cultures of consumption

8/9/2019 Cultures of Consumption

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Cultures of Consumption

Working Paper Series

“The Modern Evolution of the Consumer:

Meanings, Knowledge, and dentities !efore the "ge of

"ffluen#e$

%r &rank Trentmann

!irk'e#k College, (ondon

Nothing in this paper may be cited, quoted or summarised or reproduced without permissionof the author(s)

Cultures of Consumption, and ESRC-AHRB Research Programme

Birkbeck College, Malet Street, ondon, !C"# $%&'el ** (+) + $+$- +.+"/a0 ** (+) + $+$- +.+www1consume1bbk1ac1uk

!orking 2aper No "+3ate May ++*

http://www.consume.bbk.ac.uk/http://www.consume.bbk.ac.uk/


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Frank Trentmann E!olution of the Consumer"

4'he Modern #5olution of the Consumer

Meanings, 6nowledge, and 7dentities Before the 8ge of 8ffluence9 :

# FRA$% TRE$T&A$$

(%istory, Birkbeck College, ondon; Cultures of Consumption research programme, #S


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as a uni5ersal economistic category1 'he second presumes that consumers are the natural

product of an e0panding commodity culture1 8 third, more recent approach sees the acti5e

consumerG as the product of contemporary or post=modern social formation1 'he following

essay is an attempt to offer a new, more historicised narrati5e that treats the consumer less as

a dependent or readily=preformed 5ariable and inquires more into the contingent processes

that created spaces for some groups in the social and ideological formation of this new

identity1 7nstead of a straight or automatic line from market and commodity to consumer, it

sketches the contested and comparati5ely une5en historical de5elopment of the consumer O

as an identity for actors as well as a category of knowledge O and the distincti5e importance

of battles o5er basic needs, ta0ation, and property that energised the category in some

political traditions and conte0ts in the "-th and early +th centuries, but not in others1

Most writers ha5e in5oked an essentialist consumer or used it as a descripti5e short=

hand, blurring the historically specific processes of identity formation and political

contestation that helped de5elop the consumer as a distinct, refle0i5e category of knowledge,

ascription and self=understanding amongst actors1 Neo=classical economics and the fields of

practice influenced by it within business and the state ha5e fa5oured the abstract figure of

the consumer as a rational utility=ma0imising indi5idual; the consumer here is little more

than a noiseless ser5ant named 3emand Pbled white of all personality and urgencyG, as

reat !ar (Berkeley ni5ersity of California 2ress,

++"), Colin ?ones speaks of readers of local newspapers ( Affiches) as consumers, 'he >reat Chain of BuyingMedical 8d5ertisement, the Bourgeois 2ublic Sphere, and the @rigins of the /rench


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incorporate their consumption practices into their identities in different ways in different

cultures1$ Because consumption in some societies to=day is intimately connected to the care

of the self and a sense of being consumers, does not mean that people engaged in

consumption in past or other societies shared a similar sense of identity1 'his is not to

suggest that commodification does not influence social relations and identities, merely that

consumption does not in and of itself tell us about the specific sense of self and collecti5e

identities attached to goods and their use1

8nother group of recent studies has suggested that the acti5e consumerG of

contemporary consumer culture has replaced its passi5e predecessor,L a thesis of an epochal

paradigm shift that tends to flatten the pre=history of postmodernity, easily obscuring earlier

moments in which people were acti5ated as consumers1 Consumption, as anthropologists

ha5e reminded us, is not the preser5e of modernity1- 8t the same time, the consumer is a not

a uni5ersally present or e5en culturally wide=spread ta0onomy through which people ha5e

5iewed themsel5es and others (on par with citien, sla5e, public, etc1), but a historical

category of identification that, in addition to being bounded by time and space, arri5es 5ery

late in human history1"+ 'o descri)e purchasers or users as consumers in different cultures at

different times might be con5enient short=hand but does not interpret the changing self=

understanding of these actors1

'he following discussion is an attempt to pro5ide a historical framework for thinking

about these comparati5e questions1"" 'o do so, it will first problematise and loosen the rise of

