Melbourne by 1856 was growing in confidence and grandeur, as Henry Gritten’s fine painting of Swanston Street depicts. Captain Charles Swanston, the man after whom the bustling thoroughfare was named, would have been gratified. Swanston—heroic soldier of the Honourable East India Company, Van Diemen’s Land banker, legislator, pillar of Hobart Town society, fomenter of the squatting rush to Victoria—could always recognise a good commercial opportunity. His business tentacles stretched around the globe. Yet following the catastrophic collapse of the Derwent Bank, his desperate dash to the California goldfields and his mysterious death at sea, he was virtually expunged from the public record. In reviving Swanston’s remarkable story from a dusty, almost forgotten treasure trove of bank archives, Eleanor Robin brings to light his considerable contribution to the economic, political and social life of Van Diemen’s Land and his leading role in the settlement of Melbourne.
Swanston : merchant statesman by Eleanor Robin
Shortlisted for the 2018 Ashurst Business Literature Prize
Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2018
x, 283 pages, 18 unnumbered pages of plates : colour illustrations, maps, portraits (some colour) ; 23 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-271) and index.
$44.00
1 in stock
Description
Melbourne by 1856 was growing in confidence and grandeur, as Henry Gritten’s fine painting of Swanston Street depicts. Captain Charles Swanston, the man after whom the bustling thoroughfare was named, would have been gratified. Swanston—heroic soldier of the Honourable East India Company, Van Diemen’s Land banker, legislator, pillar of Hobart Town society, fomenter of the squatting rush to Victoria—could always recognise a good commercial opportunity. His business tentacles stretched around the globe. Yet following the catastrophic collapse of the Derwent Bank, his desperate dash to the California goldfields and his mysterious death at sea, he was virtually expunged from the public record. In reviving Swanston’s remarkable story from a dusty, almost forgotten treasure trove of bank archives, Eleanor Robin brings to light his considerable contribution to the economic, political and social life of Van Diemen’s Land and his leading role in the settlement of Melbourne.
Shortlisted for the 2018 Ashurst Business Literature Prize
Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2018
x, 283 pages, 18 unnumbered pages of plates : colour illustrations, maps, portraits (some colour) ; 23 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-271) and index.
Additional information
| Weight | 0.45 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 23 × 15 × 2 cm |
Book Reviews Reviews
There are no reviews yet.
Related products
-
Anastasia From Callan to Stockyard Creek. by Elizabeth Rushen and Kathlyn Gibson
$34.95 Add to cart -
Kawarau by Jennifer F. O’Donnell
$25.00 Add to cart -
Mary MacKillop’s Portland Years 1862-1866 by Bernard Wallace
$19.95 Add to cart -
My Mother, My Writing, and Me: a memoir. By Iola Matthews
$20.00 Add to cart
Shop All Categories
239 A'Beckett Street Melbourne, Victoria, 3000 
03 9326 9288 
office@historyvictoria.org.au 
Office & Library: Weekdays 9am-5pm
Book Reviews Reviews
There are no reviews yet.