ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on fixed shop retailing in the eighteenth century and first part of the nineteenth. It considers both the role of these shopkeepers in the wider urban community and their business methods. The chapter looks at producer-retailers who made up a substantial proportion of the urban trading community throughout the eighteenth century and beyond. Producer-retailers were not only found in the clothing and footwear trades. They also included bakers; household furnishers such as upholsterers and cabinet makers; and specialists like silversmiths and watchmakers. Belonging to a guild or similar society brought benefits, including the sociability and networking of annual feasts. Building networks and securing a reputation for trustworthiness was also crucial to running a successful business, particularly in a society where face to face relationships were crucial. The best shops in towns of any size tended increasingly during the eighteenth century to cluster in principal shopping streets or around the market place.
