CHORD invites participants to its 2024 on-line seminars on the history of retailing and distribution. Please see below for the seminar dates, programmes, abstracts and registration.
Participation is free, but registration is required. If you would like to attend one or more seminars, please e-mail Laura Ugolini at: l.ugolini@wlv.ac.uk specifying which dates you would like to attend.
For further information, please e-mail Laura Ugolini at: l.ugolini@wlv.ac.uk
Details of the 2023 seminars and related blogs can be found HERE
PROGRAMME
Monday 29 January 2024
10.00 Seminar opens – welcome
10.15 – 10.45 David Magalhães, University of Coimbra, Portugal, The Roman sale contract and the aedilitian remedies for latent defects. The roots of the modern consumer protection
10.50 – 11.20 Nada Elnahla, Maynooth University School of Business, Ireland, Something for everyone? The rise and fall of trading stamps in America (1891-2008) Read Nada,’s blog, co-authored with Leighann C. Neilson, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Canada, HERE
11.20 – 11.30 Break
11.30 – 12.00 Yasuko Suga, Tsuda University, Japan, Postcards at War: distribution of imperialist images in early and mid 20th century Japan
12.05 – 12.35 Dave Postles, independent scholar, UK, Spinsters in the lower levels of retailing in Leicestershire, 1851-1903. Read Dave’s blog HERE
Monday 26 February 2024
Drinks and drinking
14.00 Seminar opens – welcome
14.15 – 14.45 Graham Harding, University of Oxford, Coffee palaces in late 19th century Britan: ‘practical temperance’ in action
14.50 – 15.20 Martin Gabriel, University of Klagenfurt, Austria, Making Money off a “diabolic Beverage” – Mexico, Pulque, and the Colonial Economy (c. 1500-1800) Read Martin’s blog HERE
15.20 – 15.30 Break
15.30 – 16.00 Phil Lyon, Umeå University, Sweden, A drink for all reasons: newspaper advertising for Lucozade in 1939 Read Phil’s blog HERE
Monday 25 March 2024
10.00 Seminar opens – welcome
10.05 – 10.35 David Brown, independent scholar, UK, ‘An honest, industrious and useful description of people’ or ‘Persons of infamous character’: What was the role of itinerant retailing in social and economic development since the Middle Ages?
10.40 – 11.10 Ellie Brown, University of Warwick, UK, John Lewis: Partnership in Shopping Centre Development, 1969-1982
11.10 – 11.20 Break
11.20 – 11.50 William G. Clarence-Smith, SOAS University of London, UK, and Hirohito Sugibayashi, Kobe University, Japan, Distributing Japanese coral and cultured pearls abroad, 1870s to 1941
11.55 – 12.35 Two ‘work in progress’ ten-minute presentations:
Zoë Hendon, Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture (MoDA), Middlesex University, UK, “Colour in the Home:” Grace Lovat Fraser as interwar design consultant. Read Zoë’s blog HERE
Paula Martin, Manchester Metropolitan University and the National Trust at Saltram, UK, Shop local: the Parker family of Saltram and shopping in Plymouth in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
Monday 29 April 2024
14.00 Seminar opens – welcome
14.05 – 14.35 Daniel Muñoz Navarro, University of Valencia, Spain, ‘A devil named fashion’: democratization of luxury and new retail circuits in early modern Valencia
14.40 – 15.10 Chris Aino Pihlak, University of Toronto, Canada, Trans Femininity: A Lucrative Category of Historical Analysis
15.10 – 15.20 Break
15.20 – 15.50 Lesley Taylor, Solent University, Southampton UK, Style Union: challenges for High Street menswear brands in 1990s Britain
15.55 – 16.25 Daniel Menning, Tübingen Universität, Germany and Jon Stobart, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, The geographies of buying: customer networks in Germany and England, c.1700-1760
Monday 20 May 2024
10.00 Seminar opens – welcome
10.05 – 10.35 Ian Mitchell, University of Wolverhampton, UK, A Tale of Two Stores: Browns of Chester and Jarrolds of Norwich
10.40 – 11.10 Marlo Avidon, Cambridge University, UK, Fashioning Elite Female Society in Late Seventeenth-Century England, 1660-1702
11.10 – 11.20 Break
11.20 – 11.50 Aaron M. Honsowetz, Bethany College, US, Scale of Private Provision of Money Orders in the United States by Express and Telegraph Companies
11.55 – 12.25 Chunrong (Cynthia) Hao, University of Sydney, Australia, An Intersection between Branding and Architecture: The Brandscape of Chinese Shopping Malls
REGISTRATION
Participation is free, but registration is required. If you would like to attend one or more seminars, please e-mail Laura Ugolini at: l.ugolini@wlv.ac.uk specifying which dates you would like to attend.
For further information, please e-mail Laura Ugolini at: l.ugolini@wlv.ac.uk
ABSTRACTS
Marlo Avidon, Cambridge University, UK, Fashioning Elite Female Society in Late Seventeenth-Century England, 1660-1702
Building upon my ongoing PhD Research, my proposed paper broadly explores the consumption of apparel and accessories across the upper echelons of English society. It seeks to establish the shared purchasing habits and modes of discussing fashion that transcend traditional boundaries of the ‘Court’, ‘Town’, and ‘Country.’ In addition to examining the spending habits of elite women, I seek to ascertain how they communicated and discussed the purchase of and wearing dress withing a shared ‘material community’, comprising of female consumers and tailors and retailers. Ultimately, I argue that the apparel and accessories purchased by these women, in tandem with the ways in which they discussed the consumption of fashionable goods, played a vital role in the shaping of communal notions of elite sensibility and taste.
