University of Bern, 3-4 May 2019
Convenors: Riccardo E. Rossi and Roberto Zaugg
Venue: Unitobler – Lerchenweg 36 – room: F013
During the early modern era, the intensified intercontinental circulation of goods catalysed by the development of oceanic trade routes fuelled new consumer needs and an increasing differentiation of material culture. Scholarship has investigated the use and appropriation of exogenous goods, intellectual debates and changing attitudes concerning ‘luxury’ as well as the emergence of new forms of sociability related to specific consumer practices. The eighteenth century, in particular, has been identified – by scholars dealing primarily with north-western Europe – as an era of a ‘consumer revolution’ and technological innovation that resulted in a substantially augmented access to delectable goods by ordinary people.
What commodities were consumed by which social groups? How fast did new patterns of consumption evolve? To what extent were lower social strata and rural areas involved in these processes? Which goods remained exclusive and which became popular? How did information on new commodities spread and how did changing consumer habits influence material culture and aesthetical styles? Measuring and analysing the change and persistence of consumer patterns is a challenging endeavour. Our workshop will tackle these questions, discussing empirical sources and methodological approaches we can use as historians when we deal with consumption in past societies.
Friday 3 May 2019
Session 1
9.15 Roberto Zaugg (Bern): Welcome adress
9.45 Jon Stobart (Manchester): Sugar and spice, coffee and calico. Selling and owning colonial goods in the English villages, c. 1660-1760
10.30 Jon Mathieu (Luzern): Discussion
11.15 Coffee break
Sessions 2 – chair: Roberto Zaugg
11.45 Alida Clemente (Foggia): Is it all about methodology? Inventories, real wages, and the narratives of the consumer revolution
12.30 Valentin Groebner (Luzern): Discussion
13.15 Lunch
Session 3 – chair: Christiane Berth
14.30 Susanna Burghartz, Ina Serif, Anna Reimann (Basel): Printed markets. Information, data, and news in the Basel „Avis-Blatt“, 1729-1845
15.30 Discussion
16.15 Coffee break
Session 4 – chair: Riccardo E. Rossi
16.45 Noémie Étienne, Claire Brizon, Chonja Lee, Étienne Wismer (Bern): Looking, touching, unfolding. Understanding material culture through qualitative analysis
17.45 Discussion
18.30 End
Saturday 4 May 2019
Session 5 – chair: Eva Dal Canto
9.15 Claudia Ravazzolo (Jena): Balancing quantity and quality. Analysing material culture in Bernese bankruptcy inventories (1660-1798)
9.45 Mattia Viale (Milano): Searching for actual patterns of consumption in early modern period. The role of household budgets
10.15 Discussion
11.00 Coffee break
Session 6 – chair: Christian Windler
11.30 Riccardo E. Rossi (Bern): Serial data from the Alps? Potentials and problems of post-mortem inventories from the Italian-speaking valleys of the Three Leagues, 1650-1850
12.00 Discussion
12.30 Kim Siebenhüner (Jena): Conclusions
13.00 End
Contact address
Riccardo E. Rossi
Historisches Institut der Universität Bern
Länggassstrasse 49 – 3012 Bern (Schweiz)
