Retailing revolution in the eighteenth century? Evidence from North-West England

Business History

Volumn 46, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 171-194

  Stobart, Jon ^a   Hann, Andrew ^a  

^a Faculty of Health and Life Sciences   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; INDUSTRIAL HISTORY; RETAILING;

ENGLAND; EURASIA; EUROPE; UNITED KINGDOM; WESTERN EUROPE;

EID: 2942545803     PISSN: 00076791     EISSN: 17437938     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/0007679042000215098     Document Type: Article

References (139)

1. The best overview of retail change comes from reading the various contributions to G. Shaw and J. Benson (eds.), The Retailing Industry, 3 vols. (London, 1999).
2. This tradition stretches from J. Jeffreys, Retail Trading in Britain, 1850-1950 (London, 1954)
3. P. Corrigan, The Sociology of Consumption (London, 1997).
4. See, inter alia, Jeffreys, Retail Trading in Britain, passim.
5. G. Shaw, 'The Role of Retailing in the Urban Economy', in J. Johnson and C. Pooley (eds.), The Structure of Nineteenth Century Cities (London, 1982), pp.171-94.
6. Corrigan, The Sociology of Consumption, pp.51-5.
7. C. Fowler, 'Changes in Provincial Retail Practice during the Eighteenth Century, with Particular Reference to Central-Southern England', Business History, Vol.40 (1998), pp.37-54.
8. G. Crossick and S. Jaumain, 'The World of the Department Store: Distribution, Culture and Social Change', in G. Crossick and S. Jaumain (eds.), Cathedrals of Consumption: The European Department Store, 1850-1939 (Aldershot, 1999), pp.1-45.
9. Jeffreys, Retail Trading in Britain;
10. P. Mathias, Retailing Revolution. A History of Multiple Retailing in the Food Trades (London, 1967);
11. Corrigan, Sociology of Consumption.
12. See, for example, E. Rappaport, Shopping for Pleasure: Women and the Making of London's West End (Princeton, NJ, 2000).
13. Arguments of this sort characterise Jeffreys, Retail Trading in Britain;
14. M. Miller, The Bon Marché: Bourgeois Culture and the Department Store, 1869-1920 (London, 1981).
15. W. Hamish Frazer, The Coming of the Mass Market, 1850-1914 (London, 1981).
16. M. Winstanley, The Shopkeeper's World, 1830-1970 (Manchester, 1983).
17. Corrigan, Sociology of Consumption, p.52.
18. M. Ogborn, Spaces of Modernity: London's Geographies, 1680-1780 (New York, 1998).
19. C. Nash, 'Historical Geographies of Modernity', in B. Graham and C. Nash (eds.), Modern Historical Geographies (Harlow, 2000), pp.13-40.
20. P. Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance: Culture and Society in the English Provincial Town, 1660-1770 (Oxford, 1989).
21. M. Finn, 'Sex and the City: Metropolitan Modernities in English History', Victorian Studies, Vol.44 (2001/2). pp.25-32.
22. D. Davis, A History of Shopping (London, 1966).
23. D. Alexander, Retailing in England during the Industrial Revolution (London, 1973).
24. S.I. Mitchell, 'Urban Market and Retail Distribution, 1730-1815' (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1975).
25. R. Scola, Feeding the Victorian City: The Food Supply of Manchester 1770-1870 (Manchester, 1992).
26. C. Shammas, The Pre-industrial Consumer in England and America (Oxford, 1990).
27. H.-C. Mui and L.H. Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping in Eighteenth-Century England (London, 1989).
28. P. Glennie and N. Thrift, 'Consumers, Identities and Consumer Spaces in Early-Modern England', Environment and Planning A, Vol.28 (1996), pp.25-45.
29. C. Walsh, 'Shop Design and the Display of Goods in Eighteenth-Century London', Journal of Design History, Vol.8 (1995), pp.157-76.
30. C. Walsh, 'The Newness of the Department Store: A View from the Eighteenth Century', in Crossick and Jaumain (eds.), Cathedrals of Consumption: The European Department Store, 1850-1939 (Aldershot, 1999), pp.46-71.
