ABSTRACT
An early modern England, pamphleteers and theologians debated the desirable allocation of power between husbands and wives. Economic control, in particular, symbolized the competition between spouses, and English popular literature lampooned the war between the sexes and women’s desire for individual economic power. 1 In one inexpensive chapbook offering advice to newlyweds, the fictional young couple discussed control over finances:
The husband-to-be, J[ohn], envisioned their future life together: “we will keep poultry too; you shall have cocks, hens, ducks, geese and turkeys, and the increase of them shall serve thee to go to market with.”
His fiance, K[ate], had a practical question about this enterprise and asked “Who must have the money made of those odd things?”
J[ohn], replied “My pretty rogue, I find thou understandeth the way of a farmer’s wife already, for they had rather have a little purse to themselves, than the knowledge of five hundred pounds of their husbands” 2
