Kirjahaku

The oceanic explorations of the 1490s led to countless material innovations worldwide and caused profound ruptures. Beverly Lemire explores the rise of key commodities across the globe, and charts how cosmopolitan consumption emerged as the most distinctive feature of material life after 1500 as people and things became ever more entangled. She shows how wider populations gained access to more new goods than ever before and, through industrious labour and smuggling, acquired goods that heightened comfort, redefined leisure and widened access to fashion. Consumption systems shaped by race and occupation also emerged. Lemire reveals how material cosmopolitanism flourished not simply in great port cities like Lima, Istanbul or Canton, but increasingly in rural settlements and coastal enclaves. The book uncovers the social, economic and cultural forces shaping consumer behaviour, as well as the ways in which consumer goods shaped and defined empires and communities.

From 1600 to 1900 a growing consumerism fired the English economy, shaping the priorities of individuals, and determining the allocation of resources within families. Everyday business might mean making a trip to the pawnbroker, giving a loan to a trusted friend of selling off a coat, all to make ends meet. Both women and men engaged in this daily budgeting, but women’s roles were especially important in achieving some level of comfort and avoiding penury. In some communities, the daily practices in place in the seventeenth century persisted into the twentieth, whilst other groups adopted new ways, such as using numbers to chart domestic affairs and turning to the savings banks that appeared in the nineteenth century. In the material world of the past and in the changing habits of earlier generations lie crucial turning points. This book explores these previously under-researched patterns and practices that gave shape to modern consumer society.

Cotton was the first industrialized global trade. This four-volume reset edition charts the rise of British trade in cotton from the days of small-scale trading between the Middle East and India to the domination of British-led industrialized manufacture.

Cotton was the first industrialized global trade. This four-volume reset edition charts the rise of British trade in cotton from the days of small-scale trading between the Middle East and India to the domination of British-led industrialized manufacture.

Cotton was the first industrialized global trade. This four-volume reset edition charts the rise of British trade in cotton from the days of small-scale trading between the Middle East and India to the domination of British-led industrialized manufacture.

Cotton was the first industrialized global trade. This four-volume reset edition charts the rise of British trade in cotton from the days of small-scale trading between the Middle East and India to the domination of British-led industrialized manufacture.

This book explores the fascinating history and present-day practices associated with cotton. This is a story of commercial and cultural enterprise, of the ties and tensions between East and West, of technological and industrial revolution, social modernization, colonialism and slavery. Cotton's history mirrors profound global transformations. And cotton remains one of the most significant mass commodities today.Cotton's track record on labor conditions in factories and plantations has tarnished its history and reputation, even as cotton clothes became the hallmark of modern industrialized society. Cotton expressed popular fashions and popular politics in dynamic ways. Yet cottons also take other cultural forms and are part of vibrant craft traditions in many parts of the world. This book explores the history, impact and ongoing life of this hugely influential textile.

Cotton was the first industrialized global trade. This four-volume reset edition charts the rise of British trade in cotton from the days of small-scale trading between the Middle East and India to the domination of British-led industrialized manufacture.