Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor: “Bott in Partnership” – Tracking Economic Networks in Receipt Books. Abstract # 14 (random order)

“In 1748, newly widowed Mary Coates took charge of the family dry goods shop in Philadelphia. Although her account books do not survive, the receipt books she and her husband kept from 1740-1770 remain. A receipt book is a description of business; it was not intended to chart profit and loss. But Coates’ book reveals a little-studied phenomenon: groups of shopkeepers who joined together to purchase stock at auctions that they then distributed among themselves to sell at retail in the city. Using digitization to assist in systematic analysis of these bidding partnerships can open up a world of commerce often ignored in the “New History of Capitalism,” with particular implications for the presence of women and gender in that history.”
Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor (University of California; Davis, CA)
Presentation: Oct 23, 3.50 – 4.10 p.m., University of Regensburg, Großer Sitzungssaal des Philosophikums (PT 3.0.79) [PROGRAMME]
Picture credits: By Unknown or not provided (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Kathrin Pindl (October 14, 2015). Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor: “Bott in Partnership” – Tracking Economic Networks in Receipt Books. Abstract # 14 (random order). MEDEA. Retrieved April 19, 2025 from https://medea.hypotheses.org/285