Consumption and endeavour

Abstract

Over the course of the 18th century, it is apparent from studies of probate inventories that the consumption of bought textiles, stimulants and household goods among common people increased substantially. This article presents empirical evidence to demonstrate that this is the case also among fisher-farming households in the region of north Norway studied here. The article then explores the relevance of the concept of an industrious revolution to explain the changes in consumption. It would appear that increased consumption was accompanied by more strenuous work, but whether consumption change was demand or supply led is undetermined. Attention is given to what motivated the acquisition of new consumables. It is shown that new consumer goods were used to bolster traditional customs. Nonetheless, attitudes towards acquisition and a desire to increase comfort might have been significant factors leading to increasing demand.

Keywords:

• consumer goods
• peasant society
• Norway
• industrious revolution
• consumption motives
• consumer demand

Notes

¹ Riksarkivet (RA). Rentekammeret, ROA Nordland Pk.2 legg 2a, legg 13b. For these quotes and related comments, see Coldevin, Bodø, 43ff.

² As summarized, for example, in Brewer and Porter, Consumption.

³ Hutchison, ‘Bites, Nibbles, Sips’; and Sogner, Krig og Fred, 232ff.

⁴ Buggeland, Den salige mandtz efterladenschaber; Feigs, Økonomisk Utvikling i Selbu; Tranberg, Bønder og Husmenn; Larsen, Rørosarbeidernes Levestandard; Løberg, En Tidligkapitalistisk Skogbruksrevolusjon; Andersen, Skifter og EDB; Borgos, Befolkning, bosetting og økonomi; and Hutchinson, Skifteprotokoller.

⁵ The question of incomes and the standard of living during the Industrial Revolution is perennial. The impossibility of reaching anything other than a qualified conclusion is nicely demonstrated in Mokyr, The Enlightened Economy. A recent estimate for Norway is Grytten, ‘Purchasing Power’.

⁶ De Vries, ‘Between Purchasing Power’, 107ff.; De Vries, The Industrious Revolution.

⁷ For example Clark and Van der Werf, ‘Work in Progress?’.

⁸ De Vries, ‘Between Purchasing Power’, 117.

⁹ White, ‘World of Goods’, 93–104.

¹⁰ The relative prices of fish and grain during the 18th century, which effectively determined the real income of the northern fishermen, are charted in Axel Coldevin, Næringsliv.

¹¹ The term ‘fisherman-farmer’ refers not to individual people but to the household, and not only to the two aspects of making an income, but also to the fact that farming provided necessary resources for the fishing enterprise and vice versa. For insightful overviews see Bratrein, ‘Kystkultur’; and Bratrein, ‘“Ein bærglig plads”’.

¹² ‘Gjestgivere’: literally innkeepers but also permitted to sell a range of goods the authorities thought were necessary for the peasantry. This development is well summarized in Ytreberg, Nordlandske Handelssteder.

¹³ Myking, Herre over andre si jord?

¹⁴ An examination of the utility and validity of probate records in studies of change in material welfare is made in Hutchinson, Skifteprotokoller.

¹⁵ Ibid., 175.

¹⁶ Hutchinson, Skifteprotokoller; Hutchinson, “Disse tider”; and Hutchinson, ‘Levekår’.

¹⁷ Statsarkivet in Trondheim (SAT). Helgeland Skifteprotokoll 3 fol. 221.

¹⁸ SAT. Salten Skifteprotokoll 6 fol. 40; and SAT. Helgeland Skifteprotokoll 78 fol. 362b.

¹⁹ Hutchinson, Skifteprotokoller, 74.

²⁰ Hutchinson, ‘Levekår’; and Hutchinson, Skifteprotokoller, 81, 85.

²¹ Sommer, ‘En kort beskrivelse’.

²² Thomæsøn, ‘Rapport’, 126.

²³ Heltzen, Ranens Beskrivelse, 186.

²⁴ Elstad, Moteløver, 26ff.

²⁵ De Vries, The Industrious Revolution, 187ff.

²⁶ Elstad, Moteløver, 119.

²⁷ Fossen, Bergen, 596f.

