Consumers in eighteenth-century England were firmly embedded in an expanding world of goods, one that incorporated a range of novel foods (tobacco, chocolate, coffee, and tea) and new supplies of more established commodities, including sugar, spices, and dried fruits. Much has been written about the attraction of these goods, which went from being novelties or expensive luxuries in the mid-seventeenth century to central elements of the British diet a century or so later. They have been linked to the rise of Britain as a commercial and imperial power, whilst their consumption is seen as...

Textiles are a key component of the industrial, industrious and consumer revolutions, which are seen as transforming the economy, society and culture of Western Europe during the long eighteenth century. Yet we lack a coherent picture of how the marketing of textiles varied across time and between different regions and countries. This book provides important new insights into the ways in which changes in the supply of textiles related to shifting patterns of demand, not just in terms of imported novelties such as chintz, but also more traditional, locally-produced and even second-hand...

Jon Stobart and Johanna Ilmakunnas bring together a range of scholars from across mainland Europe and the UK to examine luxury and taste in early modern Europe.

In the 18th century, debates raged about the economic, social and moral impacts of luxury, whilst taste was viewed as a refining influence and a marker of rank and status. This book takes a fresh, comparative approach to these ideas, drawing together new scholarship to examine three related areas in a wide variety of European contexts. Firstly, the deployment of luxury goods in displays of status and how these practices...

This study explores the consumption practices of the landed aristocracy of Georgian England. Focussing on three families and drawing on detailed analysis of account books, receipted bills, household inventories, diaries and correspondence, Consumption and the Country House charts the spending patterns of this elite group during the so-called consumer revolution of the eighteenth century. Generally examined through the lens of middling families, homes and motivations, this book explores the ways in which the aristocracy were engaged in this wider transformation of English society. Analysis...

Reveals how changes in retailing and shopping were central to the broader transformation of consumption and consumer practices, and questions established ideas about the motivations underpinning consumer choices. Offers new perspectives on the link between supply and demand and the motivations underpinning consumer choices.