A dramatic influx of imported luxury goods from Europe and the ‘exotic Far-East,’ the growing influence of Francophile styles, and new methods of conveying information about the latest trends make these forty years between the Restoration of Charles II and the death of William III rich for further analysis. An expanding body of work, such as Laura Gowing’s seminal Ingenious Trades, and ongoing research by Sarah Bendall into the early modern mantua maker have demonstrated the central role of women in the production, distribution, and sale of fashionable items in the later seventeenth-century. However, within this discourse, the role of the consumer has been forgotten. I seek to reorient investigation towards the fashionable purchasing habits of these of elite women, and explore the relationship fostered between elite female consumers and the men and women who facilitated the purchase of these goods. To better synthesise the complex narratives that shaped elite understandings of fashionable clothing and their purchase, a diverse array of sources must be consulted. Manuscript records including surviving bills and accounts from the prominent families including the Sackvilles, Evelyns, Pettys and others document the close relationships fostered between retailers and their clients, while personal correspondence highlights the networks through which notions of fashion and its purchase spread. This archival evidence is supplemented with popular print on female shopping, commentary for known diarists including Samuel Pepys, and visual and material evidence. Ultimately, by centring the material community of elite female consumers, I seek to demonstrate their shared interest in cosmopolitan fashions that were vital in defining their individual and group identities.
David Brown, independent scholar, UK, ‘An honest, industrious and useful description of people’ or ‘Persons of infamous character’: What was the role of itinerant retailing in social and economic development since the Middle Ages?
Itinerant retailing has long been seen as the poor relation of fixed shops in the growth of retailing. It has been viewed as an interim stage in the rise of retailing and as being far less important economically and socially than fixed shop retailing. It was associated by many historically with criminality and sexual danger and something of this prejudice has continued to modern times especially in popular culture.
This paper will argue that itinerant retailing served an important and useful social function than is commonly appreciated and proved very adaptable to changing economic and social circumstances.
Itinerant trading adopted a range of forms including the sale of services alongside the sale of goods. It also covered a wide range of items as demand changed for example the sale of chapbooks, unstamped newspapers and even bibles. It will chart the progress of itinerant trading, from Ortsi the mummified iceman in 3300 BC through merchant-organised peddling to the formalised credit drapery of the Victorian period and arguably to new forms in the present day. Merchant organised peddling has been commented upon in Europe by Fontaine was present in England, largely organised by Scottish merchants having fraternities of pedlars cum smallholders selling smallwares with echoes of the butty system in mining in its fluidity and opportunities for social mobility. These systems were complex and sophisticated but existed alongside the individual pedlar.
Itinerant trading was very adaptable to changes in trade, the law and technology. It was far more widescale than historians have believed. For example, the reliance of economic historians on the number of peddling licences issued is flawed by the number of “unofficial” pedlars and the gaps in the current licensing record figures which it seems possible to fill in. While they were not dealing with anywhere near the value of goods sold from fixed premises, they did have a substantial role especially in the seventeenth century which continued after their role of bringing goods to the countryside seemed to be undermined by urbanisation. Itinerants were not just economically but socially useful and morally just on balance. In an age before social security and with anything but the weakest safety net, itinerants made a shift to support themselves in the face of often the vested interests of fixed shopowners and hostile attitudes – racism, scaremongering, moral panics, crime waves, fears of sexual predation and the spread of disease.
Ellie Brown, University of Warwick, UK, John Lewis: Partnership in Shopping Centre Development, 1969-1982
This paper examines the decision by large department store groups in Britain to move into shopping centre developments in the 1970s. I focus on the John Lewis Partnership which, as Kathryn Morrison (2003) notes, was the largest group to move away from the high street and into the mall. Between 1973 and 1982, the Partnership ventured into six large shopping centres in England and Scotland, which included the relocation of two of its existing premises in Nottingham and Newcastle, and the opening of four new John Lewis department stores in Edinburgh, Brent Cross, Milton Keynes and Peterborough. This paper responds to the popular notion that department stores were in decline in the twentieth century, particularly as a result of the construction of new shopping centres from the 1960s onwards. I consider how the Partnership embraced American malling techniques in the late 1960s in response to changes in retailing, from the opening of new shopping centres and hypermarkets to growing concern that international competitors might enter the British market. As such, I trace the trajectory of the Partnership’s expansion over the course of a decade alongside tensions between ‘American-style retailing’ and the existing retail environment in Britain. By the late 1970s, the Partnership’s experience with opening new stores in shopping centres meant that it was well-placed to consult and advise on new developments. This growing expertise put the Partnership at an advantage over shopping centre developers and other retailers, thus demonstrating that department store groups were not necessarily disadvantaged by the changing retail landscape, but able to adapt. As such, I look at the role of the British department store alongside a growing literature on shopping centres which seeks to offer a more nuanced understanding of the influence of American malling to show that shopping centres were not simply transported onto the British landscape but were the result of ‘transculturation’ (Gosseye and Avermaete, 2019). Just as shopping centres were not purely an American phenomenon, neither were department store groups put out to pasture when these new shopping developments came to Britain.