31. N. Cox, The Complete Tradesman: A Study of Retailing, 1550-1820 (Aldershot, 2000).
32. H. Berry, 'Polite Consumption: Shopping in Eighteenth-Century England', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol.12 (2002), pp.375-94.
33. See also Fowler, 'Changes in Provincial Retail Practice', pp.37-54.
34. E. Kowalski-Wallace, Consuming Subjects: Women, Shopping and Business in the Eighteenth Century (New York, 1997).
35. J. Stobart, 'Shopping Streets as Social Space: Leisure, Consumerism and Improvement in an Eighteenth-Century County Town', Urban History, Vol.25 (1998), pp.3-21.
36. Glennie and Thrift, 'Consumers, Identities and Consumer Spaces', p.27.
37. See Fowler, 'Changes in Provincial Retail Practice', pp.37-54.
38. A. Adburgham, Shops and Shopping, 1800-1914 (London, 1964).
39. Alexander D. Retailing during the Industrial Revolution;
40. and even Cox, Complete Tradesman, fall into this category.
41. This region formed a coherent spatial and functional unit in terms of production and socioeconomic interaction. See J. Stobart, The First Industrial Region: North West England, 1700-1760 (Manchester, forthcoming, 2004).
42. Corrigan, Sociology of Consumption, pp.51-5.
43. See also Glennie and Thrift, 'Consumers, Identities and Consumption Spaces', p.25.
44. For related discussion, see Walsh, 'Shop Design and the Display of Goods', pp.365-76,
45. Scola, Feeding the Victorian City, pp.206-20.
46. Cox, The Complete Tradesman, pp.59-60.
47. Lancashire County Record Office (LRO), WCW 1733, John Townsend of Liverpool.
48. CCA, WS 1713 Thomas Gyles of Nantwich.
49. CCA, WS 1721 Robert Wilkinson of Nantwich.
50. Scola, Feeding the Pictorian City, pp.206-9.
51. J.D. Marshall (ed.), The Autobiography of William Stout of Lancaster 1665-1752 (Manchester, 1967), passim;nLRO, WCW 1756 Ralph Bates of Warrington; CCA, WS 1728 Zachariah Shelley of Congleton.
52. Cox, The Complete Tradesman, p.83.
53. Marshall, Autobiography of William Stout, p.90.
54. N. McKendrick, 'The Consumer Revolution of Eighteenth-Century England', in N. McKendrick, J. Brewer and R. Porter (eds.), The Birth of a Consumer Society (London, 1982), pp.9-33.
55. C. Walsh, 'The Advertising and Marketing of Consumer Goods in Eighteenth-Century London', in C. Wischermann and E. Shore (eds.), Advertising and the European City: Historical Perspectives (Aldershot, 2000), pp.79-95.
56. Manchester Mercury, 8 Oct. 1782. Quoted in Cox, The Complete Tradesman, p.106.
57. Mui and Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping, pp.232-48.
58. Fowler, 'Changes in Provincial Retail Practice', p.48.
59. Mui and Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping, pp.232-3.
60. T.S. Willan, An Eighteenth-Century Shopkeeper: Abraham Dent of Kirkby Stephen (Manchester, 1970), p.16.
61. Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser, 12 Dec. 1760; Manchester Mercury, 2 April 1782. Both in Cox, The Complete Tradesman, pp.104-5.
62. Adams Weekly Courant, 5 July 1785. Quoted in Mitchell, 'Urban Market and Retail Distribution', p.344.
63. Manchester Mercury, 1 Jan. 1782;
64. Adams Weekly Courant, 6/17 Dec. 1746.
65. Quoted in Mitchell, 'Urban Market and Retail Distribution', p.51.
66. Walsh, 'Shop Design and the Display of Goods', pp.376-9.
67. Ibid., pp.365-77.
68. M.D. George, London Life in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1925), p.162: quoted in Mui and Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping, p.222.
69. Cox, The Complete Tradesman, pp.92-103.
70. Marshall, Autobiography of William Stout, p.118.
71. D. Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman (London, 1727; New York, 1970), p.64.
72. CCA, WS 1721 Robert Wilkinson of Nantwich.
73. Cox, The Complete Tradesman, pp.93-5.
74. CCA WS 1756 Abner Scholes of Chester.
