Bloodsuckers of the Commonwealth - (Politics, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain) by Ellen Paterson (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book examines anti-monopoly petitioning activity in England between 1590-1625. It reveals that the growth of monopolies and issuing of new charters was an integral issue triggering subjects to engage in politics. It adds a new dimension to scholarly understandings of popular political culture at the turn of the century.

Book Synopsis

This book offers the first in-depth analysis of anti-monopoly petitioning in late-Elizabethan and Jacobean England. Drawing on a range of manuscript petitions, it reveals the centrality of the issues of monopoly and corporatism for the politicisation of a range of subjects between 1590-1625. Both Elizabeth I and James I liberally granted monopolies and charters as a fiscal device. Petitioning emerged as the main way through which subjects protested these intrusions on their trades and livelihoods. Whilst this activity occurred throughout the realm, it was especially pronounced in the city of London. Members of London's livery companies, bodies which held exclusive rights to trade, petitioned for and against monopolies and charters. Bloodsuckers of the Commonwealth offers a fresh perspective on political culture in this well-studied period by arguing that economic policies generated conflicts, contests, and participation in a nascent public sphere.

From the Back Cover

Bloodsuckers of the Commonwealth offers the first in-depth analysis of anti-monopoly petitioning in early modern England. It reveals the centrality of patents of monopoly to the politicisation of subjects at the turn of the seventeenth century.

Studies of the political culture of this period have often focused on constitutional conflicts, religious divisions, or the moral dimensions of the Court. This book offers a significant perspective on these well-studied years by showing that monopoly and corporatism were key issues driving participation in a nascent public sphere between 1590 and 1625. Elizabeth I and James I liberally granted letters, patents, and charters to courtiers and companies. Petitioning emerged as the main device through which many subjects protested these intrusions on their trades and livelihoods to local authorities, Parliament, the Council, and the Crown. Others launched campaigns for charters to advance their interests.

This book draws on an extensive body of manuscript petitions to analyse the mechanics, rhetoric, and consequences of anti-monopoly petitioning in early modern England, with a particular focus on campaigns in the metropolis. Members of London's livery companies, bodies which held their own exclusive rights to trade, were key petitioners against monopolies and charters which threatened their interests. Bloodsuckers of the Commonwealth paints a lively picture of the alliances, negotiations, and contests triggered by monopolies. It offers an essential study of the themes of monopoly, popular politics, and court and city relations in tandem to show the ways in which monopoly and corporatism triggered participation in the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.

About the Author

Ellen Paterson is CMRS Career Development Fellow in Early Modern History at Keble College, University of Oxford