ABSTRACT
This book is about consumption and consumer behaviour in the early modern period.2 It is hardly a new subject, for perceptive contemporaries puzzled over other people’s expenditure, accepting or rejecting new habits and new goods according to their preconceptions. Defoe, writing here from the viewpoint of consumers, makes the fundamental distinction between people who cannot afford to consume, those who consume too much, and those in the middle, of whom he approved. Wedgwood, from a manufacturer’s viewpoint, makes a similar distinction, but adding that those in the middle were a potentially large and attractive market. The interesting thing about these comments is that they both take it that upper, middle, and lower ranks could be distinguished on the basis of their consumption habits. Consumer behaviour does indeed imply a great deal more than whether or not some goods or services were available and used, which means that consumption cannot be discussed in isolation from other aspects of social and economic life.
