Rethinking inventories in the digital age: the case of the Old Bailey

Abstract

This paper uses a computational approach to the formal indictments included in the Old Bailey Online for the period 1740 to 1800, to assess the material world of London as seen through a thief’s eyes. Trial reports detailing theft incorporate an implicit inventory of portable objects marked by a specific kind of circulatory exchange value enabled by London’s evolving consumer society. By identifying patterns of significance within the Old Bailey corpora of theft trials, this article will extend traditional humanities practices of close reading by adding a form of distant reading facilitated by computational analysis.

Keywords

• computation
• digital humanities
• inventory
• London
• Old Bailey
• theft
• trial