Whilst I was going through archival materials today, looking for music-related documentation, I came across all sorts of non-musical correspondence. I wasn’t surprised. Sometimes, it’s rather nice to see what falls out of Pandora’s box, after all. All the ‘extra’ material vastly enriches the ultimate narrative. And other tidbits just raise a smile:-
- I found one publisher offering to order whisky from an Inverness wine-dealer for another publisher holidaying in Raasay. Very fraternal!
- I found someone looking forward to ‘frizzling in Paris’. (Considering Glasgow’s set to be 4 degrees Celsius tonight -in mid June – I can empathise!)
- Then there was a job application letter. No clues as to the manager’s selection rationale – things were very different then – just, pencilled across the top – NO.
- I found a terse letter from a professor who was distinctly unimpressed by the unavailability of a book (no, not a music book) that he wanted to purchase:-
‘It’s damnable that such a valuable, well-written & cogent book should be off the market.’
But in 1947-1948, Britain was in economic crisis. There were restrictions on business activities, and if a publisher decided a reprint was non-viable then that, dear Professor, was that. Tough. (I wanted to tell him that eBay and Alibris would have helped alleviate his evident distress.)
I found travelling salesmen being asked if they wanted any books from a particular series. Music-related ones, even? I sat up straight at that, until I realised that the subtext was probably, ‘these books aren’t selling terribly well, old chaps.’
It wasn’t until I got home that I got myself into deep water:-
I looked up what was happening to the British economy in 1947-1948. I knew there WAS a crisis. Britain was in recession. I had never heard of ‘convertibility’ in the economic sense, and I find myself only slightly the wiser after a bit of Googling! World War II had taken its toll, and on top of this, the US had insisted on convertibility, it seems, and we very quickly descended into an almighty mess. However, such a simplistic summary doesn’t sound exactly satisfactory.
I’m undecided whether I need an Oxford Short Introduction, or can I get by with a more basic understanding? Oh well, plenty of time to ponder on that! (But if you’re a modern historian reading this, and you can think of something that would give me an intelligent layperson’s overview of post-war economics, then please do get in touch. Thank you!)
READING LIST?
- Complete Idiot’s Guide to Economics
- The Economics Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained
- Economics for Dummies
- Rough Guide to Economics
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 