About the Creditum Debitum Blog

This blog draws on my interest in things connected to trade and the history of credit instruments and merchants.


An Introduction to Credit Instruments
What do I class as credit instruments? Credit instruments can take many forms. Sometimes they can include money or specie (better known as coins). More generally however, they are the means for facilitating an economic transaction, either of a financial nature, or  involving goods and services. This is what I will be focusing on in this site.

 
In the 21st century, probably the best known credit instrument is the cheque, which, in the UK, was forecast to be obsolete by 2018. The cheque's predecessor was the bill of exchange, which took various forms. More accurately, the cheque is a kind of bill of exchange whose potential demise was primarily the result of the digital revolution, and presumably banks' attempts to cut costs. However, a subtantial public hue and cry, has killed off any plans to do away with this modern bill of exchange.

Credit instruments are fascinating because the way in which they have evolved says much about societies, politics, norms, customs and laws, as well as, of course, the development of trade and economic networks. Reputation, honour and economic rationalisations were often married and manifested through extensive local and global merchant networks. Credit instruments over history have taken many shapes and forms, from a simple IOU to a complex promissory note, bill of exchange, remittance vehicle and institutionalised trust. Our understanding of credit instruments adds an important level of information about merchants themselves, and the economic, political and legal intrigues that they were often embroiled in. This blog seeks to open up a window into this colourful world.

Comments
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Contact
If you would like to send me an email, I can be reached on "creditum.debitum[at]gmail.com".

Use of Images
Unless otherwise indicated, all images on this website are the copyright of 'Creditum Debitum'.

Current Research

I am working on two books engaging my research interests (see home page for more on that). One project is a conversion of my PhD thesis into a book looking at the history of hundi during the British colonial period until the 21st century. An artery of credit for Indian merchant networks over centuries, the indigenous credit system hundi has received no systematic attention in histories of the Indian subcontinent. It was a system that was rather badly understood and defined, yet a highly negotiable instrument and source of liquid capital. It was also the backbone of Indian merchant networks. (You can read more about that over on my creditumdebitum blog pages - click on creditum debitum on the menu bar.) I looked at how British colonial legal transplants impacted on the hundi system. I also examined how colonial officials attempted, as part of their imperial project, to figure out what and how much they should borrow from English cultural contexts as opposed to Indian indigenous customs. In many ways, this book is an economic history as well as that of British empire building through the growth of the legal architecture.

Indian indentured labourers arriving in South Africa, Source: Wikimedia Commons

The other monograph is the fruit of extensive transnational research in India, South Africa and Britain thanks to fellowships held in South Africa and currently Germany. In this project I am looking at the changing status of Indian South Africans through the foreign relations of Britain, India and South Africa from colonial times through decolonisation.

Commonly referred to as 'The Indian Question' in the African context, discourses on Indian migration and settlement have primarily revolved around the issue of rights and entitlement as settlers in South Africa. I focus on the political, economic and legal conditions that gave rise to the so-called 'Indian Question'. I also look at how all of this influenced the construction of changing race and ethnic identification in South Africa during and after the British colonial period.