Consuming Projects

This chapter demonstrates that the mobilization of private desire for consumption and emulation was taken to new heights during the financial revolution. Patenting activities boomed in the early 1690s. The lapse of the Licensing Act gave rise to a deluge of pamphlets promoting joint-stock companies and public subscription schemes; new periodicals reported and commented on them. Equally important was the language of charity and piety that often intersected with the language of empire. Although forms of projecting became more closely aligned with incipient modern stock markets, the moral ambiguity of projectors continued to loom large. Satirical remarks painting as deceitful businessmen sold well, but often masked complex factors behind business failure. Public consumption of shares, news, rumours, and moralizing remarks became integral parts of the all-consuming market. In Defoe’s ‘Projecting Age’, even efforts at taming capitalism became an integral part of its operation.