$ 8s recent work by Miller and Slater suggests, for e0ample, 'rinidadians were more likely to use the internetas a coolG consumerist ser5ice that connected their 'rinidadian identity to a sense of global culture, whereas Sriankans tended to 5iew it more as an educational in5estment; 3aniel Miller and 3on Slater, 'he 7nternet 8n#thnographic 8pproach (@0ford Berg, +++); 3on Slater, Modernity under construction building the 7nternetin 'rinidadG, in 21 Brey, '1 Misa and 81


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the consumer from the history of commodity culture1 %ere we will encounter the dog that

did not barkG, for the early modern transformation of the world of goods did not coincide

with the creation of the new identity of the consumerG1 Con5ersely, the interest in and

generation of knowledge about the consumerG was not the automatic preser5e or monopoly

of liberal political economy, with which it has often been associated, but, as we shall see,

was Qust as, if not more ad5anced in knowledge regimes sceptical of market society, such as

in >erman national or historical economics1 'he e5entual configuration of consumers O as a

category of identity and action a5ailable for social mobilisation== ultimately required

political synapses, that is, political traditions and languages that connected actorsG material

e0periences to a sense of belonging, interests, and entitlements1 'hese moments of synaptic

configuration form the second part of the paper1 'he consumer was first propelled forward in

the course of the "-th century in two conQunctures in which the political status of

necessariesG became pi5otal1 'he first was local, the battle o5er accountability, access and

representation in nineteenth=century Britain that turned groups of users into articulate,

organised, and increasingly demanding water consumersG1 'he second was global rising

economic nationalism, imperial tension, and a growing concern about the sur5i5al of

national culture in an age of ad5ancing globalisation at the turn of the twentieth century1

3omestic consumption standards and beha5iour became a can5ass for these moral and geo=

political an0ieties, and a political 5ehicle for redefining the relationship between indi5iduals

and state1 8gain, it was the synapses of political traditions rather than Qust state power or

material interests that determined whether this mobilisation of consumption led to a stronger

5ision of consumers (as in /ree 'rade Britain), was diluted by prior collecti5e traditions of

producers (as in 7mperial >ermany) or became a means for fostering alternati5e identities,

such as the patriotic citien (as in early twentieth=century China)1 'he /irst !orld !ar and

inter=war years saw the firm establishment of different traditions of consumers, a process of

maturing that was interestingly shaped from within ci5il society (rather than state or

business) through discourses of ethics and citienship (rather than neo=classical economics)

action approachG, in Brewer and 2orter, Consumption, pp1 *+=$1 'he impact of state policies or company policies on peopleGs consumption beha5iour, or 5ice 5ersa the political and economic consequences of peopleGsconsumption are legitimate but different types of inquiry1 /rom the large literature, good starting pointsareKictoria de >raia, ed1, The Se3 of Things' (ender and Consumption in Historical Perspecti!e (BerkeleyC8, "--.)1 ; Martin 3aunton; Matthew %ilton, ed1, The Politics of Consumption' &aterial Culture andCiti4enship in Europe and America (New Aork, ++")1 ; #rika 31


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and that e5ol5ed around questions of the social and political 5alues guiding consumption

(rather than utility ma0imisation or affluence1 'ogether, a discussion of these early, pi5otal

moments raises questions about the periodisation and focus of con5entional narrati5es of

consumer society on modern mass marketed commodities, and an 8merica=centred model of

con5ergence1 'he genealogy of the consumer unra5elled here points to contingency and

di5ersity and to the centrality of political tradition, ci5il society, and ethics through which

agents disco5ered themsel5es as acti5e consumers1

'he 3og 'hat 3id Not Bark

'he rich historiography on the consumer re5olutionG of the early modern transatlantic

world is a natural starting point in a search for the consumer1 !hether the upsurge in

consumption in eighteenth=century Britain, #urope, and North 8merica was a uniquely

