WOMEN INVESTORS AND THE VIRGINIA COMPANY IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Abstract This article explores the role of women investors in the Virginia Company during the early seventeenth century, arguing that women determined the success of English overseas expansion by ‘adventuring’ not just their person, but their purse. Trading companies relied on the capital of women,...
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2019
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x19000037 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0018246X19000037 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0018246x19000037 2024-03-03T08:46:44+00:00 WOMEN INVESTORS AND THE VIRGINIA COMPANY IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY EWEN, MISHA 2019 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x19000037 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0018246X19000037 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms The Historical Journal volume 62, issue 4, page 853-874 ISSN 0018-246X 1469-5103 History journal-article 2019 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x19000037 2024-02-08T08:47:26Z Abstract This article explores the role of women investors in the Virginia Company during the early seventeenth century, arguing that women determined the success of English overseas expansion by ‘adventuring’ not just their person, but their purse. Trading companies relied on the capital of women, and yet in seminal work on Virginia Company investors women have received no attention at all. This is a significant oversight, as studying the women who invested in trading companies illuminates broader issues regarding the role of women in the early English empire. This article explores why and how two women from merchant backgrounds, Rebecca Romney (d. 1644) and Katherine Hueriblock (d. 1639), managed diverse, global investment portfolios in the period before the Financial Revolution. Through company records, wills, letters, court depositions, and a surviving church memorial tablet, it reconstructs Romney's and Hueriblock's interconnected interests in ‘New World’ ventures, including in Newfoundland, the North-West Passage Company, Virginia colony, and sugar trade. Studying women investors reveals how trade and colonization shaped economic activity and investment practices in the domestic sphere and also elucidates how women, in their role as investors, helped give birth to an English empire. Article in Journal/Newspaper Newfoundland North West Passage Cambridge University Press The Historical Journal 62 4 853 874 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
topic |
History |
spellingShingle |
History EWEN, MISHA WOMEN INVESTORS AND THE VIRGINIA COMPANY IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY |
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History |
description |
Abstract This article explores the role of women investors in the Virginia Company during the early seventeenth century, arguing that women determined the success of English overseas expansion by ‘adventuring’ not just their person, but their purse. Trading companies relied on the capital of women, and yet in seminal work on Virginia Company investors women have received no attention at all. This is a significant oversight, as studying the women who invested in trading companies illuminates broader issues regarding the role of women in the early English empire. This article explores why and how two women from merchant backgrounds, Rebecca Romney (d. 1644) and Katherine Hueriblock (d. 1639), managed diverse, global investment portfolios in the period before the Financial Revolution. Through company records, wills, letters, court depositions, and a surviving church memorial tablet, it reconstructs Romney's and Hueriblock's interconnected interests in ‘New World’ ventures, including in Newfoundland, the North-West Passage Company, Virginia colony, and sugar trade. Studying women investors reveals how trade and colonization shaped economic activity and investment practices in the domestic sphere and also elucidates how women, in their role as investors, helped give birth to an English empire. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
EWEN, MISHA |
author_facet |
EWEN, MISHA |
author_sort |
EWEN, MISHA |
title |
WOMEN INVESTORS AND THE VIRGINIA COMPANY IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY |
title_short |
WOMEN INVESTORS AND THE VIRGINIA COMPANY IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY |
title_full |
WOMEN INVESTORS AND THE VIRGINIA COMPANY IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY |
title_fullStr |
WOMEN INVESTORS AND THE VIRGINIA COMPANY IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY |
title_full_unstemmed |
WOMEN INVESTORS AND THE VIRGINIA COMPANY IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY |
title_sort |
women investors and the virginia company in the early seventeenth century |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x19000037 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0018246X19000037 |
genre |
Newfoundland North West Passage |
genre_facet |
Newfoundland North West Passage |
op_source |
The Historical Journal volume 62, issue 4, page 853-874 ISSN 0018-246X 1469-5103 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x19000037 |
container_title |
The Historical Journal |
container_volume |
62 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
853 |
op_container_end_page |
874 |
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1792502787394764800 |