Introduction
That, for which many their Religion,
Most men their Faith, all change their honesty,
Profit, (that guilded god) Commodity.
He that would grow damned Rich, yet live secure,
Must keep a case of Faces.
THOMAS DEKKER, If This Be Not a Good Play,
the Devil's in It(1611)
London newspaper readers were startled in March 1775 to see the first reports of
an extensive forgery. This crime always attracted attention in
eighteenth-century Britain, if for no other reason than that a conviction almost
certainly carried the offender to the gallows. The English financial system at
that time was held up to a great extent by faith in the individual's word. If
that faith was broken—as it was each time forgery was committed—the
authorities felt compelled to punish the transgressor severely.
From the first, this was an unusual case. Two respectabl ... read full excerpt from The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd: Forgery and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century London ebook