!esternG phenomenon is debatable," but there can be little doubt that the commercial world

of goods e0panded quantitati5ely and qualitati5ely in unprecedented fashion1 By the mid=

eighteenth century there were forty=two people per shop in Britain1"H 'he working classes

bought 5irtually all their food through markets, and they worked longer hours to enable them

to buy more consumer goods1"* #0otic articles like tea, coffee, and tobacco had become

mass consumerG goods reaching more than R of the population in Britain and the

8merican colonies1 'he consumption of cultural artefacts and ser5ices transformed the

subQecti5ity of the middling sort and its cult of ci5ility and sensibility1" 7n the 5ery year that

8dam Smith laid down the famous dictum that consumption is the sole end of all

productionG in the !ealth of Nations,". 8merican colonists declared their 7ndependence after

a struggle that had resorted to a series of non=consumption protests directed at the mother

" 6enneth 2omeran, The (reat 6i!ergence' China, Europe and the&aking of the &odern 5orld Economy(2rinceton N?, +++)1 ; reat 3i5ergence,G 2ast and 2resent, Kol1 "$. (++)1 Ma0ine Berg, 7n 2ursuit of u0ury >lobal %istory andBritish Consumer >oods in the #ighteenth Century,G (forthcoming)1"H Carole Shamas, 'he pre=industrial consumer in #ngland and 8merica (@0ford, "--+), esp, ""","*ff1, *ff1See also Claire !alsh, Social Meaning and Social Space in the Shopping >alleries of #arly Modern ondonG,in ?ohn Benson and aura golini (eds1), 8 Nation of Shopkeepers /i5e Centuries of British


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country1 7n Britain and on the continent, the old century ended and the new began with a

series of bread and flour riots1

8gainst this background of an increasingly sophisticated world of consumption, with

its dialectical debates about lu0ury and the moral property of particular commodities, and its

e0plosi5e politics of ta0ation and food riots, the absence of an articulate consumerG is

startling1 7n a complete re5ersal of 6arl Mar0Gs analysis of the dialectic of modernity in

splitting human identity into public citoyen and pri5ate bourgeois,"$ many recent

commentators ha5e presented consumption and the consumer as crucial forces in forging a

new link between social, political, and, indeed, national identities1 '1%1 Breen has made a

strong argument for the no5elty of consumer awareness at this time and its role in the

creation of modernity1 'he 8merican


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was turning into a nation of debtors who needed to learn strict frugality and industry, TsoU

we may render oursel5es more independent of the merchantsG than more populous and

wealthy statesG1" 8merican colonists had two choices they could supply more manufactures

of their own or they could practice what is today called slow consumptionG, that is keep

foreign manufactures longer in use1

3ickinsonGs ability to en5isage a declining 5elocity of consumption shows how far

his mental world was remo5ed from hedonistic consumerism and how difficult it was for

eighteenth=century people to accord the consumerG a separate space and identity1 >oods and

processes of consumptionJnon=consumption were mobilised in an e0panding uni5erse of

political action but they continued to be framed through an older ta0onomy of collecti5e

actors patriots, freeholders, merchants, the people1 /ar from unleashing the consumerG on

the world of politics, the 8merican re5olution contained its arri5al it was a battle between

patriots and #mpire1


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lu0urious, 5ain and e0pensi5eG way of li5ingG to the austere 3utch, limited his reference to

the consumerG to discussions of the 5alue paid to a retailer1 Malachy 2ostlethwayt notes

that, to be satisfied, the 5arious humours and caprices of consumersG need skilful workmen,

but in his ni5ersal 3ictionary of 'rade and Commerce, much cited not least by 8merican

re5olutionaries, he does not e5en reser5e a category for these consumers, nor for

consumption1. 7n ender, Class, and Community in ate 8ncien


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emancipation remained rooted in the independent farmer and the independent artisan (5ersus

the wage sla5eG)1H 7n early socialist thought, consumption was a dependent function of the

primacy of producti5e welfare1HH >ood consumption was collecti5e consumption1 'here was

little room for a consumer as a separate identity either in this increasingly masculine

producti5ist language of independence and community,H* or in gendered notions of womenGs

domestic sphere unsullied by market or production1 'hus womenGs boycotts against sla5e

goods stressed the corruptibility of goods1 7nstead of the consumer, they in5oked a

sympathetic femininity with its 9purely human9 sympathy unpolluted by commercial

desires9G1H

8 Society of Merchants, not Consumers

'he resilience of older social identities and categories, then, were one reason why the

material culture of consumption found it difficult to generate a more acti5e sense of

consumerG identities1 rant #ger, Charlotte (Cambridge, +++)1 Cit at p1 "+1H.


