The Most Necessary Luxuries. The Mercers' Company of Coventry, 1550-1680
Details:
- Author(s) Berger, Ronald M
- Publication type Monograph
- Year published 1993
- Pages 317pp; illus
- Publisher Pennsylvania State University Press
Topics:
- Name Consumption, consumerism & associated ethics
Countries:
Library:
- Name British Library
- City London
- County Greater London
- Country England
- Postcode NW1 2DB
- Visit British Library's website
Groups:
Notes:
Deals with the history of the Mercers' Co, dominant in the city from the 15th century, to provide insight into its activities but also into the decline of Coventry in the 15th and 16th centuries - 'to understand the mechanisms underlying the urban transformation but also to portray the human face of that process'. Structured in three parts: 1] 'The setting, 1500-1680' - 'Demand for luxury goods and the contents of shops' / 'Coventry - a period of vigorous decadence' / 'The Mercers' Co - like walls after an earthquake'; 2] 'Embattled tradesmen' - 'Crisis in the import trade, 1565-83' / 'An observance of trifles - who would sell the New Draperies' / 'Peddlers and merchant princes - new directions in provincial shopping'; 3] 'Mercantile politics and merchant dynasties' - 'No other weapon but organisation' / 'A craft so long to learn' / 'Quick, bright things - the 'life-course' of mercantile dynasties'. Appendices include schedule of officers, 1579-1660, and some financial analysis