William G. Clarence-Smith, SOAS University of London, UK, and Hirohito Sugibayashi, Kobe University, Japan, Distributing Japanese coral and cultured pearls abroad, 1870s to 1941
Japanese firms exploited local banks of precious coral from the 1870s, and those of their Taiwanese colony from the 1920s. Other Japanese entrepreneurs, notably but not exclusively the legendary Mikimoto, produced cultured half pearls commercially from the late 1890s, and spherical ones from the late 1910s. The Japanese market for carved coral and pearl jewellery grew rapidly, but it could not absorb the whole output. The main foreign outlets were in Europe and North America, though China, India, and elsewhere also contributed. There were four broad strategies of distribution, which sometimes overlapped. Firstly, foreign traders in Japan, many of Jewish origin, risked selling untried goods through established networks. The first dealers in pearls were North Europeans, while some of the preponderantly Italian coral merchants added cultured pearls to their initial business. Secondly, Japanese firms placed their goods through local companies and individuals in countries of sale, according to various financial arrangements. Thirdly, Japanese firms relied on compatriots such as Yamanaka, who had set up branches abroad to deal in art and curios. Finally, Japanese producers established their own foreign branches, selling mainly wholesale, although Mikimoto was probably alone in pursuing this strategy at this time. Overall, Japan successfully managed to export its cultured pearls, raw coral, and coral artefacts to foreign markets, until entry into World War II in late 1941 put an end to these trades.
Nada Elnahla, Maynooth University School of Business, Ireland, Something for everyone? The rise and fall of trading stamps in America (1891-2008)
Using primary archival material (from the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, the United States) and secondary material (both academic and mainstream), this presentation will trace the rise and fall of trading stamps in the United States of America between 1891 and 2008.
Trading stamps were once considered a “national mania.” They were small paper coupons which resembled postal stamps and that could be glued into a stamp collection booklet. Although they had a minimal cash value individually, when accumulated into a booklet, the stamps could be exchanged with the trading stamp company (usually a third-party, for example, Sperry and Hutchinson, Kroger Co., and Gold Bond Stamp Co.) for premiums, such as toys, personal items, housewares, furniture, and appliances [1].
The 1940s is generally cited with being the birthplace of the modern trading stamp era, though the industry itself dates back to the late 19th century. In 1951, supermarkets successfully adopted trading stamps as promotional devices, and they were followed by small retailers. By the mid-1950s, American housewives were “falling hard” for stamp collection [2], and by the mid-60s, roughly four out of five of U.S. households were collecting stamps, pasting them in books, and exchanging books for an assortment of consumer goods. Trading stamps companies flourished despite price wars, federal investigations, and threats of legal sanctions.
Yet the adoption of trading stamps was polarizing. During their peak in the mid 1960s, stamps were hailed as the most effective promotional device ever invented, and proponents lauded them for stimulating business, boosting retailers’ sales gains, and maintaining customer loyalty. Opponents, on the other hand, accused them of being a “gimmick” [3], driving up prices, discouraging thrift, and encouraging crass materialism.
But the once-prosperous trading stamps business fell victim to inflation, the 1973 oil embargo, the 1974-1975 recession, and to the rise in consumers’ sensitivity to price. And in 2008, the last operating trading stamp company in the U.S., Eagle Stamps, closed.
References
[1] J. P. Mastrangelo, “Green stampede: The redeeming History of trading stamps,” The Washington Post, Jan. 22, 1980. Accessed: Nov. 21, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1980/01/22/green-stampede-the-redeeming-history-of-trading-stamps/8bf0ba24-db78-499f-847a-04941c560caa/
[2] Stamp stampede: Housewives, retailers bring a new boom to an old premium idea, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 1953.
[3] Hartman Archive, Marketing Vertical File, 1946-1999, Box 50.
Martin Gabriel, University of Klagenfurt, Austria. Making Money off a “diabolic Beverage” – Mexico, Pulque, and the Colonial Economy (c. 1500-1800)
While Mexico today is often seen as the “land of tequila”, during pre-colonial and colonial times the alcoholic drink most closely associated with the country was Pulque, the fermented sap of certain species of agave plants. In the Mexica Empire, agaves and Pulque had their own specific deities and were of enormous ritual importance. Most reports on the consumption of Pulque also state that it was highly regulated (e.g. reserved for older men, warriors or women who had just given birth). The fermented beverage, however, had a very pragmatic meaning as well – it is a very nutritious drink and can serve as substitute for water or food. It seems logical that the ritual importance of Pulque had its basis in this fulfilling of basic human needs. The European invasion of Mexico in the early 16th century did not bring an end to all features of pre-colonial culture; while in regions like rural Oaxaca province, indigenous women still sold homemade Pulque in or in front of their houses, the cities of New Spain, however, saw a change in economic patterns. At the beginning of the colonial period, Pulque used to be characterized as a more or less exclusively indigenous drink, but after some decades it was more often represented as alcoholic beverage synonymous with a certain social group: the urban lower classes, made up of poor Europeans, castas, Africans, and indios. Consumption of alcohol by these inhabitants of urban areas was seen as especially problematic, since there was an existential angst of the lower strata’s mixing, fraternization, miscegenation, and revolution against the established order. On the other hand, the colonial state made good money off Pulque, a drink that, after bloody unrest in Ciudad de México in 1692, was dubbed the “diabolical beverage” (diabólica bebida) by the viceroy. While Pulque (or some of its variants) were illegal during some times, the crown by-and-large accepted its production and sale, simply because Pulque was popular and could be taxed. During the 18th century, noble families like the Regla invested heavily in the Pulque business and the rise of Pulque haciendas meant the integration of production, regional marketing and transport; producers often also owned pulquerías, thereby controlling the sale of Pulque as well. Between 1763 and 1809, the crown registered 32 million Pesos of income related to the taxation of Pulque, putting the fermented sap in fifth place of revenue sources in New Spain.
