The history of consumption is by now a well-established field – but one that has privileged certain spaces, time periods or questions and neglected others. Rural consumption (especially in the 19th century) remains relatively understudied, and this despite the fact a large proportion of Europeans and a majority of North Americans lived in rural areas until the early 20th century.
The papers in this session address the following questions:
1. Who distributed goods in the countryside during this time period and how?
2. What goods were distributed, how fast did new goods appear on rural markets, and how quickly were they adopted?
3. Who purchased what and what do those consumption patterns tell us about the meaning of goods among rural people?