Agricultural History Review, Volume 62 Part 1 (2014), p. 178

Retailing and especially consumption have attracted an enormous amount of interest in recent years, with the long eighteenth century being accorded particular emphasis in narratives of transformation. This book promises a reassessment of the standard view, firstly by focusing on aspects of retailing too often overlooked (markets and itinerants, for instance) and secondly by placing these alongside both more familiar retail formats (fixed shops and polite shopping) and key motivations for consumption. Mitchell is wary of grand narratives; indeed, he seeks to debunk them. He does this by grounding his book in a rich and detailed picture of the everyday practices and experiences of retailing. The analysis is structured into three broad sections.

The first centres on continuity and change in traditional retail formats. Central to this is a familiar story of the rise of fixed shops, although there is welcome detail that adds granularity and coherence to a picture too often left patchy and impressionistic. More importantly, the picture is broadened to include the operation and experience of markets, and the attempts to improve these whilst retaining ideals of morality and fairness, especially for the poor. Alongside this, Mitchell explores the margins of retailing: itinerants, back street shops and second-hand dealers. Importantly, these are presented as part of the same retail system: practices and customers being shared with more formal types of retailing. It is here that village shops make their only appearance, which is unfortunate as they too were growing in number and sophistication during this period, and deserve greater attention.

The second section focuses on consumption; what Mitchell sees as ‘disturbing influences’. He begins by revisiting the familiar debate over luxury, but adds a fresh touch by including an explicitly religious dimension to these ‘moral’ debates. The discussion is then extended into ideas of dissatisfaction and contentment, although the latter is rather brushed over as attention centres on the so-called Diderot effect. Next, we move to fashion, conceived here largely in terms of novelty and leisurely sociability, although comfort is also discussed, mostly as a counterpoint to the apparent strictures of gentility and elegance. In many ways, this chapter lies at the heart of the book. It is here that Mitchell really gets to grips with shopping as an activity that brings together retailing and consumption. In doing so, he seeks to address the thorny issue of the role of shopkeepers in constructing and communicating taste. Despite excellent primary material and a nuanced discussion of shopping practices (which emphasizes the importance of fashion to consumers) we never really get an answer to this question. Instead, attention moves on to collecting (and obsession) as another motivation to consume. These are explored largely in terms of books and again we are treated to some wonderful insights into the varied practices of bibliophiles, each carefully gleaned from the archives and meticulously presented. It is perhaps a little surprising, then, that the analysis leaves largely unexplored the ways in which these passions were fed by or shaped the provincial book trade.

In the final section, Mitchell turns to ‘modern’ forms of retailing, which emerged in the early nineteenth century. Following a canter through some figures on the growing number of shops, attention focuses more firmly on proto-department stores and bazaars. The former are reasonably familiar and a series of well-known businesses are discussed, mostly to ascertain commonalities in their success. Perhaps some ‘failed’ initiatives would have added to our understanding of this important retail innovation, but we nonetheless get a much clearer picture of the contingent nature of retail development: there was nothing automatic about the success of shops such as Browns or Kendals. Less familiar is the rise (and fall) of bazaars – an essentially London phenomenon that briefly flourished in a number of provincial towns before being subsumed or overtaken by department stores. In the end, we return to our starting point: the retail market, discussed here in terms of the emergence of market halls. Rather than dwell on their physical form, Mitchell focuses on their construction as a contested process with uncertain outcomes – one that depended on the firm guiding hand of a wealthy landowner or determined local government.

Overall, this is an impressive book; the product of considerable scholarly effort. Does it succeed in offering the promised reassessment? To an extent, it does. Mitchell argues convincingly that modernity was a fragmented and fractured process, and successfully anchors grand narratives in the complexity of everyday experience. He focuses at least some of our attention onto traditional and humble forms of retailing and invites us – quite rightly – to think closely about the link between retailer and consumer. However, his wariness of large explanatory frameworks means that he ultimately shies away offering an alternative framework for analysis that might reform how we approach retailing and consumption in this vital period of change. Nonetheless, this is an impressive and very readable book; one that provides rich insights into a dynamic and diverse set of economic and social practices.