Chunrong (Cynthia) Hao, University of Sydney, Australia, An Intersection between Branding and Architecture: The Brandscape of Chinese Shopping Malls
While the idea of brands and branding originates as a tool for denoting ownership, it has become a way for individuals and organizations to market themselves that nowadays has extended into far-reaching fields including urban and architecture discipline. The concept of brandscapes was coined by anthropologist John F. Sherry Jr. to describe a material and symbolic environment within which consumers build meanings through brand experiences. Architect and urban scholar Anna Klingmann introduces the term ‘brandscape’ into urbanism and architecture, defining it as spatialization of brands and brand identities are constructed in three dimensional realms. Sociologist Sonia Bookman points out brandscapes are not just a physical transformation of an existing brand identity into a three-dimensional space. They are places where brand identities and culture emanate. David Murakami Wood and Kirstie Ball suggest that brandscape is “a new apparatus and a mode of order in neo-liberal capitalism,”[1] indicating its instrumental role of brandscape in late capitalism whereby a series of capitalist ambitions can be achieved. At the convergence of branding and architecture, the shopping malls in contemporary Chinese context manifest as brandscapes. The Chinese mall architecture starts to emerge in the late 1990s and blooms in a very short period time, specifically during the first two decades of twenty-first century. In the institutional and historical background, mall development has involved multiple types of capital resources (ranging from state capital, foreign joint venture, private companies etc.). To compete in the market, branding strategies are highly considered so that the malls claim themselves brands on their own rights. Taikoo Li, the Mixc, Joy City, Raffles City, K11 are just a few examples that articulate their own brand philosophies through mall architecture. Among these examples, the Joy City shopping mall developed by the state-owned company GRANDJOY is one of most influential mall brands in shaping the Chinese mall brandscapes. By contextualizing Chinese shopping malls in the contemporary history and through an analysis of one of mall architectural brands — Joy City, a better understanding of how Chinese mall architecture has been shaped will be explored.
[1] David Murakami Wood and Kirstie Ball, “Brandscapes of Control? Surveillance, Marketing and the Co-Construction of Subjectivity and Space in Neo-Liberal Capitalism.” Marketing Theory 13, no. 1 (2013): 47.
Graham Harding, University of Oxford, Coffee palaces in late 19th century Britan: ‘practical temperance’ in action
In the second half of the 19th century as the movement for total abstention began to flag, the concept of ‘practical temperance’ came to the fore. From the 1870s onwards the promotion of coffee houses as a place of rest and recreation for working men received both generous support and considerable publicity. References in the press to ‘coffee palaces’, ‘coffee taverns’ and ‘coffee public houses’ rose from around 250 in 1860-69 to around 16,000 in 1870-79 and over 68,500 in 1880-89 before falling away after 1900. Such places offered a variety of non-alcoholic drinks in a ‘warm and comfortable room’ where a working man could ‘smoke a pipe and read a newspaper’ or perhaps play some quiet games such as chess or draughts’.[1] Coffee also had the advantage of acting as a ‘natural and healthy’ stimulant. Erika Rappaport’s work on the 19th-century ‘temperance tea parties’ focuses on the first half of the century and there appears to be no modern work on the coffee palaces and their like.[2] This paper marks the start of an enquiry into these establishments. Using the 19th century press and contemporary written accounts, I will attempt to answer questions such as who founded them, where were they located, what did they serve and how did their customers (and sponsors) view them? I also aim to relate their history to both the longer-term development of institutions such as the Lyons coffee houses and the broader ramifications of the ‘practical temperance’ movement.
References
[1] Western Daily Press, 5 December 1879, 3; Daily Review (Edinburgh), 24 October 1879, 8.
[2] Erika Rappaport, “Sacred and Useful Pleasures: The Temperance Tea Party and the Creation of a Sober Consumer Culture in Early Industrial Britain,” Journal of British Studies 52 (2013).
Zoë Hendon, Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture (MoDA), Middlesex University, UK, “Colour in the Home:” Grace Lovat Fraser as interwar design consultant
During the 1920s, Grace Lovat Fraser established herself as a design consultant with an emphasis on the needs and desires of the suburban housewife. She operated within the overlapping worlds of magazines and department stores, both of which in their different ways sought to educate female consumers and encourage them to spend money on furnishings for the home. Grace’s reputation was built on her sound knowledge of the products that were available to customers, and her willingness to offer straightforward advice to a class of people who were not able to afford the services of professional interior designers. For these consumers, making the right decisions about decorating was important not only because of class status anxieties, but because mistakes would be costly and difficult to fix.
