Kenneth O. Elvik, Editor
IOWA STATE UNlVERSlTY
Reviewed by John Freear University of Kent at Canterbury
Bankes and Kerridge have performed a useful service in making available to a wider readership the early records of the Bankes family. The volume comprises transcriptions of the memosanda book (1586-1610) of James Bankes, his probate inventory (1617), and finally, accounts (1 667-1 678) and rentals (1 668-1 677) relating to the Winstanley estate. The editors have also provided indexes of per sons, places and topics, together with four photographs, a map of the estate, a short preface (by Bankes) and a longer introduction. The introduction, by Kerridge, is an interesting commentary on the late sixteenth and seventeenth century Lancastrian agrarian eco nomy, with reference to the Winstanley estate. He also draws paral lels with James Bankes’ contemporary, Robert Loder of Harwell, emphasizing their piety and their concern over wage costs. But, compared with Loder, Bankes displayed little understandling or use of economic ideas in his management of the estate.
We are denied a clearer picture of Bankes’ estate and his management of it, because the account book, to which he refers in his memoranda book, has not survived. A later account ledger (1667-1678), kept by a steward, has, however, survived and is transcribed in full. The rental, which is also transcribed, was written “in the same ledger turned upside-down and used in reverse” (page 10) and is interesting mainly for the details of the ways in which tenants dis-charged their dues and for the occasional remittance of rents, the tenant “being poor”. The main purpose of the steward’s accounts, as might be expected, was “to quit himself of what was charged to him in the course of his managerial duties” (page 10), by recording the yields and the disposal of the grain crops; thus the figures are mainly quantities, although where grain was bought or sold the price was given, as were the outlays on such tasks as harvesting.
From the accounting historian’s point of view, it is a pity that Dr. Kerridge dealt so briefly with these accounts in his introduction. He draws the trader’s attention to the more detailed daily records of the later years compared to the summary accounts of the earlier years, and comments that the accounts “are made up in an orderly fashion and they maintain the same high standard almost to the end” (page 10). He reminds us that the steward was not concerned with profit or loss, and concludes that “otherwise these documents GalI for little remark. They are wholly conventional and valuable to us mainly for the light they shed on estate management after James’ death” (page 10). While this may be true, it is a pity that he does not explain or conjecture, for example, as to how grain “brought home” was valued, as there seems to be no consistent valuation basis in the accounts. It may be that when such accounts as these are published—and publication is to be encouraged—it would be a considerable service to many readers if a marginal commentary could be provided alongside with the transcription, in addition to a general description and introduction to the records. Otherwise, as is the case here, the reader must rely substantially on his own knowledge and resources, being at least partially deprived of the wisdom of the editor.
Patricia Hudson, The West Riding Textile Industry, A Catalogue of Business Records from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century (Ed-ington, Wiltshire: Pasold Research Fund Ltd., 1975, pp. xvi, 560, £10.50)
