Retailing revolution in the eighteenth century? Evidence from North-West England.

The changing spaces and practices of retailing have received an increasing amount of attention in recent years. (1) Reflecting broader analyses of production and consumption, much of this work has emphasised the transformation of retailing from traditionally organised, local and primitive, to large-scale, nationally integrated and 'modern' systems. (2) Following Jeffreys, the defining characteristics of modern retailing are seen as comprising three broad areas: first, the emergence of fixed shops and their increasing domination of retailing as they came to replace provision from markets, fairs and itinerant tradesmen; second, the spatial concentration of these shops into specialist areas of the town centre, leading to the creation of so-called central business districts, and, third, the set of new retail practices that allowed the sale of a greater range of goods in ever larger quantities to a rapidly expanding number of consumers. (3) Especially in the last of these, analyses from Jeffreys and Matthias to Corrigan have viewed department stores and multiple retailers as crucial to both the timing and processes of retail modernisation. (4) Thus, it is argued, their emergence in the second half of the nineteenth century revolutionised retailing--a view that matches historiographies of social and cultural modernisation during this period. (5) Department stores especially are seen as offering the consumer unprecedented diversity and choice; widening awareness and knowledge of (newly available) consumer goods; introducing fixed prices, ticketing and cash sales, and engendering browsing and window shopping, not least through their active display of goods. Thus, they encapsulated and promulgated the essence of modern retail practices which quickly spread through a wide range of specialist shops. These modern spaces, processes and practices are then contrasted with pre-modern systems. (6) The dichotomy is painted in particularly stark terms by Corrigan, who argues that, before these mid-nineteenth-century transformations, shops were ultra-specialised and offered little variety or choice; customers had to haggle over the price of goods; they had little knowledge of the goods available, and 'engaging in window-shopping or shopping around [was] generally impossible ... the goods [were] even hidden away out of sight'. (7)

This long established and remarkably resilient view of retail revolution has recently been challenged from at least two perspectives. The first is a general reassessment of the concept of modernity. Traditionally viewed as a unifying meta-narrative, recent interpretations have emphasised the fragmented and contested nature of modernisation. Moreover, Ogborn's analysis of metropolitan modernity in the eighteenth century, especially when combined with Borsay's detailing of urban renewal across the country, necessitates a re-evaluation of our views on the modernity of the Victorian age. (8) As Finn argues, this has particular significance for how we interpret the revolutionary and 'modern' nature of the department store and multiple retailers. (9) The second is a revision of the historiography of retailing based on an increased level of research on shops and shopping in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The extent to which the patterns and practices of retailing were being transformed prior to the mid-nineteenth century has been the subject of debate since the work of Davis and Alexander, although both tended to follow Jeffreys' characterisation of the eighteenth century. Important advances were made in the work of Mitchell and Scola, who revealed highly developed retail systems centred on particular towns, and in the major surveys undertaken by Shammas and especially Mui and Mui, which showed how remarkably widespread shops were in eighteenth-century England. (10) Only recently, though, has there been a sustained effort to challenge the traditional view of early-modern retail systems and spaces as functional, primitive and unappealing. Work by Glennie and Thrift, Walsh, Cox and Berry has provided growing evidence of sophisticated retail practices and shop design; of shopping as a leisure activity; and of the emergence of specialist shopping districts well before the nineteenth century." Together, these two strands of research argue for a different historiography of retail change: one in which the advent of the department store and multiple retailer is seen as part of a much longer process of transformation in British retailing. (12)

Yet much of what we know about retail activity, especially before the nineteenth century, is cherry-picked from across time and space, and emphasises the experience in large towns, especially London. (13) This tends to draw attention to the exceptional rather than usual. As a consequence, it is extremely difficult to gauge the spatial and hierarchical penetration of retail change. Accordingly, this article seeks to explore the nature and timing of change in the eighteenth century across a single region: north-west England, taken here as southern Lancashire and Cheshire. (14) The rapid economic and social transformation of this region is well known, but the experience of these changes was geographically uneven. It therefore offers an ideal area in which to explore the extent to which the distribution of retail activity was transformed during this period and the ways in which this process related to the (local) development of manufacturing, trading or leisure activities. In examining this region, we seek to contextualise retail change whilst highlighting the detailed geographies and practices of retailing during this period. We begin with the shops themselves. Taking evidence from towns across the region, we use Corrigan's characterisation of pre-modern retailing to assess the 'modernity' of eighteenth-century practices. This reveals that, already in the early eighteenth century, shopkeepers were engaged in sophisticated forms of selling. Next, we analyse the geography of retailing in three towns within the region: Liverpool, Chester and Nantwich. This allows us to examine two key features of 'modern' retailing: the fixed shop and specialised shopping districts. These might be expected in a large commercial centre like Liverpool or a prosperous county town such as Chester, but the extent of such development in smaller places like Nantwich can tell us much about the spread down the urban hierarchy of any retail revolution. Finally, we complement earlier analyses by Cox, Shammas, and Mui and Mui by offering a systematic regional analysis of the spread of retail change through space and down the urban hierarchy. This is then related to some of the factors driving retail change, including population, wealth and economic specialisation.

