Corruption and the Ethical Standards of British Public Life

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Moore
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Public Life ◽  
British Society ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Municipal Level

This chapter goes deeper into a period that is often seen as one in which early modern “old corruption” was finally eliminated in Britain: namely, the period from 1880–1914. It argues that anticorruption measures and developments have often been held to account for this change. This chapter then changes perspective and, based on the author’s own analysis of local politics, makes clear that at the local and municipal level corruption remained a problem in Britain, thereby strengthening the argument that the effectiveness of certain ambitious anticorruption laws and the “end of corruption” in modern British society depends very much on one’s perspective.

The Artist-Philosopher

2020 ◽  
pp. 44-77
Author(s):  
Kate Fullagar
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Samuel Johnson ◽  
British Society ◽  
Edmund Burke ◽  
Domestic Life ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Close Friendships ◽  
The World

Chapter 2, much like Chapter 1, traces the first several decades of an eighteenth-century life, dwelling on what childhood can reveal about a whole society; when lives might be said to begin in a given culture; and how the protagonist moved within his world to reach mid-life. Its focus is the artist--philosopher Joshua Reynolds. Reynolds’s life embodies a deep conflict in British society of the time—the conflict over empire. We see Reynolds’s character develop gradually as both conservatively sceptical about Britain’s recent expansionist thrust into the world and keenly eager to make the most of all that imperial commerce was now bringing into his native country. Reynolds’s ambivalence is also reflected in his art theories, local politics, and even domestic life. While narrating his rise to artistic pre-eminence (and a philosophical devotion to neoclassical aesthetics), the chapter also shows how Reynolds built increasingly close friendships to key male literary figures of the time—especially Samuel Johnson and Edmund Burke. Through his connection to the Tory Johnson and the Whiggish Burke, we get a glimpse into Reynolds’s otherwise elusive, hard-to-read political views—especially during Britain’s greatest imperial push to date, the Seven Years War.

Officeholding and Local Politics in Early Modern Wales: A Study of the Salesburys of Rhug and Bachymbyd, c. 1536–1621

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadie Jarrett
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Status

Officeholding was a defining ascpect of early modern Welsh gentility and was more prominent in upholding the status and authority of the Welsh gentry than it was for their English counterparts. Using a case study of the Salesburys of Rhug and Bachymbyd, this article analyses the importance of officeholding to the Welsh gentry after the Acts of Union (1536 and 1543). It finds that the Salesburys were effective local administrators who understood how to use officeholding to enhance their status in their community. At the same time, the family were not isolated in the localities and they continually engaged with the agents of central government.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Lecky
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
British Society ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Public Markets ◽  
Modern Britain ◽  
Cheap Print ◽  
Modern Nation State

The Introduction argues that in early modern Britain maps of sovereign power jostled against geographies of mundane resistance in ways that could marginalize bastions of social control. This spatial incongruity sprang from the practice of everyday life, through which consumers appropriated informational media in opportunistic ways. This chapter sets the scene for the rest of the book by showing that laureate poetry by writers such as Jonson and Spenser circulated alongside pocket maps and other forms of cheap print in public markets. Together, these texts inspired new paradigms of collectivity for a British society on the cusp of transitioning into a modern nation-state.

The Devshirme System and the Levied Children of Bursa in 1603-4

Belleten ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 79 (286) ◽  
pp. 901-930
Author(s):  
Gülay Yılmaz
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Local Level ◽  
System Function ◽  
Court Records

This paper addresses two main questions in regards to the devshirme system: how did the devshirme system function at a local level and how were local politics triggered by the levy; and what were the experiences of the children who were levied. Utilizing a unique register called sürü defter that lists children who were levied in 1603-4, the system is traced in the region of Bursa in 1603-4. The mühimme defters and court records from Bursa are also referenced. Besides examining the bureaucratic implications of carrying out the devshirme, one of the important questions addressed is what did it mean to be a Christian child in the early modern Ottoman world. Issues such as who these children were, how they were selected as devshirmes, and how they reacted to being selected or not, are considered here. The paper shows that reactions to the child-levy by the families and children involved varied across a spectrum - from resistance to desirability. This paper also looks at where these children were selected, their age, appearance, and health as registered in the documents, as well as what happened to them after their arrival in the capital, Istanbul. We also learn that locally powerful figures in Bursa such as landlords, voyvodas, kadıs, subasıs, formed groups to lobby the levy officers in order to influence their decisions.

Who Stood to Gain from Colonialism? A Case Study of Early Modern European Colonialism in the Caribbean

Itinerario ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-154
Author(s):  
Klas Rönnbäck
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
British Society ◽  
Decisive Effect ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
European Colonialism ◽  
British Colonies

Both Adam Smith and Karl Marx considered British colonies to be a net burden on British society. Ever since the issue has been a controversial one and has received a great deal of attention from scholars, not least thanks to the publication of Eric Williams's book “Capitalism and Slavery”. To a large extent the debate has been concerned with the issue of whether the profits from colonialism were large enough to have a decisive effect upon, or at least contribute to, the industrialisation of Britain and/or other countries in Europe.

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