ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on women who were engaged in the luxury trade, that is, in providing the luxuries that enabled the golden living. These women also reflect the intersection of the four elements of: town, luxury, gender and the economy. The chapter argues that luxury was an important part of Denmark's transition to a modern capitalist economy by bringing goods and capital into the economy. Since these goods mainly arrived through the capital city of Copenhagen, they had a dramatic impact on the urban economy as well as on the face of the city. There are several sides to the luxury trade: production, distribution and consumption. The chapter deals with production and distribution. In late eighteenth-century Denmark, married women were technically femmes couvertes who needed their husbands' permission to engage in business. Women were engaged in many aspects of the luxury trade in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Copenhagen.
