Show Notes
Priscilla Wakefield was a Quaker, writer and social reformer who believed financial security shouldn’t be reserved for the wealthy. Living in late 18th- and early 19th-century England, she founded the country’s first penny savings bank, giving working women and children a safe place to save. Victoria Bateman, author of Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power, tells hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth about Wakefield’s life, her ideas and how a simple concept — saving small sums — helped spark a quiet revolution in financial inclusion, with lessons for today. But that didn’t stop Wakefield from running into financial problems of her own.
Further reading: Economica: A global history of women, wealth and power, by Victoria Bateman (2025) Reflections on the present condition of the female sex, by Priscilla Wakefield, (reprinted 2015, Cambridge University Press)
Credits: Cambridge Library Collection, National Portrait Gallery, Disruption Worthies, National Park Service, Hollinger & Rockey
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Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth Producers: Lulu Smyth and Laurence Knight Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa Original music: Breen Turner Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis Podcast Development: Laura Clarke Video editor: Kristen Kenyon and Josh Divney at Podcast Discovery
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