"Any realistic assessment of the capital and income of Stuart businessmen must rest on probate inventories. The records of taxation are limited and imprecise guides to wealth, and private business papers have not survived in sufficient numbers to describe the whole business community." (s. 220)Vissa arvspapper är bra, men de är inte tillräckligt systematiska, säger Grassby.
Han använder ett arkiv över "freemen with orphans", som verkar fånga alla företagare som dog och lämnade barn efter sig. Det är dock inte bara stora köpmän utan också apotekare, kockar, snickare och frisörer. Ett annat problem med datat är att det inte innehåller uppgifter om personernas ålder. (s. 221) Det kan också i någon mån underrepresentera de största köpmännen, eftersom det var mer sannolikt att de rikaste överlevde sina barn (s. 227).
Grassby har observationer från städer i hela landet, även om tabell 3 bara visar från London.
I slutsatserna säger Grassby:
"The inequalities within London were also characteristic of the outports and country towns and the proportion of the urban population, which reached a comfortable level and enjoyed economic security, was probably no higher in London than in Leicester and Exeter in 1672, if the Hearth Tax returns are compared with the 1695 tax on marriages. But the port books and tax assessments do confirm the superiority of London, already apparent in the sixteenth century, and a provincial merchant would normally have enjoyed a higher social status than a London citizen with the same resources. Although the coasting trade was in the hands of small men, a small minority of important merchants seems to have benefited most from the expansion of provincial trade, and London probably benefited at the expense of some outports. The wealth of the urban craftsmen also seems to have been greater than that of their rural counterparts. Many more urban studies, however, will be needed before the true balance of wealth between all centres of business can be stated with confidence." (s. 234)
Referens
Richard Grassby, "The Personal Wealth of the Business Community in Seventeenth-Century England", Economic History Review 1970.
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