An Empire of Goods? Groceries in Eighteenth-Century England

From the perspective of the consumer, the eighteenth century was a period of rapidly widening horizons as goods poured into Britain from an ever-expanding variety of places. This was particularly true of groceries, which lie at the heart of a set of macroeconomic changes often characterized as a commercial revolution. Estimates vary, but the value of imports and exports increased three- or four-fold between the 1660s and 1770s, growth which was closely linked to Britain’s imperial ambitions, most particularly across the Atlantic and in the Far East, but also in west and southern Africa.1 These built on patterns that were already established and well recognized in the mid-seventeenth century. In laying out the operations of the various trading companies, Lewes Roberts’ Merchants Mappe of Commerce (1638) provides a detailed picture of the provenance of a wide range of groceries. Trading with India, Persia, and Arabia, the East India Company brought back a range of spices and drugs as well as textiles, precious stones, and ‘infinite other commodities’. The Turkey Company imported, amongst other things, ‘muscadins of Gandia’ and ‘corance [currants] and oils of Zante, Cephalonia and Morea’; the Muscovy Company brought home honey, pitch, tax, wax, and rosin; and the French Company salt, wines, oils, and almonds. From Spain and Portugal came wine, rosin, olives, oils, sugar, soap, aniseed, liquorice, and so on, whilst Italy supplied oils and rice, as well as acted as a conduit for Eastern produce.