The History of Retailing and Consumption
1 total work
The role of the itinerant pedlar has always occupied a special place in the history of retailing as numerous folk tales and ballads will testify. In this work, Dr Brown seeks to reassess the itinerant retailer and their contribution to the wider economy and society. He argues that far deserving their dubious reputation, pedlars were, on the whole an honest, industrious and useful people who played an important part in the economic life of early modern Britain. As well as showing the enormous range of goods sold by itinerant retailers, this book also looks at the changing business organisation they adopted, and how the credit and lifestyle networks of various groups of pedlars could overlap. Utilising a variety of primary sources from the period 1600-1900, including State Papers, Quarter Session Minutes, solicitors' papers, inventories, licenses and bankruptcy proceedings, Dr Brown has produced a fascinating study that will add greatly to our understanding of this area of early modern retailing.