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Errors expected: the culture of credit in rural New England, 1750–1800

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  • DANIEL VICKERS

Abstract

This article uses farm diaries from eighteenth‐century New England recast as account books in order to describe more accurately the rules of exchange and the culture of credit that prevailed in early America. This culture, which was post‐medieval yet pre‐modern, derived its fundamental characteristics from the fact that it connected participants who dealt with one another as formal equals before the law. It employed strategies inside and outside the market, and, rather than embracing or rejecting commercial activity, aimed to use whatever means necessary to achieve for householders the goal of comfortable independence.

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  • Daniel Vickers, 2010. "Errors expected: the culture of credit in rural New England, 1750–1800," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 63(4), pages 1032-1057, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:63:y:2010:i:4:p:1032-1057
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00531.x
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    1. Rothenberg, Winifred Barr, 1992. "From Market-Places to a Market Economy," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226729534, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Stephens, Holly & Assistant, JHET, 2020. "Rice Cycles and Price Cycles: Local Knowledge and Global Trade in Korea, 1870—1933," OSF Preprints 6hfqa, Center for Open Science.

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