Cultural History of Shopping in the Early Modern Age

Across Europe, the Early Modern period was marked by political, religious and cultural upheaval. It also saw the beginnings of a capitalist world economy which was underpinned by consumption. This volume engages with the key debates around continuity and change in consumer behaviour in the ‘long 16th century’ and the ways in which shopping became an educational and exciting act for many men and women across the social spectrum: shops and market stalls were filled with an increasingly wide range of goods made by skilled craftspeople and transported by merchants making evermore ambitious and lucrative journeys across the world. Even servants and the poor were exposed to these new things, for they could consume by eye and ear what they could not afford to take home in material form. Although they did not yet have a word for the activity of “shopping,” in this period men and women came to understand that this activity was more than a functional act to acquire necessities. A Cultural History of Shopping in the Early Modern Age presents an overview of the period with themes addressing practices and processes; spaces and places; shoppers and identities; luxury and everyday; home and family; visual and literary representations; reputation, trust and credit; and governance, regulation and the state.