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Consumption conundrums unravelled

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  • Sara Horrell
  • Jane Humphries
  • Ken Sneath

Abstract

type="main"> While consumption has moved to centre stage in accounts of Britain's industrialization, evidence on the mass transformation of homes and expenditure on novelty is hard to reconcile with the poor living standards experienced by many working people. Part of the conundrum arises from the limitations of available probate evidence, but the motivational drivers behind raised consumption can also be questioned. Was it changed tastes or falling prices because of improved technology which prompted the purchase of new goods? Utilizing evidence from an alternative source, property stolen through housebreaking and burglary as reported in the Old Bailey Papers and Proceedings for 1750–1821, we identify those goods that were commonly stolen as the fashion icons of their day, trace such goods back to their original owners, thus linking ownership and status, and through analysis over time show how consumption evolved. This analysis incorporates the influence of price and real incomes on ownership, allowing the influence of price and fashion on consumption patterns to be identified separately. The findings show that, in addition to price and income effects, fashion had a strong influence, but this was not just emulation; differentiation too was evident. The evidence points to a complex interplay between desires and differentiation, aspiration and affordability, in determining the goods that people possessed.

Suggested Citation

  • Sara Horrell & Jane Humphries & Ken Sneath, 2015. "Consumption conundrums unravelled," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(3), pages 830-857, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:68:y:2015:i:3:p:830-857
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/ehr.12084
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    Cited by:

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    3. Morgan Kelly & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2016. "Adam Smith, Watch Prices, and the Industrial Revolution," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1727-1752.
    4. Giovanni Dosi & Luigi Marengo & Alessandro Nuvolari, 2019. "Institutions are neither autistic maximizers nor flocks of birds: self-organization, power and learning in human organizations," Chapters, in: Francesca Gagliardi & David Gindis (ed.), Institutions and Evolution of Capitalism, chapter 13, pages 194-213, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. José L. Martínez González, 2019. "High Wages or Wages For Energy? An Alternative View of The British Case (1645-1700)," Working Papers 0158, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    6. Bruno Blondé & Alessandra de Mulder & Jon Stobart, 2024. "Aesthetics for a polite society: Language and the marketing of second‐hand goods in eighteenth‐century London," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(3), pages 953-974, August.
    7. Kelly, Morgan & Grada, Cormac O, 2015. "Adam Smith, Watch Prices, and the Industrial Revolution," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 220, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    8. Benjamin Schneider, 2023. "Technological unemployment in the British industrial revolution: the destruction of hand spinning," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _207, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.

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