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appearance and the opinion of others (olden 8ge, ?an de

Kries has argued, brought into being a distincti5e material culture in which the lu0uries

were directed towards the home more than the body, and adorned the interior O of both home

and body O more than the e0terior1 'hey tended to achie5e comfort more than refinement1GHL

7nstead of directly contesting an older moral discourse warning of the public decadence

stemming from personal 5ice and pro5iding a new public language, the new lifestyle of

lu0ury turned inward1

7f the 3utch >olden 8ge has been characterised as the first consumer society, it is

also a prime e0ample of the contingent nature of transmission between material and political

cultures1 8s de Kries notes, the 3utch did not fashion its bits and pieces of religious and

republican thought into a new discourse to describe and theorise the new reality1GH- 'his was

left to #nglish and Scottish writers of the ne0t three generations1 'he now leading

interpretations focus on the redescription of lu0ury as the pursuit of personal pleasure with

unintended public benefits as a decisi5e step in the positi5e and now conscious embrace of a

consumer societyG1*+ But what was the imagined role of the consumer in this societyF 7t is

no accident that most academic discussions ha5e seied on the material and discursi5e role

of lu0uryG, rather than on the consumerG1

3a5id %umeGs #ssays ("$*) pro5ide one entry=point to think about this failure to

connect the process of consumption with a consumer identity1 7t highlights how consumption

needs to be situated within the o5erarching tradition through which actors make sense of

themsel5es and their society1 Britain was a commercial society, not a consumer society1 'he

primary dynamic, the engine of wealth, ci5ilisation, and national strength was commerce1

H$ Ma0ine Berg and %elen Clifford, eds1, Consumers and lu0ury Consumer culture in #urope ".+="L+(Manchester Manchester ni5ersity 2ress, "---); Ma0ine Berg and #liabeth #ger (eds1), u0ury in theeighteenth century1 debates, desires and delectable goods (Basingstoke 2algra5e Macmillan, ++H)1 /or thecontinuing ambi5alence towards commercial consumption, see Margot /inn, D!orking=Class !omen and theContest for Consumer Control in Kictorian County Courts,D Past and Present "."1; Matthew %ilton, SheepG,2ast and 2resent; #rika


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Commerce rouses men from their indolenceG and present the richer members of society with

obQects of lu0uryG pre5iously undreamed of1*" 'he indi5iduals reap the benefit of these

commodities, so far as they gratify the senses and appetites; and the public is also a gainer,

while a greater stock of labour is, by this means, stored up against any public e0igency1G*

u0ury is defended for promoting industrious, creati5e dispositions and for refining the

mental capacities of the members of a commercial, law=based society1

%ere, then, unlike the inward 3utch domestication of consumption, is an outward

Qustification for material culture as central to public life1 But, significantly, the defence of

lu0ury as a public good operated in a 5ision of commercial society where the decisi5e actors

and identities that were legitimated were merchants1 @ther groups in society benefited from

the lu0ury circulating in commercial society, but, as recipients, there was no need for %ume

to ele5ate them to a shared category of consumers1 T!Uhere lu0ury nourishes commerce and

industry,G %ume concludes, the peasants, by a proper culti5ation of the land, become rich

and independent while the tradesmen and merchants acquire a share of the property, and

draw authority and consideration to that middling rank of men, who are the best and firmest

basis of public liberty1G*H Consumers did not need to be named separately because (as a

collecti5e group) they did not yet play an acti5e part in the imagined drama of an unfolding

ci5il society1

!ill 'he


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electricity) or who were affected by particular consumption ta0es, such as e0cise duties1*

