Nesta Selwyn

Women Who Made Money: Women Partners in British Private Banks 1752-1906 Nesta Selwyn

This is not a usual kind of book about banking or bankers. The authors were interested in the lives of women who joined in partnership banking. These women began working in what had been a male preserve before ideas of feminism and women's rights had suggested this as a possibility. They were feminists before feminism existed! Responsibility as partners in banks did not absolve them from their duties as wives and mothers. So we hear about domestic matters - childbirth, sickness, dinner services, furniture, watercolour painting and riding accidents. There is also a background of links with commerce and business which made the British economy so vibrant and dynamic at this formative time. The banking industry grew and developed in response to the needs of enterprise in shipping, textile manufacture, mining, engineering and general commerce. In short, these bankers created the art of multi-tasking. The banks and bankers described here came from different backgrounds within the parameters of comfortable middle-class families, rooted in local communities and enterprises. This book is full of banking history and characters and mercifully light on references to subprime lending, liquidity ratios, securitisation, or even bonuses. This is an excellent time for it.