Dr Taylor's work explores the social, political, and legal dimensions of economic change in Britain since the 1700s, focusing on the rise of big business in the nineteenth century. He has published on subjects ranging from the early history of corporate governance and the regulation and punishment of commercial fraud, to the history of financial reporting and literary representations of commerce.
Dr Taylor is keen to hear from students researching the following areas - topics connecting economic, social and cultural history since 1800; history of financial fraud and crime; history of joint-stock companies and corporate governance; history of advertising and consumerism. Do contact him if you would like to discuss your research plans.
Hist280: The Victorians and Before: Britain, 1783-1901
Hist281: Britain in the Twentieth Century
Hist343: Advertising and Consumerism in Britain, 1853-1960
Dr Taylor's first monograph, Creating Capitalism, won the 2008 Economic History Society Prize for best first monograph in Economic and Social History; his second, Shareholder Democracies (co-authored with Mark Freeman and Robin Pearson), won the Ralph Gomory Prize for best business history book of 2012. His third, Boardroom Scandal, was published by Oxford University Press in spring 2013.
You can read a review of his latest article, published in Historical Research in November 2012, on the Talking Biz News website.
From 1 February to 30 April 2012 he was Visiting Research Fellow at the Research Institute for History and Culture at the University of Utrecht.