II

Despite growing evidence contradicting the traditional image of eighteenth-century shops as primitive and unsophisticated, and of shopping as a mechanical and passive process of acquisition, established orthodoxies die hard, as is evident from the work of Corrigan. (15) Whilst it looks increasingly anachronistic, his characterisation of pre-modern retailing--which for him appears to have meant anything before the department store--offers a useful framework for the analysis of eighteenth-century shops and shopkeeping. Seen in this light, demonstrating that he seriously misread these spaces and practices is less revealing than using his comments as a mechanism to highlight the sophistication of retailing during this period.

Corrigan argues that pre-modern shops were ultra-specialised and offered little variety or choice. Some eighteenth-century shops were undoubtedly specific in their product range, as were many of their nineteenth-century counterparts. However, this does not necessarily mean that such retailers were primitive or hidebound, nor was specialisation a product of traditional guild restrictions. Rather, it could be a conscious business strategy. Indeed, there were many advantages to be gained through specialisation: skills, knowledge and reputation could all be enhanced, as could the quality, range and display of wares. (16) Moreover, specialisation did not mean a limited range of wares: a truth, as Cox argues, abundantly clear from even a cursory examination of probate inventories. (17) In the north-west, the Liverpool mercer John Townsend sold nothing but cloth. However, he had over 300 lengths, including kerseys, frizes, druggets, durries, shalloons, serges, tammies, striped and plain calicoes, canvas, plushes and velvet, as well as gold and silver lace. (18) On a more modest scale, Thomas Gyles, an apothecary in Nantwich, had a great range of ingredients from which to make his remedies, including cocoa nuts, juniper, vitriol, senna, fenugreek, borax, allumen, euphorbia and laudanum. (19) Similarly, Robert Wilkinson had a wide range of ready-made clothes, probably for sale to the poorer sections of Nantwich society. These included four women's gowns valued at 1[pounds sterling] 2s 6d, 39 men's coats worth 11 [pounds sterling] 15s, 25 pairs of breeches worth 2 [pounds sterling] 18s and nine boy's coats worth 1 [pounds sterling] 4s. (20) Specialisation, then, was a viable and often highly profitable option for eighteenth-century retailers, but was by no means the only strategy to pursue. Certainly, grocers in late eighteenth-century Manchester stocked a great diversity of wares. (21) A century earlier, William Stout was selling dried fruit, sugar, ironware, gunpowder, tobacco and spirits from his shop in Lancaster, a range of goods mirrored in the inventory of the Warrington grocer Ralph Bates. Similarly, Zachariah Shelley, a Congleton mercer, not only stocked a huge variety of cloths, but also sold haberdashery and a wide range of groceries. (22) Whether within or between retail trades, the range of stock held by individual tradesmen was often extensive, so that visiting an eighteenth-century shop afforded the consumer considerable choice from the world of goods.

The replacement of haggling by fixed and known prices is seen as a key attribute of modern retailing. Cox presents evidence that this was widespread by the late seventeenth century for sales through the shop window, but its spread to sales inside the shop is less apparent. (23) The fact that appraisers, when drawing up probate inventories, were able to put values to a huge variety of stock suggests that goods did have an accepted and recognised monetary worth. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that they were sold in this way in the early eighteenth century, although William Stout was clearly selling at fixed prices in his Lancaster shop in the 1680s. (24) This runs against McKendrick's suggestion that Josiah Wedgwood pioneered fixed pricing in his late eighteenth-century London showrooms. (25) So too does the fact that many shopkeepers were advertising the price of their wares in newspaper advertisements and handbills by this time. Walsh suggests that, in London, this practice was generally the domain of large shops or warehouses with clientele primarily drawn from the lower ranks and which therefore needed to emphasise the cheapness or value for money of their stock. (26) It would then be combined with larger numbers of shop assistants, a quick throughput of customers and a greater quantity of cash sales. Much the same may have been true of provincial towns. Certainly, that is the impression gained from the advertisement placed by the 'Person from London' who was bringing 'all sorts of India goods' to a shop in Market Street Lane, Manchester. He stated that 'to prevent Trouble, every Piece of Goods [had] the lowest Price mark'd on it, from which no Abatement can be made'. (27)