Grace understood the needs of this largely female audience, and positioned herself as a friendly yet authoritative voice on all matters to do with choice of paint colours, fabrics, wallpapers and furnishings. She was a regular contributor to Town and Country Homes magazine, in which she authored an advice column on interior decorating aimed at female readers. She also made frequent appearances in local department stores around the country from the late 1920s onwards. In these live demonstrations she would furnish a room with products available from the store, providing an enjoyable spectacle for shoppers and enhancing her credibility with her readership. This short work in progress paper (10 minutes) will outline my research on this one aspect of the life of Grace Lovat Fraser, which is part of a larger project.
Aaron M. Honsowetz, Bethany College, US, Scale of Private Provision of Money Orders in the United States by Express and Telegraph Companies
Express Companies, such as American Express, and telegraph companies, like Western Union, competed with the United States Post Office Money Order to transfer money to destinations within and outside of the United States. I provide the first detailed list of the cost to purchase express company money orders from 1883 to 1917. Additionally, I track down the scant information on the volume and amount of money transfers by private companies to estimate their share of the market relative to the United States Post Office. American Express issued its first money order in 1881 and Western Union started telegraphic transfers of money by 1872. They competed with the Post Office at times on price, ease of use, and speed of delivery.
Phil Lyon, Umeå University, Sweden, A drink for all reasons: newspaper advertising for Lucozade in 1939
Lucozade is a long-established flavoured glucose drink in Britain and is traditionally associated with convalescence, helping people get over an illness, or recover from surgery. The name dates back to 1929, but the history is longer. Over the years, the narrative has changed with the most recent transformation being from sickroom drink to become a performance-enhancing sports energy drink. Thereafter, the marketing focus has been on the replacement of lost energy following activity. There was a continuing narrative of health utility but the emphasis was different: the product had been recast for consumer concerns in a new era.
However, there had been earlier, and arguably more dramatic changes to the narrative. There were two phases to this but both led to broader claims for effectiveness. Lucozade’s origins had not been as the sickroom standby, it was developed as an unbranded drink in the early 1900s and used clinically as a precaution before chloroform anaesthesia. In this, it was a pre-emptive life-saver, not something to generally aid recovery from illness. This later purpose appears to have been an accidental attribution, first gaining popular traction around Newcastle. The drink was subsequently branded, first as Glucozade in 1927 and as Lucozade in 1929, by a manufacturing by a chemist. Acquisition by Beechams in 1938 and their substantial 1939 newspaper advertising campaign gave Lucozade much wider recognition and consolidated this claim of generic utility by invoking well-established advertising ideas about tonic preparations. In the course of that year, it was portrayed as the answer to many everyday problems. General help with convalescence was still assured but now Lucozade’s effectiveness was framed as a bulwark against several ill-defined afflictions – poor appetite, nervousness, listlessness, depression and all manner of personal debility. These were terms designed to resonate with readers, the advertisements referenced problems in their lives and alluded to Lucozade’s approval by doctors and nurses. This presentation examines the scope and scale of newspaper advertising during this 1939 Lucozade campaign.
David Magalhães, University of Coimbra, Portugal, The Roman sale contract and the aedilitian remedies for latent defects. The roots of the modern consumer protection
One of the contracts recognized by Roman Law was “purchase and sale” (emptio venditio), herein referred as sale. It gave origin to the seller’s obligation to deliver an object and to the purchaser’s obligation to pay a fixed amount of money (the price).
The seller (venditor) could sue the purchaser through the actio venditi if he didn’t fulfil his contractual duties; conversely, actio empti was available to the buyer (emptor) against the seller. Those actions were granted by the praetor, who was the chief magistrate for the administration of justice.
An obvious problem emerged if the delivered object suffered from a latent defect which impaired its normal use or what had been settled by the contracting parties.
Although we could go back in time even more, during the late Republic the purchaser could exercise the actio empti against the seller to demand damages caused by hidden defects (e.g., the value of the object rendered useless by the defect). But the seller would be liable only if acted fraudulently because the latent defect was known to him and he failed to disclose it, or when he had assured the buyer that the object didn’t suffer from defects or had some particular qualities and that didn’t happen.
It was a rather limited liability. To prove the existence of fraud (dolus) was not an easy task and a very wide range of situations was not protected when the seller didn’t expressly assure the lack of defects or the existence of certain qualities.
This state of affairs didn’t please the aediles curules, who were the magistrates responsible for what we call nowadays local government – which included the regulation of public markets.
As the aediles had the power to make Law through their edicts (ius edicendi), the aedilitian edict established the duty of the sellers of slaves and livestock (the most important goods sold in public markets) to inform purchasers about the existence of all latent defects – that is to say, diseases and physical defects and, in the case of the sale of slaves, even moral defects! The aediles also had a specific jurisdiction over disputes between sellers and purchasers; therefore, if no information was provided, but the object turned out to be defective, the aedilitian edictgranted the purchaser, at his choice, two alternative remedies against the seller:
. the actio redhibitoria, the effect of which was the rescission of the sale contract;
. the actio quanti minoris (or aestimatoria), which allowed the purchaser to claim the difference between the real value of the object and the price that had been paid.
