The Dark Economy of Death
Money, Power and the Business of DyingBy ARO FEN
Length4h 39m
About this audiobook
Frank Hyde had already been buried. The register said so. His body, however, was somewhere else.
From medieval death dues and plague inheritances to grave robbers, anatomy schools, burial clubs and insurance murders, *The Dark Economy of Death* explores the unsettling moment when mortality becomes financially useful.
The dead have always generated work. Graves must be opened, coffins made, property transferred and bodies carried. Yet wherever money, scarcity and unequal power gather around death, darker opportunities appear. A corpse can become merchandise. Poverty can make a body available. A funeral policy can give someone an interest in a death.
Drawing upon court proceedings, statutes, diaries, newspapers and institutional records, ARO FEN follows the changing commerce surrounding Britain’s dead and the people most vulnerable to exploitation.
Death becoming expensive is not the darkest part of the story.
The darkest moment is when death becomes an asset.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★★ 5.0 (1)
GenreHistory, True Crime
Length4 hrs 39 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateOct 22, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction — The Asset
2Chapter One — The Price of a Soul
3Chapter Two — The Dead Man’s Best Beast
4Chapter Three — When Everyone Was Dying
5Chapter Four — The Law Takes Its Share
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter Five — Stealing from the Dead
7Chapter Six — A Body Worth Digging Up
8Chapter Seven — Keeping Them in the Ground
9Chapter Eight — When Suppliers Stop Waiting
10Chapter Nine — Respectable Hands
11Chapter Ten — The Pauper Supply
12Chapter Eleven — The Useful Corpse
13Chapter Twelve — A Grave for Profit
14Chapter Thirteen — Pennies Against the Pauper Grave
15Chapter Fourteen — The Convenient Certificate
16Chapter Fifteen — Insured to Die
17Conclusion — When Death Becomes an Asset
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