Counterfeiting Empire: Money, Crime, and Politics in the British Atlantic World

Descrizione del progetto

Smascherare l'economia sommersa

La contraffazione, un crimine pervasivo nel mondo atlantico britannico del XVIII secolo, si è riverberata ben oltre le sue immediate conseguenze economiche. Questa pratica illecita ha lasciato un'impronta duratura sullo sviluppo del mercato, sulle culture del denaro e sull'autorità imperiale. Con il sostegno del programma azioni Marie Skłodowska-Curie, il progetto COINE si presenta come un'impresa innovativa. Esso combina diversi metodi storici e analisi interdisciplinari per scoprire le intricate dinamiche tra criminalità, sviluppo economico ed evoluzione del denaro. Tracciando i movimenti dei falsari attraverso una meticolosa ricerca d'archivio, COINE cerca di rimodellare le prospettive degli studiosi su crimine, denaro e politica imperiale, promuovendo al contempo la collaborazione internazionale e rafforzando i legami accademici.

Obiettivo

COINE will provide the first comprehensive history of counterfeiting as an imperial crime, demonstrating that it had wide-ranging implications for market development, cultures of money and the market, and imperial authority in the eighteenth-century British Atlantic world. Combining methods from social, cultural, and political history with analysis of material and visual culture, COINE engages with interdisciplinary issues, including the dynamics between crime and economic development; the relationship of money to the state; and the evolution of money in the modern world. To accomplish COINE’s objectives, the Experienced Researcher (ER) will complete six months of field work in British archives, collecting data on British-based counterfeiting networks which will be assembled into a relational database and integrated into the ER’s existing database on counterfeiters operating in the British colonies. This data will allow the ER to accurately trace, for the first time, the movements of counterfeiters and their extensive networks in the British Atlantic world. Based at University of Birmingham (UoB) and benefiting from the expertise of the Supervisor and the Birmingham Eighteenth-Century Center, the ER will produce a monograph, Counterfeiting Empire, on money, crime, and politics in the eighteenth century. The results will also be disseminated in a single-authored article and conference presentations. COINE is thus designed to allow the ER to access critical archives, complete data analysis and writing that will be enriched by the intellectual community at UoB, and disseminate results that will change how scholars think about crime, money, and imperial politics. The ER will bring her expertise on the emerging field of the history of money to the UoB and help the institution strengthen ties with American researchers. COINE’s work programme will also augment the ER’s international research profile and position to obtain a permanent academic position.