The Interconnected Nature of Family Indebtedness: The Halliday Family of Frome, Somerset (1733–1752)
本文通过分析一个持续十年的破产诉讼案，揭示家庭内部债务关系的复杂性，强调女性在商业交易和信用经济中的作用，对研究家庭网络负面影响的学者有参考价值。
This article analyzes a single bankruptcy case— Hancock v Halliday (1742–1752)—as it was litigated in the Court of Chancery across a ten-year period. By incorporating local sources, the work attempts to move away from assumptions surrounding the “implicit contract” of family, and to provide a more nuanced analysis of “family strategies” in action. I argue that business historians—looking at networks—and economic and social historians—analyzing the use and implementation of credit—should continue to explore the divisions within families, which will help to reemphasize the role of women within business transactions and the wider credit-based economy. Ultimately, this article makes a significant contribution to the burgeoning scholarship on the negative aspects of familial networks of credit and debt, demonstrating how the complex and multifaceted nature of family indebtedness has been overlooked, and misunderstood, in the existing literature.