>erman statutes for tobacco Consumptions=/actorien, for e0ample, regulated the prices

traders and shopkeepers could charge the consumer and common man1G*. Ne0t to this, an

older use sur5i5ed of referring to consumers in the metaphysical sense of de5ourers, such as

time and death, the two consumers of the whole world1G*$ 3israeli speculated in Coningsby

("L**) that he is a sagacious statesman who may detect in what form and in what quarter

the great consumer will ariseG that may destroy 2arliament Qust as Barons, Church, and 6ing

ha5e in turn de5oured each otherG, a usage that shows the sur5i5al of the early modern the

consumer of thy 3ukedomeG or kingdomeG1*L

8 more wide=ranging use of the consumer as a category of social order emerged only

slowly in social and economic te0ts in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and then

with highly une5en influence on broader social and political discourse1 7n his essay on social

order ("$$), 7selin, discussing IuesnayGs 'ableau economique, wrote that all of society

consisted only of the following pairings purchasers and sellers, consumers and producers or

workersG*- 7n general, howe5er, the status of the consumerG remained ambiguous, as the

precise relationship between consumption and production, between pri5ate and public

acti5ities, and between material and non=material acts of consumption remained subQects of

on=going debate amongst economic writers in nineteenth=century and early twentieth=century

#urope1+ ?1B1 Say, one of the few political economists to accord consumption a special

section included the reproducti5e consumptionG of goods in factories1" 'his concern with

* 'he coal traders and consumers case1 S1?1 (c1 ".-);awrence 3uckworth, 'he ConsumerGs %andbook of theaw relating to >as, !ater, and #lectric ighting (ondon "-+H)1*. 2reiss=Satung, Nach welcher die aus denen Churfuerstl1 'aback=Consumptions=/actorien ur 8bnahm5orgelegte Sorten 5on denen %andels=euthen und craemeren hinwiderumben TsicU an den Consumenten undgemeinen Mann in Minuto abugeben seynd1YTKerordnung 5om "1 8pril "$*Z1 S171, ("$*), one of only tworeferences to consumers in the half million titles of the Ba5arian State ibrary for "+"="L*+1 #0cise duties andconsumptions=accise were often used synonymously in the eighteenth century, see lrich !yrwa,Consumption and Consumer SocietyG, in Strasser et al1, >etting and Spending, pp1 *Hf1, a discussion thatunfortunately muddles the history of consumptionG in >ermany with that of consumer societyG1 Cf1 ?ohnBrewer, 'he #rror of our !ays %istorians and the Birth of Consumer SocietyG, Sept1 ++H1*$ Samuell usta5 Sch\nberg, ed1, %andbuch der politischen @ekonomie('ubingen, "L-+), Kol 7, 2art , ch1 &77, p1 $+; /1B1 !1 %errmann, Staatswirtschaftliche ntersuchungen(Munich, "L$+); 6urt 8pelt, 3ie 6onsumtion der wichtigsten 6ulturlaender in den letten ?ahrehnten eine

"H


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production in the analysis of consumption had implications for the analysis of indi5iduals

who did the consuming1 Malthus thus distinguished between producti5e consumersG and

non=producti5e consumersG, the latter being the worker, the former reser5ed for the

consumption or destruction of wealth by capitalists with a 5iew to reproduction1G 'o a5oid

his much=feared glut of commodities, Malthus belie5ed it was necessary to increase the

unproducti5e consumptionG of landlords1 Consumers, in other words, were not one

collecti5e group but differentiated by their more or less producti5e functions1


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indi5iduals and the growing significance of the consumerG1 7n contrast to ad5anced

liberalismG, where the emphasis on consumer choice is central to the formation of indi5idual

autonomy and selfhood,$ early and mature liberal culture lacked an essentialist indi5idualist

consumer1 /rom the "L$+s=L+s, the marginal re5olution and its indi5idualist theory of

consumer beha5iour would introduce key categories like consumersG rent and consumer

surplus1 'hese would come to dominate twentieth=century economics and marketing,L but it

did little to shape the discursi5e, social and political category of the consumer at the time1

