Women, finance and credit in England, c.1780-1826

Credit may mean both a way of doing business and the reputation of the individuals transacting it. Both aspects are explored in this thesis. Access to sources of finance for business and the ways in which trade credit transactions took place are amongst the economic issues examined. The cultural aspects of credit, such as trust, personal standing and the language in which this was expressed, adherence to, or deviation from, socially acceptable standards of behaviour, are discussed. Credit is used as a tool of analysis to investigate orthodoxies about women's use of it for business purposes. Small-scale capitalism, with its specific objectives of industrious independence and economic individualism centring on the family firm, provides the organising concept and the explanation for how and why women from the middle ranks of society ran businesses during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Findings, based on the business activities and trade credit transactions of women resident in, or conducting business in, the English West Midlands, reveal their greater participation in the economic community than has been recognised hitherto. Furthermore, they indicate that trade credit transactions between men and women regarding the new consumer goods and services of the first industrial revolution were not an arena for the working out of gender politics. Women belonged to mixed-sex business networks where they were judged, as men were, on the punctuality of their payments and the honouring of their obligations. As a result, the limitations of the existing historiography are shown. Arguments for a specifically female type of credit negotiated between women principally for domestic purposes or that women with capital restricted their economic activity to investment to provide for their non-working existence do not do justice to the 'middling sort' businesswomen whose contribution to the processes of industrialisation is now recognised in this work

Businesswomen and financial management: Three eighteenth-century case studies

This article considers how three English businesswomen managed the financial aspects of their enterprises in the 'long' eighteenth century. The discussion focuses on two areas: their ability to keep adequate records and their management of trade credit. Whereas earlier studies of women's credit transactions have argued for its specifically 'feminine' nature, it will be demonstrated that men and women conducted business credit dealings on gender neutral lines. Three case studies are presented to show that the success or failure of a woman's business depended on her commercial competence, not her gender.Businesswomen, eighteenth century, credit, Eleanor Coade, Boulton & Watt,

The epidemiology of anemia in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease: Prevalence and associated factors at diagnosis and follow-up and the impact of exclusive enteral nutrition

Background: Anemia is poorly studied in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease. This study explored the epidemiology and associated factors of anemia at diagnosis, after 1 year, and during treatment with exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN). Methods: Three cohorts were included: (1) a representative population of newly diagnosed inflammatory bowel disease children (n = 184); (2) patients currently receiving care with data available at diagnosis (n = 179) and after 1 year (n = 139); and (3) 84 children treated with EEN. Results: At diagnosis, 72% were anemic. Abnormal inflammatory markers were more common in Crohn's disease with severe anemia (severe versus no anemia [%]: raised C-reactive protein; 89% versus 48%; suboptimal albumin; 97% versus 29%; P , 0.002). Anemic children with Crohn's disease had shorter diagnosis delay and lower BMI than nonanemic patients (severe versus mild versus no anemia, median [interquartile range]; diagnosis delay [months]: 3 [3.9] versus 6 [10] versus 8 [18], P , 0.001; BMI z score [SD]: 21.4 [1.4] versus 21.3 [1.5] versus 20.2 [1.4], P = 0.003). Extensive colitis was associated with severe anemia in ulcerative colitis. The proportion of severely anemic patients decreased from 34% to 9% and mild anemia doubled at 1 year. After EEN, severe anemia decreased (32% to 9%; P , 0.001) and the hemoglobin concentration increased by 0.75 g/dL. This was observed only after 8 weeks of treatment. Disease improvement and low hemoglobin at EEN initiation but not weight gain were associated with hemoglobin improvement. Conclusions: Anemia is high at diagnosis and follow-up and should receive more attention from the clinical team; however, the focus should remain suppression of inflammatory process in active disease. © 2013 Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, Inc