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Architectural writer and historian Jeremy Melvin gives this year’s talk on the colourful seventeenth century economist and financier, Nicholas Barbon, who turned property development into speculation and invented fire insurance.
'It was not worth his while to deal little; that a bricklayer could do' an admirer wrote of Wren’s contemporary Nicholas Barbon. This assessment contains the key to how Barbon transformed London: he turned property development from an extension of construction (bricklaying) into fully fledged speculation — where it has been ever since.
Barbon invented the concept of risk management through founding the first fire insurance company. His tracts, like 'An Apology for the Builder' and 'Of Trade', argued the benefits of continuous economic growth backed by expansion of credit. This led Karl Marx, with grudging approval, to make 'Old Barbon' the first economic authority he cited in Das Kapital.
Jeremy Melvin was formerly consultant curator to the Royal Academy architecture programme, he is Programme Curator for the World Architecture Festival and a visiting professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture.
The Talk and Q&A session will be chaired by Paul Finch, programme director of the World Architecture Festival and editorial director of the Architectural Review and Architects’ Journal.
Limited tickets are available to attend in person at St Bride’s, Fleet Street, and the event will also be streamed live on YouTube. Click here to register:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wren-talk-2020jeremy-melvin-online-in-church-registration-123350347209
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