Part 1 Chapter 1 Scrooge Summary and Analysis

The book opens in 1835 with the world in a debt crisis as many American states default on their bond interest payments. This is the time of the building of railroads, canals and turnpikes in the United States, financed with bonds sold mostly in London. The London of this time is the center of the financial world. Peabody is trying to work out a deal between the American debtors and the London creditors since the Americans can't meet the interest payments on their debt. He wants the London creditors to extend new loans so the American debtors can pay off the old loans and they agree to extend another eight million dollars in credit. Peabody waives his commission of $60,000 from Maryland.

Peabody, born to a poor family in Danvers, Massachusetts, moves to London in 1837 and opens a merchant...