For interested parties, here is the list of books recommended as background texts for a literature course:
Dorothy George, London in the Eighteenth Century Donald Greene, The Age of Exuberance Boris Ford, ed. Eighteenth-Century Britain (Cambridge Cultural Hist. ser.) Derek Jarrett, England in the Age of Hogarth Nicole Johnson, Eighteenth-Century London Paul Langford, A Polite and Commercial People Daniel Poole, What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew Roy Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century Richard Schwartz, Daily Life in Johnson's London
And on money:
D.C. Coleman, The Economy of England 1450-1752 Sandy Fisher, Econolingua Douglas Jay, Sterling: Its Use and Misuse Peter Lindbert, "English Population, Wages, and Prices: 1541-1913," in Population and Economy, eds. Roger Schofield and E.A. Wrigley John McCusker, "How Much Is That in Real Money?" (pamphlet, Am. Antiq. Assoc.) -------, Money and Exchange in Europe and America, 1600-1775--answers that crucial question, "how much was a Spanish pistole worth?" Approximately .8 pound, for you Roxana fans. W.A. Speck, Society and Literature in England 1700-60 -------, Stability and Strife: England, 1714-1760