?e5ons famously argued that the theory of economics must begin with a correct theory of

consumptionG1- Aet, neoclassical writers continued to treat the satisfaction of human needs

more as a fundamental datum or premises of the scienceG than as the starting point for an

e0ploration of consumption and consumers on par with the laws of production, distribution,

and e0change, as ?1N1 6eynes pointed out in "L-" in a rare #nglish discussion of whether

consumption should recei5e a more distinct treatment1.+ Significantly, the technical,

measurable apparatus introduced by the marginal re5olution which in the last few decades

has been applied to all sorts of acti5ities and goods, was defined along a narrow group of

subQects, namely food and clothing1." 7ndeed, when the intellectual pursuit of the consumer

took off in the "L-+s, it was dri5en by a dialogue between intellectuals outside or at the

margins of liberal economics national economists in >ermany, the radical liberal %obson in

#ngland, the progressi5e 2atten in the nited States, and the cooperator Charles >ide in

/rance1 %obson in5oked a citien=consumerG whose material acts and desires would

increasingly be informed by ci5ic 5alues1. ikewise, >ide, who de5oted an entire book in

his Cours dG#conomie 2olitique to consumption, focused on collecti5e action amongst

consumers to ad5ance the interests of society1 2atten saw selfish indi5iduals as ata5istic

$ Miller and 1M1 2eter Swann, MarshallGs Consumer as an 7nno5atorG in Sheila C1 3owand 2eter #1 #arl, eds1, #conomic @rganiation and #conomic 6nowledge, 7 (Cheltenham #dward #lgar,"---), -L=""L1- ?e5ons, 'heory of 2olitical #conomy ("L$-), p1 *H1.+ ?ohn Ne5ille 6eynes, 'he Scope and Method of 2olitical #conomy (ondon Macmillan, "-+* Hrd re51edition1 "st"L-"1), p1 """1 Note, professional economics was still di5ided on this question in the inter=war years,see 2aul '1 %oman, Consumption, in #ncyclopaediea of the Social Sciences (New Aork Macmillan, "-H+;"-*- repr1), p1 -, an entry that shows how far utility theory was yet from hegemony1."


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sur5i5ors of a past age of scarcity who would gi5e way to the socialised generosity of an age

of abundance1.H

et us therefore follow an une0pected, and less teleological path and 5iew the subQect

from the less con5entional 8nglo=centred perspecti5e of liberal economics, like historical or

national economics1 7nterestingly, the #ncyclopaedia refers #nglish readers to erman historical economists, the state had an obligation to discourage the waste ofnational resources, a position that led him to support tariffs to reduce 4inefficient consumption91 /or all hisattention to consumption, the consumer is not yet a master category for 2atten, who prefers to speak of the

peopleG or societyG1 See also 3aniel M1 /o0, 'he 3isco5ery of 8bundance Simon N1 2atten and the'ransformation of Social 'heory (7thaca Cornell 2, "-.$); Susan Strasser, ;80el erman%istoricism, 2rogressi5e Social 'hought, and the 7nter5entionist State in the S Since the "LL+s,G in Markets in%istorical Conte0ts, eds1 M1 Be5ir and /1 'rentmann (Cambridge Cambridge ni5ersity 2ress, ++*), ch1 L1.* ?ohn Ne5ille 6eynes had read


17/46


was an appreciation of ad5ancing middle classes creating more conscientious consumers1 'o

enQoy more meant to li5e more, to be more humanG, 2rittwit concluded1.L 8t the same time,

the normati5e place of consumers in the social order depended not on the indi5iduals as such

but on the collecti5e purpose and consequence of their actions1 'he danger lay not with

consumption but with e0cessi5e, thoughtless or repetiti5e consumption that made consumers

forget about their family, neighbours, and community1 Consumption made national strength

and ci5ilisation possible, the family made an escalation of personal wants or desire bearable1

!ithout the demands of family life regarding sacrifice and commitment that distract us from our personal

consumption purposes, consumption would be as unbearable for us as it was for single young menG, 6arl

