HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-02-10T09:02:04.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: The CRASH that bankrupted Britain | Everything you wanted to know about the South Sea Bubble
items: What centuries of cost-of-living crises can reveal
items: Regency inequality: the gap between rich and poor in Georgian Britain
items: Inside debtors’ prisons: what life was like for people jailed in Georgian Britain
items: Pineapples, tulips and follies: 10 status symbols from history
items: Howard Hughes: the troubled tycoon
items: The South Sea Bubble: when was it formed and what happened?
items: Debtors’ prisons: Dickensian horrors or economic successes?
items: The Bank of England: everything you wanted to know
items: What can one woman reveal about Jewish life in medieval England?

The CRASH that bankrupted Britain | Everything you wanted to know about the South Sea Bubble
type: item
date: 2026-02-10T09:01:44.000Z
creator: Ellie Cawthorne
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Money
description: In 1720, would-be speculators were in a frenzy over an irresistible new investment opportunity
encoded: In 1720, everyone from bankers and barons to ordinary housewives rushed to buy South Sea Company stock, sold on the idea that this was a get-rich-quick scheme that couldn’t go wrong. But, before long, the bubble burst. In this episode of History’s Greatest Scandals, Professor Hannah Greig and Ellie Cawthorne uncover a story of greed, risk and delusion in the world’s first major financial crash. Watch the full episode, or listen ad-free at the link below: View Green Video on the source website

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What centuries of cost-of-living crises can reveal
type: item
date: 2024-01-30T07:29:23.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Money
description: As prices have soared in recent months, living costs have outstripped many incomes in the UK. But as Victoria Bateman explains, this is not a new state of affairs
encoded: Life seems less affordable with each passing month. Over the past two years, energy prices in the UK have risen faster than at any time since 1973. The last time food seemed this expensive was in 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis. With the cost of everyday items having risen faster than wages for the past couple of years, families are facing the largest two-year fall in living standards since records began. One in 14 households in the UK have used emergency food aid in the past year and, globally, 51 million people have been plunged into extreme poverty as a result of the rising cost of living. Having come to assume that living standards would rise year on year, and having boasted confidently that economic policy would prevent a repeat of the inflation of the 1970s, economists are learning to be more humble. While the cost-of-living crisis might now be starting to ease, history still warns against hubris. Until the 20th century, rising food prices caused by factors including harvest failure, trade disruption and war frequently sparked riots. In the middle of 1347, for example, Bordeaux wine merchant William Casse had just finished loading his ship with grain in Bristol ready for his return trip to France when a crowd “carried the grain away”. Exports of wheat to support Edward III’s siege of Calais at a time of harvest failure at home also led to altercations in Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Kent, prompting what would become a common policy response to rising food prices: a ban on food exports. As feudalism gave way to market forces, buying and selling rapidly became common. Whenever prices became unaffordable, market forces and morality came into conflict, with a distinction made between the ‘market price’ and the ‘just price’. In periods of hunger, a droit de subsistence – the law of necessity – took precedence over private property rights, with those in need seeing it as their right to seize food and force its sale at rates below the market price. Ra…

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Regency inequality: the gap between rich and poor in Georgian Britain
type: item
date: 2024-01-08T09:00:48.000Z
creator: Dr Ian Mortimer
subject: Georgian
subject: Industrial revolution
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: HEx Academy Regency Course
subject: HistoryExtra Academy
subject: Money
description: Never was the chasm between rich and poor more stark than in the Regency era. Ian Mortimer chronicles a period in which the wealthiest gorged themselves on the fruits of Britain’s industrial might, while the working classes endured lives that were often nasty, brutish and short
encoded: Listen to this article: Every historical age sees extraordinary inequalities of wealth. Whether we are talking about ancient Rome or 20th-century Britain, the pattern is commonly described as a pyramid, with a small number of exceedingly rich individuals at the apex and a large number of poor people at the base. As we all know, the differences between the top and the bottom are extreme – to the extent that some of the super-wealthy have incomes more than a thousand times greater than the national average. But what about the variance in their basic standards of living? Aside from the glitz and the glamour, are the lifestyles of the rich and poor always poles apart? You might assume that the only possible answer to that question is yes. Peasants and slaves never live like lords and kings. But consider it in terms of life expectancy. In the Middle Ages, a lord’s sons and daughters could expect to live into their mid-thirties and the peasantry about five years less, so the poor lived around 85 per cent as long as the rich. The modern world is only a little more equal: children growing up today in the most deprived areas of Britain can expect to live between 85 per cent and 90 per cent as long as those in the least-deprived areas. It looks as if that proportion is more or less a constant. But one period stands out as different: the early 19th century. In the 1830s, middle-class Londoners could expect to live to 44 but working-class ones only 22, just 50 per cent as long. Working-class people in towns like Liverpool, Preston and Manchester were lucky if they reached 19, at a time when average life expectancy from birth in the UK was more than 40. In the unsewered streets of Ashton-under-Lyne, artisans’ life expectancy at birth was just 13, less than a third of that of their more prosperous fellow citizens. Listen | Historian Ian Mortimer discusses how a vast chasm between rich and poor marked society in the early 19th century Extremes of opulence Why was the early 19th ce…