75. C. Morris (ed.), The Journeys of Celia Fiennes (London, 1947), p.161.
76. Defoe, Tour through Britain, pp.540-43.
77. J. Stobart, 'Culture versus Commerce: Societies and Spaces for Elites in Eighteenth-Century Liverpool', Journal of Historical Geography, Vol.28 (2002), pp.471-85.
78. This parallels the situation in York and London: Mui and Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping, p.125.
79. These concentrations parallel those noted by for Manchester food retailers: see Scola, Feeding the Victorian City, pp.237-42.
80. Stobart, 'Culture versus Commerce', pp.473-6.
81. R. Lawton, 'The Age of Great Cities', Town Planning Review, Vol.43 No.3 (1972), pp.206-7.
82. See Lawton, 'Age of Great Cities', p.206.
83. J. Aikin, A Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty Miles round Manchester (London, 1795), p.388.
84. Stobart, 'Shopping Streets as Social Space', pp.16-17.
85. J. Seacombe, The Chester Guide (Chester, 1836), p.139.
86. Mitchell, 'Urban Market and Retail Distribution'
87. E. Dyke (ed.), 'Chester's Earliest Directories', Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society, Vol.37 (1949).
88. Mui and Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping, pp.124-7.
89. T. Hughes, Ancient Chester: A Series of Illustrations of the Streets of this Old City (London, 1880).
90. H. Roberts, The Chester Guide (Chester, 1851), p.65.
91. J. Hemingway, History of City of Chester, Vol.1 (Chester, 1831), p.387.
92. Cheshire and Chester Archives (CCA), CR 63/2/133/17 - P. Broster, Sketch Plan of Eastgate Street (c.1754).
93. Glennie and Thrift, 'Consumer, Identities and Consumption Spaces', p.33.
94. Stobart, 'Shopping Streets as Social Space', pp.18-19.
95. CCA, A/B/4/25.; A/B/4/299v.
96. J. Stobart, 'County, Town and Country: Three Histories of Urban Development in Eighteenth-Century Chester', in P. Borsay and L. Proundfoot (eds.), Provincial Towns in Early Modern England and Ireland Change, Convergence and Divergence (London, 2002), pp.178-86.
97. Blome, Britannia, p.56.
98. Marshall, Autobiography of William Stout, passim.
99. This parallels developments taking place in Macclesfield and Stockport. See S.I. Mitchell, 'The Development of Urban Retailing, 1700-1815', in P. Clark (ed.), The Transformation of English Provincial Towns, 1600-1800 (London, 1984), pp.259-83.
100. J. Platt, The History and Antiquities of Nantwich (London, 1818), pp.76-7.
101. W. Cowdroy, The Directory and Guide for the City and County of Chester (Chester, 1789).
102. Dyke, 'Chester's Earliest Directories'.
103. CCA, WS 1713 John Jackson of Nantwich. WS 1712 Samuel Garnett of Nantwich. In addition to Jackson and Garnett, there was at least one other mercer in Nantwich at this time - Peter Wood (died 1713).
104. Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance. For a critical view of the timing and extent of this renaissance,
105. see R. Sweet, The English Town, 1680-1840: Government, Society and Culture (Harlow, 1999), pp.251-6.
106. CCA, WS 1712 Samuel Garnett of Nantwich; WS 1730 Robert Wadds of Nantwich
107. The figures presented here are taken from the county summaries of assessed taxes held in the Public Record Office (E 182). These documents record the amount of tax raised in each township, but only rarely the number of shop premises taxed.
108. S. Dowell, A History of Taxation and Taxes in England - Vol III (London, 1888), p.10
109. For a more detailed assessment of the tax see S.I. Mitchell, 'Pitt's Shop Tax in the History of Retailing', Local Historian, Vol.14 (1981).
110. Mui and Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping, pp.135-47.
111. See, for example, Mui and Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping;
112. Mitchell, 'Urban Market and Retail Distribution'.
