Yesterday’s piece on the 1797 Restriction Act spoke to some of the action going on in my new book for Dragonblade Publishing, Lyon’s Obsession. It will available in 8 days, arriving 17 September 2025. We spoke of the ease with which people could forge bank notes. Today, let us look at other problems with the United Kingdom’s banking system at the beginning of the Regency Period. It was truly a mess.
The uttering of forged bank notes was quite common at the beginning of the Regency era, left over from earlier parts of the Georgian era. Shopkeepers were smack dab in the middle of this madness, especially in the larger cities. London was prime territory for forgers and utters, for a shopkeeper in a small village is likely to know something of each of his customers, but that could not be true for those in the larger towns and cities. These shopkeepers could face prosecution for accepting counterfeit banknotes, but they depended on sales for survival. Could they turn away business? Not accept the bank notes when it might be legitimate?
There is an excellent article called “Taking Money from Strangers: Traders’ Responses to Banknotes and the Risks of Forgery in Late Georgian London” on Journal of British Studies.
“This article suggests that traders relied on a series of techniques that in previous experience usually worked: examining banknotes and those strangers who presented them with care, relying on the expertise of neighbors and members of their household, and dealing by preference with individuals who appeared to be linked to their local community. These behaviors demonstrate that ‘modernity’ might have affected the lives and outlooks of ordinary Londoners in unexpected and contradictory ways, some strongly linked to older forms of society.”
Martin Hedges, the author from the book above, wrote on “Two Nerdy History Girls,” in 2016, making a simple explanation. I have chosen to quote him rather than to summarize his thoughts, by giving him credit HERE: “In medieval times there was a great temptation to ‘coin’ money, chip bits off gold and silver coins. Since the 18th century paper currency and paper documents that were as good as money filled the void that coins could not – the means of exchange had effectively been privatised. Forgers stepped into a niche in the ecosystem – as the act of forgery on paper was so much easier than the act of making metal coins. The law was both vague to define the crime and lax to punish. Just after the Napoleonic War the Bank of England was told that “Bank of England note plates are more easily imitated than common engraved shop bills because they are of inferior execution; an apprentice to a writing engraver of two years standing, by three or four days work, is able to copy a Bank-note plate so that good judges cannot tell the genuine from the spurious.” (The Times Nov 15 1817).
“This was something the state could not tolerate. The paper exchange relied on utmost good faith in the legitimacy of the promise. Checking was often all but impossible. In England, notes issued by country banks did not travel far from the town where they were drawn up. They were treated as good by the simple expedient that someone recognised the handwriting of the banker who wrote them. But with the way that English cities were growing during the early Industrial Revolution that was less likely to work in a metropolis. And as selling to the world expanded nor was it safe for international dealing.
If you would like to know more of those who forged bank notes, see my post from my personal blog, Every Woman Dreams, for yesterday.
“The practicalities of payment across an ocean were almost un-policeable. When you received in Virginia a bill of exchange from a reputable London bank for £100 as payment for your tobacco and you took it to a correspondent banker in, say, Philadelphia, representing the London bank you and the Philadelphia bank both expected the bill to be eventually honoured in full. These documents were negotiable and as such were often endorsed and passed on. The tobacco farmer got the £100 less a small discount from whoever he passed it to and the new holder of the bill would use the bill like money to pay his debts and so on. “The Bank of England underwrote the issuing bank’s credit and all was right with the world.
“But this relied on everyone in the chain believing in the validity of the paper-based credit system and in the paper itself. A return journey to and from London to confirm that the paper was good might take three months.”
Lyon’s Obsession: The Lyon’s Den Connected World
Short on temper. Long on pride. True to his word.
Lady Theodora Duncan, daughter and only child of Lord Macdonald Duncan, reluctantly embarks on a London season in hopes of making a suitable match. She had always thought she would marry Lord Alexander Dutton, 12th Earl Marksman. After all, they had been raised together in her father’s house since Duncan became Marksman’s guardian when his lordship was but twelve. Her father’s estate marches along with Marksman’s, and they had shared multiple words of devotion, as well as stolen moments and heated kisses. Yet…
Lord Alexander Dutton always planned to marry Lady Theodora Duncan, but not until he finds his family. His father, long before Robert Dutton became the heir to the Marksman’s peerage, had sold Alexander’s mother and younger sister to the captain of a sailing ship. Alexander has searched for them for some ten years, spending thousands of the Marksman fortune in his desire to reclaim them. He cannot think truly to know happiness until he can share his title and his wealth with them. Assuredly, Theodora understands why he has not made an offer of marriage. Yet, if she does, then why does he constantly find her on the arm of a Sardinian count? He never expected Theodora’s abandonment, but Alexander is finally so close to knowing his real family again.
Must he risk one dream to know another?
Tropes you’ll love:
✔️ Friends to lovers
✔️ Soul mates
✔️ Secret identity
✔️ Fish out of water
✔️ Unrequited love
✔️ Dark secret
✔️ Emotional scars
✔️ Marriage pact
✔️ Innocent cohabitation
✔️ Love interest vs. Missing family
✔️ Honorable marriage
✔️ Marriage pact
✔️ Emotional scars
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