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Inside debtors’ prisons: what life was like for people jailed in Georgian Britain
type: item
date: 2023-05-09T06:12:06.000Z
creator: Alexander Wakelam
subject: Georgian
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Money
description: Debtors’ prisons inflicted untold misery on families in the 18th and 19th centuries, with people facing unlimited imprisonment if they could not pay off their arrears. Yet England’s credit-fuelled economy would have ground to a halt without them. Alexander Wakelam explores their history and the lives of some of the people behind bars – including the father of Charles Dickens
encoded: In May 1728, the 36-year-old trumpet player John Grano discovered his luck had finally run out. Grano’s debts had been piling up for weeks. Business had not been good of late but his spending on fine clothes and finer wines had not slowed. By Thursday 30th his creditors had finally had enough of Grano’s empty promises and applied to the court for his arrest. He was seized by a bailiff in the street and instructed to pay up or face the consequences of his spending. Grano was not panicked – this was hardly the first time he had faced his creditors’ threats. However, this time there was no deal to be done, no new extension to be found and, as he wrote in his diary that night, no “brother, relation or friend came nigh me” to bail him out. Unable to pay, Grano was taken to “this Hell between 7&8 at night” – the Marshalsea debtors’ prison. Read more | Timeline: a history of prisons in Britain The debtors’ prison was not a distant threat in 18th-century England but a feature of everyday life. Almost every town had a jail, and some maintained several – when Grano was arrested, at least 15 were operating in London. Prisons stood on bridges, on the edges of marketplaces, and in the middle of fashionable high streets. Many castles in Britain were converted into jails, meaning that in the countryside, debtors’ prisons dominated the landscape for miles around. While some were grim dungeons, others were built in opulent style, looking more like palaces than prisons. York’s debtors’ prison – the only purpose-built jail still standing today – cost the town more than £8,000 in 1705 and its fabulous baroque styling ensured it quickly joined the medieval walls and cathedral on the city’s burgeoning tourist trail. Visiting shortly after it opened, the spy and travel writer John Macky described it as “by much the finest, as well as the pleasantest [prison] in England”. What were debtors’ prisons? Debtors’ prisons were not just an abstract reminder to look after your money, but a functio…

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Pineapples, tulips and follies: 10 status symbols from history
type: item
date: 2023-01-06T11:28:42.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Money
description: From flowers to follies, Nige Tassell looks at the bizarre array of items that the rich and powerful have used to flaunt their wealth in times gone by
encoded: Pineapples It might now be a staple of every supermarket on every high street, but once upon a time, the pineapple was a symbol of exoticism and exclusivity. This was initially down to Charles II, who used pineapples to emphasise his military, political and economic power. In 1668, Britain and France were at loggerheads over control of the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts. The king entertained the French ambassador over dinner, the highlight of which was a pyramid of fruit, topped by a pineapple. The fruit had only recently appeared on British shores and its inclusion at the dinner was at Charles’s behest. He had ordered that one be imported from the colony of Barbados and proceeded to use it as a visual display of Britain’s global prominence to France and its representative that evening. Charles referred to it as ‘King Pine’. The well-to-do quarters of British society would later replicate the king’s admiration for pineapples and, during the Georgian era, enterprising individuals began to grow the fruit despite Britain’s inclement climate. Those that were successfully cultivated came with a sizeable price tag – in the region of £60, around £11,000 in today’s money. To merely eat such a prized commodity would have been too decadent. Instead, those who owned a pineapple refused to cut into it, preferring to show it off at a succession of social gatherings until it had rotted beyond recognition. Pineapple owners were also known to carry their fruit around as they went about their day to indicate their status, a practice that prompted the arrival of pineapple thieves. Wigs The wearing of eye-catching, status-defining wigs has been a near-constant feature of various societies since classical times. In ancient Egypt, a person’s social class was easily identified by what material was used in the manufacture of the hairpiece. Those from the upper echelons of Egyptian society wore wigs made from human hair, while those worn by lower standing citizens were created from wool o…

