financial revolution’, this article sets out to reconstruct the history of the Corporation from its foundation in 1707 to its disintegration in 1731. On the way, it details the Corporation's original business model, how, in the years following the South Sea Bubble, it attracted investors, its descent into corruption and the fall‐out from its eventual failure. It also explores some larger issues raised by the Corporation. The fact that it was established in the first place seems to imply a surprisingly lenient attitude to individual responsibility and financial risk in the eighteenth century. Questions of responsibility also dominated debates after the Corporation's fall, as parliament and the courts grappled with the difficulties of pinning down the point where negligence becomes a breach of trust. Furthermore, as it was not only a charity but also a business whose shareholders were expecting healthy dividends, it opens up questions of the proper relationship between charity and self‐interest.