ABSTRACT
London’s importance in the early modern period stemmed from a unique blend of roles as Capital City, the seat of the Court, Parliament and judiciary, the hub of inland and overseas trade, the heart of pre-industrial manufacturing, the centre of service and social entertainment for the well-todo and the central meeting point of the elite marriage market. Above all it was the concentration of trade and political power in the city which conferred greatness upon it. ‘No other city in Europe,’ concluded Ramsay, ‘combined these two qualities of being at once the seat of a powerful and independent government and a maritime port of the first rank.’1 London’s multi-functional existence moulded its distinctive social structure and patterns of consumption. Like any other city, London’s population contained multitudes of craftsmen, journeymen and apprentices, and below them an uncertain number of hawkers, vagrants and beggars,2 but the capital also housed an unusually high number of merchants and members of the aristocracy and gentry, whose wealth and residence made it the centre of conspicuous consumption. As John Chartres has observed, consumption patterns in the Capital were radically different from those of the rest of England, as indicated by its high consumption of grain, meat, dairy and garden produce. In addition, Londoners also enjoyed a higher level of consumption of luxuries and exotic consumer goods3 – byproduct of the higher wages and far superior levels of wealth found in the capital.
