‘Of fine shops and fine shows’: Rethinking Shopping for Pleasure in Eighteenth-Century England

Abstract

It has long been accepted that eighteenth-century England witnessed the birth of a consumer society in which the mode of consumption was changed from necessity to decency of life. Shopping culture in this period has beed explored by cultural historians and historians of retailing. They are correct when they discovered that polite culture framed eighteenth-century shopping procedure. It rendered the process of good acquisition a pleasurable activity. Thus emerged the concept of shopping for pleasure in eighteenth-century historiography. This article aims to revisit this established view. Using interpretive ethnography, it re-examines the relationship between shopping and politeness. The article analyses the cultural meanings of shopping streets and the role of shopping rituals in fashioning both the shopkeeper’s and the customer’s polite personality. Since one’s politeness was observed, studied and evaluated by other polite shoppers, eighteenth-century shopping could be considered, the article argues, as the living school suitable for training and developing one’s polite behaviour. Shopping was far more significant than being a pleasurable activity.