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CORRUPTION AND SKULLDUGGERY IBD

EDWARD EVERETT ROOT PUBLISHERS
10 / 2024
9781915115379
Inglés

Sinopsis

This classic and colourfully illustrated work - reprinted to meet continuing wide demand - tells the story of much of the surprising and hidden shady criminal past of leading figures in early Tasmanian society.It tells the fascinating story of the officer and the convict, Edward Lord and Maria Riseley,áwho made a fortune in early Hobart by their business and networking skills -áonly to throw it away in the 1820s by extravagance and financial incompetence (Edward) and sexual infidelity (Maria).This is also the real story of early Hobart, not whitewashed as it usually is to show our glorious beginningsáor because the gullible historian actually believes the official sources. Glossing over embarrassing scandals was the least of it. No one in Van DiemenâÇÖs Land wanted to be there: they were all either sent there (convicts, guards, officials) or, as convicts claimed and was all too often the case, they fled from Britain only one step ahead of the law (free settlers).áEveryone wanted to make a fortune, and they werenâÇÖt too scrupulous about how they did it. Fleecing the British government was the most popular way, but they also fleeced each other, exploited, embezzled, stole ... Almost no one in HobartâÇÖs first twenty years has a creditable record. (DonâÇÖt gloat, Launcestonians: your story is even worse, just not yet told.) Oddly,áconvicts come out better than the rest, though possibly only because they lacked opportunity. However, Maria Riseley, the ex-convict, seems to have been one of the few business people who was not corrupt. Tough yes, corrupt no (or else she hid it much better than anyone else).

PVP
135,25