It was an implied warranty of soundness, without the need of an express declaration. No fault on the seller’s part was required, as he was be liable even if he ignored the defect, but by contrast the aedilitian actions should be brought within a short time limit: six months and one year, respectively, after the defect became apparent.
An impressive and illuminating justification for this legal framework is to be found in a text authored by the late classical jurist Ulpianus (170/223) and extracted from his comment to the edict of the aediles curules (D.21,1,1,2)[1].
It was undoubtedly a consumer protection – and a very sophisticated one. Since the beginning of the Principate (27 BC/284 CE), the Roman jurists generalized it to the sales of all goods (e.g, timber or clothes), which meant that rescission or the reimbursement of the excessive amount could be claimed by way of the actio empti. Damages could also be demanded through the same remedy but only when the seller had been at fault.
The civilian tradition, based on Roman Law and developed since the Middle Ages, carried on this legacy. The implied warranty of soundness, the no-fault rule for rescission and price reduction and special prescription periods are still essential features of the modern consumer protection.
References
[1] “This edict was proposed in order to check the deceptive practices of sellers and give aid to buyers who are deceived by sellers. But we should realize that the seller ought still to be liable even if he was unaware of those things the Aediles order him to provide. Nor is this unjust, since the seller could learn of them; it makes no difference to the buyer why he is deceived, whether by the seller’s ignorance or by his guile”. English translation by Bruce W. Frier, A Casebook on the Roman Law of Contracts, Oxford University Press, 2021, p. 300.
Paula Martin, Manchester Metropolitan University and the National Trust at Saltram, UK, Shop local: the Parker family of Saltram and shopping in Plymouth in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
Saltram is a country house on the outskirts of Plymouth and was the country seat of the Parker family between 1740 and 1959. Plymouth had been a thriving port town from the fifteenth century onwards, with imports and exports second only to Bristol and Exeter in the South West. During the eighteenth century the city developed exponentially, in part due to the expansion of the Royal Navy victualing yard at Dock, and so the availability of goods increased. Some research on Plymouth has been undertaken, most notably Crispin Gill’s Plymouth: A New History 1603- the Present Day which charts the development of the city, but little research has been done on the availability of goods and the experience of shopping in the city itself.
While historians of retail history such as Mui and Mui, and Stobart along with Walsh, Mitchell and Cox have explored provincial shopping, little is known about the elite experienced shopping in provincial towns. This paper will use the Parker family as a case study to explore their experience of shopping in Plymouth during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with a focus on consumable goods such as groceries. The Parker family archive includes a large number of bills along with account books, which give a valuable insight into the type of goods which were available, where the shops were and what the family were spending. This paper will therefore explore the range of goods which were available to consumers and who was supplying them.
As a port city a wide range of goods came through Plymouth, from within Britain, Europe and via global trade. The Parkers were part of the moneyed elite and so were able to take full advantage of everything that the city had to offer in terms of shopping. However, they also had access to London goods so this paper will also consider the differences between provincial and metropolitan shopping, and the family’s attitudes towards provincial goods.
References
Cox, Nancy. The complete tradesman : a study of retailing, 1550-1820. The history of retailing and consumption. Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants, England, 2000.
Gill, Crispin. Plymouth: A New History 1603- the Present Day. Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles Limited, 1979.
Mitchell, Ian. Tradition and innovation in English retailing, 1700 to 1850 : narratives of consumption. Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants, England, 2014.
Mui, Hoh-Cheung, and Lorna Mui. Shops and Shopping in Eighteenth Century England. Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1989. Stobart, Jon. Sugar and Spice : Grocers and Groceries in Provincial England, 1650-1830. First edition. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Daniel Menning, Tübingen Universität, Germany and Jon Stobart, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, The geographies of buying: customer networks in Germany and England, c.1700-1760
Shops and shopping streets are increasingly recognised as important spaces of the eighteenth-century town across Europe. Research on England in particular has highlighted their sophistication as places of economic and social interaction, but more recent work has confirmed that the material culture and practices of shopping were highly developed in many other parts of Europe, including Germany. Much less research has focused on the networks of customers who bought from these shops, especially beyond large metropolises. We therefore lack clear answers to even the most basic questions about the broader geographies and hierarchies of retailing: how far were people willing to travel to acquire particular goods; how many customers were necessary to sustain shops; how important was the size and character of the town in shaping customer networks? Our paper offers an initial attempt to provide answers to these questions in a comparative context. We draw on information about shop debts contained in probate inventories and on a small number of shopkeeper’s account books to map out the geography of customer networks in Württemberg and the English Midlands ¾ regions that contain a mixture of large and small towns. We examine the number and location of customers, the size of debts, and where possible the rhythms of spending that lie behind accumulated debts. This allows us to assess the range of particular shops or goods (did large-town shops or high-order goods have bigger customer networks?); the relative importance of urban and rural customers (and how this varied according to the location of the shop), and the impact of conduits and barriers to trade (including turnpikes, rivers and competing centres/shops). Addressing these questions in a comparative context provides the opportunity to challenge assumptions about English exceptionalism and uncover common attributes of shopping in the two countries.