²⁸ Coldevin, ‘Befolkningsforhold’, 88.

²⁹ Lamb, Climate, 211–41.

³⁰ Dyrvik, Den Lange Fredstiden, 115f; and Bottolfsen, Lofoten og Vesterålen, 290f.

³¹ Høgsæt, ‘Endringer’.

³² Kiil, ‘Litt om Lofotfisket’; and Bottolfsen, Lofoten og Vesterålen, 205–21.

³³ For a summary, see Tranberg and Sprauten, Norsk Bondeøkonomi; and Elstad, ‘Mentalitet’.

³⁴ Colban, Forsøg, 112.

³⁵ McKendrick, Brewer, and Plumb, The Birth.

³⁶ McCracken, Culture and Consumption, 6; Weatherill, Consumer Behaviour, 208; Vickery, ‘Women’, 275f; White, ‘World of Goods’, 93–104; and Ulväng, ‘Bondehushåll’, 61.

³⁷ Berg, ‘New Commodities’.

³⁸ Weatherill, Consumer Behaviour, 214.

³⁹ Goffman, Presentation; and Bourdieu, Distinction.

⁴⁰ For local examples see Hutchinson, “Disse tider”, 142ff; and Holberg and Hutchinson, Lenge før Byen, 384ff. For contemporary comments see Thomæsøn, ‘Erklæring’, 101.

⁴¹ Sogner, Krig og Fred, 217f.

⁴² In keeping with the insight that ‘all goods carry meaning, but none by itself’, cited in De Vries, The Industrious Revolution, 33, and the concept of ‘consumer clusters’, individual items are discussed in connection with others.

⁴³ For a general overview see Sundt, Renlighed, 83ff; Visted and Stigum, Bondekultur, vol. 1, 65ff; and Sjøvold, Bolig og Bohave, 17ff.

⁴⁴ Sommerfelt, ‘Physisk-oeconomisk beskrivelse over Saltdalen’.

⁴⁵ Heltzen, Ranens Beskrivelse, 186.

⁴⁶ Visted and Stigum, Bondekultur, vol. 2, 59ff; and Sjøvold, Bolig og Bohave, 103f.

⁴⁷ Sundt, Renlighed, 371ff.

⁴⁸ Heltzen, Ranens Beskrivelse, 186.

⁴⁹ Hutchinson, ‘Levekår’.

⁵⁰ SAT. Skiftepakker, Helgeland Sorenskriver.

⁵¹ SAT. Salten Justisprotokoll 5. Fol.70b.

⁵² Sommer, ‘En kort beskrivelse’; and Thomæsøn, ‘Erklæring’, 95f.

⁵³ Thomæsøn, ‘Rapport’, 126.

⁵⁴ Roche, Everyday Things, 213ff; and Styles, The Dress, 241.

⁵⁵ Styles, The Dress.

⁵⁶ Ibid., 184; and Sommer, ‘En kort beskrivelse’, 56.

⁵⁷ Colban, Forsøg, 112.

⁵⁸ Thomæsøn, ‘Rapport’, 126.

⁵⁹ Cited in Ytreberg, Nordlandske Handelssteder, 18.

⁶⁰ Ibid.

⁶¹ Smith, Consumption and Respectability.

⁶² Heltzen, Ranens Beskrivelse, 183.

⁶³ Ibid., 185.

⁶⁴ De Vries, The Industrious Revolution, 129.

⁶⁵ Styles, The Dress, 306f.

⁶⁶ Hutchinson, Skifteprotokoller, 71.

⁶⁷ De Vries, The Industrious Revolution, 127.

⁶⁸ Ibid., 22.

⁶⁹ Ibid., 12f.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alan Hutchinson

Alan Hutchinson (b. 1947), until recently associate professor of History at the University of Nordland, is now primarily engaged with the production of the history of the city of Bodø in Nordland, Norway. Main research interests include early modern trade and consumption, the social and cultural parameters of the generational transfer of goods in farming society, rights to land and sea in the early modern period and early modern Sami society. Publications principally include local and regional histories. A contribution to the history of Norwegian fisheries and coastal society is in press.