‘Trade is the Life of the Nation’: Economics in the petitions of Elinor James (1681–1716)
Dr Rosalind Johnson, Visiting Research Fellow, University of Winchester, presented a paper on the petitions of seventeenth-century businesswoman Elinor James at the WESWWHN Annual Conference on Women and Money: A Historical Perspective in 2022. In this blog, she explores the content and motivation behind James’s appeals to monarchs, politicians and alderman. Elinor James (née Banckes, c.1645–1719), petitioner and printer, authored some ninety known printed papers during the period 1681–1716, addressed to six monarchs, both houses of parliament, and the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the City of London. Her petitions discussed matters concerning trade, religion, the monarchy, and other aspects of current politics, and her activities in promoting her causes ensured she was well-known to her contemporaries. Many of James’s petitions referenced finance, both in trade and in household economics, and her concern is evident in these for the economic situation of those whom she saw as affected b