Ian Mitchell, University of Wolverhampton, UK, A Tale of Two Stores: Browns of Chester and Jarrolds of Norwich
Although the category of ‘Department Store’ is useful when describing and analysing retailing from the mid to late nineteenth century onwards, it can sometimes be misleading or give the impression that all such stores were essentially similar and had, or were likely to have had, a similar history. In practice there was a great variety of ‘Department Stores’ and their histories reflected both internal factors (effectiveness of management etc) and externalities such as location or changes in the nature of the places in which they were located.
This paper compares and contrasts two stores which could reasonably fall into the ‘Department Sore’ category and both of which were located in historic English county towns: Chester and Norwich. Both could reasonably claim eighteenth century origins, even if there were differences between the originating stores. Browns developed in what might be regarded as the typical growth story – draper in origin, with house furnishings added later and finally other departments. Jarrolds was always more focussed on household goods with fabric and clothing later additions. But both were the flagship stores for their respective cities. Jarrolds remains a thriving store at the heart of Norwich’s retail district. It is also proud of its history and celebrates it (including a book with a foreword by Stephen Fry). Browns is no more: just a memory. It was swallowed up by Debenhams and then suffered the fate of other similar stores when the Debenham group collapsed a few years ago. Fifty years ago when I was originally researching shops and shopping in Cheshire, Browns seemed impregnable. I had not then even heard of Jarrold. What caused these different trajectories? Was it about management; or about the characteristics of the store (goods stocked; pricing; credit etc); or simply where each store was located? This paper explores these issues with a view to opening up a discussion on why some ‘Department Stores’ prospered while others failed.
Daniel Muñoz Navarro, University of Valencia, Spain, ‘A devil named fashion’: democratization of luxury and new retail circuits in early modern Valencia
According to Bruno Blondé, the dawn of a consumer society needed the development of retail infrastructures, organizations and practices that made possible the distribution, marketing and selling of a growing range of luxury and exotic goods.[1] We cannot speak of “consumer revolution” or “industrious revolution” without wonder about the necessary changes in the distribution process, which enabled to satisfy and encourage the new consumption patterns. However, this historical process was not specific to the Northern Europe, but also developed in Mediterranean Europe and especially in the most important cities of the Spanish Monarchy, like Valencia, our case study. The city of Valencia is a paradigmatic example, because it is a major urban center during the eighteenth century, with a powerful merchant bourgeoisie, but whose main activity, the silk industry, went into a deep crisis during the second half of this century. One factor that allows us to make a comparison with the case of Antwerp, defined as “a city in decline”.[2] Despite this progressive decline, we can observe a process of democratization of luxury and a renovation of retail trade during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which allow us to confirm the spread of the virus of fashion and the birth of a consumer society in Valencia, as in other regions of the Spanish Monarchy. This contribution intends to analyze how the influence of fashion in eighteenth-century Spain transformed the commercial structure of the urban contexts, being the petty bourgeoisie the main protagonists and the “botiga” (shop) the showcase of fashion.[3]
References
[1] BLONDÉ, B., STABEL, P., STOBART, J. y VAN DAMME, I. (eds.), Buyers and sellers. Retail circuits and practices in mediaeval and early modern Europe, Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2006, pp. 9-10.
[2] BLONDÉ, BRUNO, and ILJA VAN DAMME. “Retail Growth and Consumer Changes in a Declining Urban Economy: Antwerp (1650-1750)”, The Economic History Review, vol. 63, no. 3, 2010, pp. 638–63.
[3] MUÑOZ NAVARRO, D., “The virus of fashion. Democratization of luxury and new commercial strategies in early modern Valencia”, in NIGRO, G. (ed.), Fashion as an economic engine: process and product innovation, commercial strategies, consumer behavior, Datini Studies in Economic History, Florence, 2022, pp. 201-19.
Chris Aino Pihlak, University of Toronto, Canada, Trans Femininity: A Lucrative Category of Historical Analysis
From the 1960s onward, a complex ecosystem of trans feminine subcultures emerged throughout the Anglosphere. Trans people used correspondence, newsletters, and magazines, to connect across continents, and in turn they formed bonds of sisterhood, community, and solidarity at a time of intense hostility. In addition to non-corporeal community, these subcultures hosted in-person community events, be they conventions, workshops, bar-nights ‘en femme,’ or secretive meetings in someone’s living room. Across these mediums, members discursively constructed norms of proper (trans) femininity in comportment, apparel, and aesthetics. And retailers were there every step of the way.
