2007/07/01 by Sara Malton · 1 citation
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Fiscal Policies and Political Economy
paper · doi:10.1080/10509580701443406
openalex publication_date 2007/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Considerations of forgery have frequently centered on the late‐eighteenth century and, most often, infamous literary forgers such as William Henry Ireland or Thomas Chatterton. Turning to the legal and economic circumstances of the early‐nineteenth century, this essay carries out a critical reassessment of the understanding of forgery as an economic crime in nineteenth‐century British culture, emphasizing how that understanding was shaped by forgery's treatment as a capital offence until the 1830s. It focuses on the trial of Henry Fauntleroy, a prominent banker prosecuted for forgery in 1824 Fauntleroy, Henry. 1824. Pierre Egan's account of the trial of Mr. Fauntleroy, forgery, London: Knight and Lacey. [Google Scholar]. Fauntleroy's case both illuminates the vexed nature of forgery legislation in this period and illustrates the lasting cultural and literary resonance of the image of the forger at the gallows. As the last white‐collar forger to face execution, Fauntleroy and his crimes stand pre‐eminent as a kind of cultural trauma: his case becomes a touchstone for fictional and non‐fictional treatments of forgery throughout the nineteenth century, as authors continue to revisit the discourse of degradation, horror, and social disruption that surrounded the crime.