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Howard Hughes: the troubled tycoon
type: item
date: 2022-12-24T10:05:57.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
subject: Money
description: Every venture the American business magnate undertook was big – from his blockbuster movies to the planes he constructed. But how did Hughes go from rubbing shoulders with the stars to living a life of seclusion?
encoded: With the death of his father in 1924 and just two years after his mother’s passing, Howard Robard Hughes Jr took over a million-dollar business at barely 18 years old. He was studying engineering and not overly enthused to run a company manufacturing drill bits for the oil industry. But he was keen to make the most of his fortune and freedom. Buying out his relatives’ shares and putting savvy businessman Noah Dietrich in charge of day-to-day dealings, the young Hughes set off to pursue his passions: movies and planes. In 1925, he moved with his new wife Ella Botts Rice from his home state of Texas to be a filmmaker in Hollywood. Since money was no object, he immediately delivered a string of hits as a producer, including the Oscar-winning comedy Two Arabian Knights, before starting work on Hell’s Angels, a World War I epic featuring a huge fleet of aircraft in stunning dogfighting sequences. An aerial obsession It would be his magnum opus, albeit a troubled one. A compulsive need for perfection over every miniscule detail cost him over $3m and three years on production, while the dangerous aerial stunts cost several lives. When finally released in 1930, the movie had been re-shot from a silent to a talking picture; the leading lady replaced; and two directors had given up, with Hughes himself taking the reins. Still, it was a blockbuster smash. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2022/11/GettyImages515171538-89f9d7f-e1669283213560.jpg" width="411" height="619" alt="Hughes's first wife, Ella Botts Rice, divorced Howard after becoming increasingly tired of his playboy lifestyle (Picture by GettyImages)" title="Hughes's first wife, Ella Botts Rice, divorced Howard after becoming increasingly tired of his playboy lifestyle (Picture by GettyImages)" /> From a shy loner as a child struggling with partial deafness, Hughes became the talk of Hollywood, famed as an opulent spender – not content with one suit or car, he would buy dozens at onc…

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The South Sea Bubble: when was it formed and what happened?
type: item
date: 2022-12-20T06:06:52.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: Georgian
subject: Period
subject: Money
description: When was the South Sea Bubble formed, and how successful was it? Jonny Wilkes explains the history...
encoded: What was the South Sea Bubble? The South Sea Bubble was a period of speculation frenzy and collapse on the British stock market, revolving around the fate of a single company. For years, the South Sea Company had been at the centre of a complex and tangled web of financial manoeuvrings; deliberately obfuscated dealings around selling shares and government debt; the exploitation of publicity and hype to inflate stock prices; as well as bribery, corruption and the slave trade. It worked for a while and stock prices skyrocketed in 1720, until the bubble burst. Investors were ruined and an inquiry had to be held. While the South Sea Bubble went down in history as the cause of a total financial crash, that wasn’t actually the case: it certainly had its losers, but it had its winners, too. What was the state of Britain's finances before the Bubble? The Bank of England formed 26 years earlier had grown into a powerful institution as the sole lender to the government. It was, however, controlled by one of the two main political parties, the Whigs, so when Robert Harley became the new Tory chancellor of the Exchequer in 1710, he looked for other means of making money. With Britain engaged in expensive wars and the government debt at around £9m, funds were preciously needed. Harley gave the job of organising the Bank of England’s lotteries to John Blunt, the less-than scrupulous director of an unofficial bank (and sword manufacturer) called the Hollow Sword Blades Company. While the ironically named Blunt had great success selling lottery tickets, the two men devised a grander scheme to make serious money. That’s where the South Sea Company came in. So, what was the South Sea Company? It formed in 1711 with the purpose of consolidating the government’s debt. In return for taking on and paying off this debt, the company would be granted a monopoly on trade between Britain and Spain (particularly the sale of slaves) in the ‘South Seas’ around South America. This idea had a majo…

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Debtors’ prisons: Dickensian horrors or economic successes?
type: item
date: 2022-11-30T09:41:30.000Z
creator: Alexander Wakelam
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Money
description: How did locking up debtors force them to pay their creditors? Alexander Wakelam reveals how the debtors’ prisons of Georgian society operated
encoded: Debtors’ prisons were a major feature of Georgian society in England and Wales. But how did the idea of locking up debtors to make them pay their creditors actually work in reality? Dr Alexander Wakelam explains to David Musgrove why, and how, the system worked.

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The Bank of England: everything you wanted to know
type: item
date: 2022-10-16T08:30:57.000Z
creator: Rob Attar
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Everything you wanted to know about history (podcast series)
subject: Money
description: As the Bank of England continues to hit the headlines in the UK, Professor Anne Murphy guides us through the 300-year history of one of Britain’s most important institutions
encoded: Why was the Bank of England created? Did it power the Industrial Revolution? And when did it become known as the “Old Lady”? As the Bank continues to hit the headlines in the UK, Professor Anne Murphy guides us through the 300-year history of one of Britain’s most important institutions.

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What can one woman reveal about Jewish life in medieval England?
type: item
date: 2022-09-29T08:20:27.000Z
creator: Emily Briffett
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Medieval life
subject: Money
description: Miri Rubin, Dean Irwin and Toni Griffiths examine what the extraordinary life story of Licoricia of Winchester can reveal about the experiences of Jews in medieval England
encoded: What can the life of one woman reveal about the experience of Jews in medieval England? Following the unveiling of a statue of Licoricia of Winchester earlier this year, Professor Miri Rubin, Dr Dean Irwin and Dr Toni Griffiths piece together the story of this powerful Jewish businesswoman who was at the heart of medieval England’s financial affairs. Speaking to Emily Briffett, they reveal what Licoricia’s extraordinary story can tell us about religious coexistence in the Middle Ages.

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