113. The rates payable and the charging scales changed on several occasions between the introduction of the tax in 1696 and its eventual demise in 1851. Dowell, A History of Taxation, Vol.III, pp.168-77.
114. J.V. Beckett and C. Smith, 'Urban Renaissance and Consumer Revolution in Nottingham, 1680-1750', Urban History, Vol.27 No.1 (2000), pp.31-50.
115. 3-n) where d is the difference between in rank of each pair of values and n is the number of pairs. For details on the use of this measure of correlation, see R. Hammond and P. McCullagh, Quantitative Techniques in Geography (Oxford, 2nd edn. 1978), pp.223-7.
116. Selling through the window to poorer customers was practised by Stout in the late seventeenth century and continued throughout the eighteenth century. Cox, The Complete Tradesman, pp.77-83.
117. A. Hann, 'Industrialisation and the Service Economy', in J. Stobart and N. Raven (eds.), Towns, Regions and Industries (Manchester, forthcoming).
118. J. Stobart and B. Trinder, 'New Towns of the Industrial Coalfields: Burslem and West Bromwich', in Stobart and Raven (eds.), Towns, Regions and Industries;
119. Alexander, Retailing during the Industrial Revolution, pp.89-109.
120. R. Blome, Britannia or a Geographical Description of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland with the territories thereto belonging (London, 1673).
121. Most urban centres in the region had long established markets and fairs, although the functions performed by the latter was often changing as their staple trade in agricultural products and textiles passed into the hands of middlemen. See Fowler, 'Changes in Provincial Retail Practice', pp.42-3.
122. D. Defoe, A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain (London, 1724-26; Penguin edn. Harmondsworth, 1971), p.548.
123. See Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance.
124. M. Spufford, 'The Limitations of the Probate Inventory', in J. Chartres and D. Hey (eds.), English Rural Society, 1500-1800: Essays in Honour of Joan Thirsk (Cambridge, 1990).
125. J. Walton, 'Trades and Professions in Late Eighteenth-Century England: Assessing the Evidence of Directories', Local Historian, Vol.17 (1987), pp.343-50.
126. Scola, Feeding the Victorian City, p.206, demonstrates how growth in Manchester's retail sector accelerated from the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
127. See also Mui and Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping, pp.29-45.
128. Defoe, Tour through Great Britain, pp.547-8.
129. A. Hann, 'Retail Provision and the County Town', in E. Lord (ed.), The English County Town (Leicester, forthcoming).
130. These can often be identified from poll books and early town directories. For a discussion of petty shopkeepers during the early nineteenth century see Alexander, Retailing in the Industrial Revolution, pp.96-9.
131. Willan, Abraham Dent, pp.9-19.
132. Mui and Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping, especially pp.56-7 and 244-8.
133. Mui and Mui found only four provincial china and earthenware dealers in their sample survey of bankrupts from 1748 to 1770. Ibid., p.62.
134. Lichfield Record Office, WS 1710 Nicholas Blythe of Coventry; WS 1710 Richard Lindsey of Coventry
135. Fowler, 'Changes in Provincial Retail Practice', pp.44-6.
136. Ibid., pp.51-2.
137. See M. Berg, 'New Commodities, Luxuries and their Consumers in Eighteenth-Century England', in M. Berg and H. Clifford (eds.), Consumers and Luxury: Consumer Culture in Europe 1650-1850 (Manchester, 1999), pp.63-85.
138. This forms an important theme in Ogborn, Spaces of Modernity. See also R. Dennis, 'The Social Geography of Towns and Cities, 1730-1914', in R. Dodgshon and R. Butlin (eds.), An Historical Geography of England and Wales (London, 2nd edn. 1990), pp.429-51.
139. Stobart, 'Shopping Streets as Social Space', p.15.