Author: DB

Text for an exhibit in an exhibition on protests around money at the Fitzwilliam Museum, on now November 2022.

Bills of credit
1776 Banks in Colonial America are forbidden by Britain. So paper notes are ‘bills of credit’ rather than ‘banknotes’ This 40 shilling bill, issued by the Colony of Rhode Island, is signed by William Ellery, a lawyer, merchant and revolutionary, who goes on to become a signatory of the US Articles of Confederation and Declaration of Independence. The first American bank opens in 1784.

From The Week 29 October 2022

I’m The BBC still offers excellent value for money. For £159 a year (£27.12 more than a standard annual Netflix subscription), it it provides eight TV channels, 62 radio stations, international news in more than 40 languages, five orchestras, and a huge web presence, among other things. But it’s no longer a creative powerhouse in its own right. In many respects it’s now more of a commissioning body (albeit one with 22.000 employees) that buys content from independent producers. It has sold off its technology division, its publishing arm, its costume and wig department, and its main London studios.
Last year, the BBC raised £3.8bn in licence fee revenue, and made £1.5bn from its commercial ventures. (In real terms, its funding has been cut by 25% since 2010.) Last year, it spent £3bn on content: £314m on news; £376m on film and drama; £94m on sport. These are big figures, but they pale into insignificance beside the amounts spent by the US streamers. Last year, Netflix spent about $17bn (£15bn) on content, Amazon $13bn (£11.5bn), and Disney $25bn (£22bn). The BBC’s reach is still massive – 90% of UK adults use BBC services every week – but Netflix overtook the BBC’s iPlayer in terms of users back in 2019.

Macaroni and cheese, also called mac and cheese in Canada and the United States and macaroni cheese in the United Kingdom, is a dish of cooked macaroni pasta and a cheese sauce, most commonly cheddar.

The Week, 1 October 2022, News section, Page 7

Paris
“Book delivery: The French government is planning to force booksellers to charge at least €3 per delivery, in an attempt to loosen the grip on the market of e-commerce giants such as Amazon. In 2014, France reacted to pressure from independent retailers by making it illegal to offer free delivery for books, but Amazon got around this by charging its customers a nominal one cent. By contrast, independent booksellers, who are reliant on smaller logistical networks, have to charge as much as €7 per delivery. Amazon condemned the proposed minimum fee, which applies to sales of up to €35, on the grounds that it would “negatively impact the purchasing power” of French book lovers who do not have close access to bricks and mortar bookshops. The proposal will now be passed to the European Commission for approval.

I remember reading that Amazon had a free postage tier above a certain spend in every country except France. And that when Amazon changed the token amount of postage in France (for a spend above a certain amount) – sales in France went up. In other words, free has a huge attraction even in relation to a very small delivery cost.

Isabelline is the name for a pale grey-yellow, pale fawn, pale cream-brown or parchment colour, and is used specifically to describe the colour of animal coats, birds’ plumage, and, in Europe, in horses. It also It has historically been applied to fashion.

The first known record of the word was in 1600, when it was called ‘Isabella colour’ that later became interchangeable in literature with ‘isabelline’ that was first used in print in 1859. The origin of the word is unknown.

Traduce
Meaning: speak badly of or tell lies about (someone) so as to damage their reputation.