On The Subscribers To The Bank Of England In 1694

The aim of this article is to answer why the modern bank was originated in England by researching Samuel Jeake,an ordinary shareholder of the Bank of England in 1694.We can not only understand the economic,political and religious backgrounds in seventeenth-century England through the story of Jeake,but more importantly,we can explore how institutions interacted with and impacted the common people,that is,the interaction between institutions and people.Because this article shows behavior rather than thoughts,and human action rather than a framework,it focuses on narratives rather than structures.Therefore,the key original documents used are diaries and letters.These primary sources are written by Jeake himself,his family,friends,and business partners.They were used to communicate,deal with,and explain problems in daily life.Diaries and letters are the most suitable historical documents to reveal the 17 th century English society not from the dominant institutional perspective,but from the perspective of ordinary people.They told how Jeake dealt with challenges at all levels on the one hand,and how to seize the opportunities provided by changes on the other hand.This article emphasizes that ordinary people's decisions in response to the tremendous changes of the times.The ways used are not preemptively simplifying their actions to maximize the benefits driven by reason,nor does it mean that such efforts will be dwarfed as purely passive.By exploring how ordinary people responded to institutions,why they had to make choices,what network resources were used,how this response affected their own situations,and in turn how to shape the system,this article has historical meanings.In other words,although ordinary people struggled,they could also accumulate material wealth and spiritual strength.The individual growth is the fundamental reason why the modern bank was rooted in England.