ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we address the title of the book and look at what lies behind two of the constituent words, ‘perceptions’ and ‘retailing’. By perceptions, we do not merely mean the views of contemporaries, even though we do attempt to find out more about their attitudes and judgements and to understand them better. By looking at early-modern perceptions in that way, we could risk the danger of reiterating the negative views that retailing has seemingly attracted from the moment the first retailer ever dared to act as a go-between. The whipping boy of commerce needs not another beating, nor do these views necessarily require another airing. Rather, we would like to juxtapose the bad press that retailing received at the time with a curious observation. Even a cursory look at retailing in early-modern England reveals a lively sector exploiting a range of diverse practices. This is unexpected given the patent disdain expressed by many. Could a certain discomfort to settled beliefs have provoked the disdain, when confronted with so much diversity and vigour, mostly engendered by small enterprises? And, switching to the perceptions of latter-day investigators, was all this diversity the result of inefficient practitioners unable or too short-sighted to conceive of better methods of supplying their customers and those they tried to attract? Indeed, were their methods inefficient? And should they be looked at only in terms of economic and time-space calculations?
