The 17th and 18th Century Trade in Lunacy: Profiting from the Mad

In the 17th and 18th centuries, there was no centralized response from the state to tackle the social problem of mental illness. This would not come into effect until the 19th century.

This led to the rise in private “madhouses” that sprung up around Britain, on an unprecedented scale compared to anywhere else around the world. There are only sparse mentions in the 17th century but by the 19th century there are large amounts of evidence for the so-called “trade in lunacy”.

By 1724, there were around fifteen operating in and around the London area. But what was this trade and how did the world go from madhouses to psychiatric care for those with mental illness?