Shops and Shopping in Victorian England :: European Europe History

Shops and Shopping in Victorian England    As the population of London grew during the nineteenth century, the means of production and distribution would need to change to meet the needs of the increasing masses. Prior to this period goods and products for the most part were gotten at markets or fairs. "From a country which had been predominantly agricultural and self-sufficient in essential commodities, England became a great manufacturing centre. The industrial towns of the North and Midlands developed and England was the workshop of the world, the markets for her products being assured by the growing needs of the pioneers of her Empire" (Borer 253). Not only was the growing Empire a vast market for England's goods; but within England, London in particular, we can see perceptions about products and people's shopping practices begin to evolve. It is at this point in history that Raymond Williams in his work, Culture and Society: 1780-1950, marks the shift in the meaning of the word "industry." "Industry, before this period, was a name for a particular human attribute, which could be paraphrased as 'skill, assiduity, perseverance, diligence'. . . . industry came also to mean something else; a collective word for our manufacturing and productive institutions, and for their general activities" (xi). With this shift we can begin to see a stronger emphasis on Industry and production in Victorian England. The end result of a greater concentration on production is a vast increase in goods. This change in thinking, coupled with England's neglect of its agricultural pursuits, would force hundreds of thousands of people off the land and into industry. Fairs and markets could no longer meet the needs of the English public and shops began to crop up as a new way to distribute the goods of this mechanism of mass production. Within this window of opportunity we can begin to see the development a new breed of businessmen, the middleman. Middlemen performed a unique function in an economy that had earlier depended on labor-based products. The middlemen would make their money off the sweat of others and their services consisted of reaping rewards with minimal physical exertion. These new breed of merchants made their livelihood by buying and selling for himself or others on commission; speculating; dealing in money and credit; and insuring goods and ships transporting goods. In the literature of the time we can see the depictions of these parasitic, venture capitalists in not the most flattering terms. Shops and Shopping in Victorian England :: European Europe History Shops and Shopping in Victorian England    As the population of London grew during the nineteenth century, the means of production and distribution would need to change to meet the needs of the increasing masses. Prior to this period goods and products for the most part were gotten at markets or fairs. "From a country which had been predominantly agricultural and self-sufficient in essential commodities, England became a great manufacturing centre. The industrial towns of the North and Midlands developed and England was the workshop of the world, the markets for her products being assured by the growing needs of the pioneers of her Empire" (Borer 253). Not only was the growing Empire a vast market for England's goods; but within England, London in particular, we can see perceptions about products and people's shopping practices begin to evolve. It is at this point in history that Raymond Williams in his work, Culture and Society: 1780-1950, marks the shift in the meaning of the word "industry." "Industry, before this period, was a name for a particular human attribute, which could be paraphrased as 'skill, assiduity, perseverance, diligence'. . . . industry came also to mean something else; a collective word for our manufacturing and productive institutions, and for their general activities" (xi). With this shift we can begin to see a stronger emphasis on Industry and production in Victorian England. The end result of a greater concentration on production is a vast increase in goods. This change in thinking, coupled with England's neglect of its agricultural pursuits, would force hundreds of thousands of people off the land and into industry. Fairs and markets could no longer meet the needs of the English public and shops began to crop up as a new way to distribute the goods of this mechanism of mass production. Within this window of opportunity we can begin to see the development a new breed of businessmen, the middleman. Middlemen performed a unique function in an economy that had earlier depended on labor-based products. The middlemen would make their money off the sweat of others and their services consisted of reaping rewards with minimal physical exertion. These new breed of merchants made their livelihood by buying and selling for himself or others on commission; speculating; dealing in money and credit; and insuring goods and ships transporting goods. In the literature of the time we can see the depictions of these parasitic, venture capitalists in not the most flattering terms.