Vicarious Consumers

The birth of a mass consumer society in Western Europe has been the subject of much scholarly debate in recent years. In order to come to a further understanding of the issue this book adopts an analytical approach paying special attention to the socio-cultural and economic transfers which occur when different commodities are introduced to territories with diverse values and identities. In particular it examines the role of merchants and their important influence on consumer decisions alongside a systematic analysis of probate inventories from southern Spain to reveal shifts in the patterns of consumption of new goods in urban and rural families underlining a growing interest in new exotic and foreign goods.