Building off my historical expertise on these subcultures, I foresee a three-part talk on the presence and role of retailers in 20th-century Anglosphere trans feminine subcultures. First, outlining the presence of these businesses. In periodicals, retailers advertised large sized shoes, breast forms, big-and-tall sizes, wigs, and countless other feminine goods to trans femmes who valued discretion. At trans feminine social gatherings, Mary Kay agents, electrologists, and countless others peddled their wares and expertise to grateful, and often closeted, trans feminine people. Typical retailers ranged from trans feminine owned businesses like New York City’s Lee’s Mardi Gras Boutique, to sympathetic non-trans businesses. Secondly, would be an analysis of the more ephemeral and expertise-based service providers that catered to trans feminine audiences. Personal shoppers, feminization consultants, guidebooks on femme comportment, and non-sexual ‘feminine companions,’ all engaged with a marginalized, albeit often wealthy, consumer-base. Finally, I will speak to the role of retailers in shaping the subculture’s normative understandings of femininity. Those who sold ‘femme goods’ worked from specific understandings of what constituted femininity, and the presence and absence of certain aesthetics shaped what subcultural members understood as the feminine goods that they should buy. This aesthetic was typically overwhelmingly desexualized and reflected a prim aesthetic aligned with 20th-century, middle-class, and white norms of non-trans womanhood. I hope my talk will prove generative for both myself and the audience. I wish to use this seminar as a springboard to talk through the role of retailers in shaping communal norms of subcultures.
Dave Postles, independent scholar, UK, Spinsters in the lower levels of retailing in Leicestershire, 1851-1903
Part of a wider examination of unmarried women in late Victorian England, the discussion here focuses on how spinsters fared in retailing in the borough, small towns, industrialising and rural parishes of Leicestershire. The first stage involved abstracting all data from the National Probate Register (1858-1903) for Leicestershire testators, which provided details of the testators, their final place of abode, and the value of their estate. The testators were then identified further in the census enumerators’ returns (1841-1911) to establish their ages, places of birth, occupations/status and households. Then the local registers of certified copies of wills (Record Office for Leicestershire Leicester and Rutland series DE642) were examined for significant legacies/bequests. For the purposes here, spinsters are defined as those aged over 50 at their demise (criterion established by historical demographers). The result is a collective biography of spinsters in the lower levels of retailing in Leicestershire, focusing on the success or otherwise of their engagement (through probate valuations) and the longevity of their business (traced through the census returns and their wills/probate). Additionally, the 1881 census and directories are examined to consider the whole complement of spinsters in retail and their geographical distribution (since the National Probate Register is highly selective). In the late nineteenth century new opportunities were opened for women, not just through the Married Women’s Property Acts. The fortunes of spinsters is an integral part of those processes.
Yasuko Suga, Tsuda University, Japan, Postcards at War: distribution of imperialist images in early and mid 20th century Japan
After the opening of the country in the mid-19th century and the introduction of Western-style infrastructure including the postal system, Japan developed a very active culture of picture and photographic postcards. However, unlike the Western picture postcards which mostly featured leisure-related subjects like beauties, seasonal greetings and sightseeing spots, Japanese postcards included many varieties on military-related themes on top of the above popular subjects.
Arguably, one reason for it is that postcards became a great fad from the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5) onwards. Japan was a latecomer in the imperialist strategies, and therefore desperate to become on a par with the Western countries. The unbelievably glorious fact for the Japanese that it prevailed Russia in the Russo-Japanese War made the military men the national heroes – enough to be photographed and made into postcards. It is interesting to note that such postcards in the 1900’s and 1910’s have Art-Nouveau features with framing decorations around the photos of combat vehicles or soldiers. The avantgarde trend in design was used for the projection of armed services.
The military subjects continued to be popular. During the First World War (although Japan did not enter it) and after, and during the Second World War, postcards developed to carry messages and images of imperialist ideas nation-wide on various levels. Postcards not only conveyed the images of military men at work, but also distributed pure propaganda for those living away from the battlefields to keep the fighting spirit, even in remote villages, in attractive designs. It can be said that postcards even excelled posters as they were not practically limited to towns and cities. In the paper I hope to show various levels of imperialism in postcard designs and argue that they worked as a strong agency of Japan’s imperialism.
Lesley Taylor, Solent University, Southampton UK, Style Union: challenges for High Street menswear brands in 1990s Britain
In 1997 the UK retail chain The Burton Group consisted of Burton Menswear, Debenhams department store, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Principles, Topshop and Top Man.
At this time, menswear was not performing well across the group and a trial project store – named Style Union – was put together in Guildford’s Friary Shopping Centre in February of that year, in what was until that point a Burton menswear store. Chief Executive John Hoerner observed, when asked about men’s shopping habits at the time that not only do men not like shopping but that they “don’t like going in more than one store” (Gilbert, 1997).
Hence this ‘mini menswear department store’ aimed to test out a new, condensed shopping format bringing together menswear brands from across the group under one roof.
Style Union launched with a full contemporary refit and benefited from a prominent High Street presence with tall, boldly painted window displays on three sides of the shopping centre. The high-profile launch saw fashion designer and TV presenter Jeff Banks working at the store alongside staff in the formalwear department. The project gained coverage in the fashion and retail press during its trading ‘lifetime’.
This presentation will explore some of the visual merchandising methodologies trialled within the store to differentiate itself from the previous models it needed to break away from. It will also discuss the outcomes for the store project and the group itself, culminating in an unexpected twist in the groups’ retailing history and the impact on its own high street brands.
References
GILBERT, N., 1997. The Top Man and his plan [viewed 1st December 2023]. Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/the-top-man-and-his-plan-1250427.html
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For further information, please e-mail Laura Ugolini at: l.ugolini@wlv.ac.uk
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