Description
On the way towards, or in the way of, national education; the Kildare Place Society and Irish National Education, 1810-1840
This paper looks at the earliest teacher training college in Ireland, run by a protestant education society funded by a parliamentary grant meant to fund education for the poor, Catholic and Protestant alike. The paper traces the expansion and collapse of the society at the moment when Ireland became the earliest nation in the British Empire to adopt a national education system, and to establish a national school for training teachers—one that was both modelled on and ultimately made obsolete the KPS school
Pricing Methods in 18th Century England
Pricing, i.e. determining how much something costs, is a fundamental aspect of economic activity. Economic theory explains pricing at an abstract market level, but surprisingly little historical research was done on pricing as a practical problem. This paper tries to unearth pricing processes in 18th century England – the methods used by sellers to determine the price of their goods and services, focusing specifically on retailers and pawnbrokers. The evidence from this research suggests that different professions made such decisions in different ways: retailers would hide their selling prices from their customers, leaving them room to make adjustments to individual buyers; pawnbrokers, on the other hand, operated under much greater degrees of social supervision and made pricing decisions without considering the identity of the customer. The paper then considers this in the wider historical context of market development and integration, trying to identify the role of such everyday practices in the greater economic transformation of the period.
About the Speakers
Ksenia Podvoiskaia is a PhD Candidate at the University of Chicago. She researches education reform and teacher training in the 19th century British Empire. Her article "Re-inventing the Schoolmaster: Teacher Training in Early 19th-century London," was published this summer in Victorian Network.
Amir Abahel is currently a graduate student at Northwestern University in the History Department. He studies the history of economic life in early modern England, specifically how changes in everyday economic practices fit into the wider economic and cultural transformation of the era.
About the British Studies Seminar Series
The British Studies Seminar brings together scholars to discuss work that addresses the history of Britain and the British Empire from the early modern period to present day. The seminar is co-sponsored by the Graduate Cluster in British Studies at Northwestern, Northwestern History, and the Nicholson Center for British Studies at the University of Chicago.
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This event is free, but all participants must register in advance. Space is limited, so please do not request a paper unless you plan to attend.
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