@ldenberg argued in "-"+, whose 5iews highlight the dialectical role of consumption in social

e5olution1.- Consumption was natureGs cunning e5en where an increase in desire did not

produce enhanced satisfaction, it nonetheless forced people to e0ert their energies, thus

bringing the lay massG into the realm of ci5iliation1 nlike for 8dam Smith, where these

social benefits had been seen as a process of indi5idual deception, >erman national

economists now tied a growing demand for more and more consumption to a growing sense

of other=regarding actions and collecti5e national 5irtues the consumer appreciated the

5alue of his TsicU consumption not only differently in different ages but at different le5els of

his ethical education Tsittliche #riehungU1 !hether he places consumption in the ser5ices of

transcendental obligations, or personal education or social considerations his satisfaction ofhis wants is only an end in itself only at the most primiti5e, non=refle0i5e stage of culture1G

8bo5e all, it culti5ated strong people and strong nations, which can rule o5er others and

imprint their characteristics on them1G

'he mobilisation of the consumer in economic knowledge, social action, and politics in the

nineteenth century was slow O and while there were points of contact between popular

mobilisation and economic authorities and their critics, it also had a logic of its own1 7n

.L 2rittwit, 6unst, p1 *L1 See also


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fiction, politics, and public discussion, the consumer remained associated with particular

goods, especially water, energy resources and certain perishable foodstuffs1 8s with so much

in Kictorian society, it was the politics of ta0ation that were the catalyst that mobilised ta0=

paying users as consumers1 7n his work on local ta0ation, Sidgwick spoke of the consumerG

as the occupierG who bore the ta0 on the 5alue of the house1$+ 7n nineteenth=century Britain,

the principal site of this transformation, debates about free trade and empire inserted the

consumerG into an e0panding range of political relationships and material goods1 'hus 'he

Consumers of !est 7ndia Sugar made their case against sla5ery and duties in "LL1 'he

fiscal debateG began to e0tend the use of the term to all indi5iduals affected by duties, a

trend that can be traced in literature as well as politics1 ?ames /enimore Cooper, in 'he

Crater, or , KulcanGs 2eak ("L*$) referred to true free tradeG as meaning no ta0ation or

restrictions whatsoe5er, not e5en free ports, since the consumerG would still ha5e to pay

customary impositions1G$"

3ebates about who paid import duties helped solidify the consumer as a social group

against its enemies, and this could result in an antinomy between social groups == the

producer and the consumerG1$ Aet this was not the ine5itable or only binary outcome1

Meanings had not yet narrowed to that of the pri5ate end=user1 >ladstone, who early on in

his career in "L* urged to consider the consumerG when discussing the corn laws, had no

problem in identifying intermediary socio=economic groups as the consumer1 7n "LLH he

hoped to conclude the negotiations about canals with a fair regard to the 5iews and interests

of the mercantile community, who in this case represent the consumer, that is to say the

worldG1$H By "-"H accounts of the ondon ta0i=cab dri5ersG strike in "-"H, still referred to

consumersG not as the passengers but the users of petrol1$* 'he feminist acti5ist 'eresa

Billington >reigGs concern for the consumer as the 5ictim of a competiti5e system e0pressed

$+ Sidgwick, #ssays1$"

?ames /enimore Cooper, 'he Crater, or , KulcanGs 2eak ("L*$), "H1 7n %omeward Bound ("LHL), he speaksof factorsG as regular agents between common producer and the common consumerG, p1*; Cooper is stillemploying the older usage in 'he Monikins ("LH), where Miss 2oke is a desperate consumer of snuff andreligionG p1""1 8nthony 'rollopeGs no5els show the e0panding social can5ass on which the consumer is

proQected in the mid=Kictorian period, mo5ing from basic pro5ision of bread and corn to goods more widely1 7n'he !arden ("L), the protagonistGs worry that he might be seen as that unQust griping priestG articulated itself as the fear of being pointed at as the consumer of the bread of the poorG1 7n the #ustace 3iamonds ("L$H), wefind >reystock thinking of himself as a spender of much money and a consumer of many good thingsG;8nthony 'rollope, 'he !arden, p1 "*+; 'he #ustace 3iamonds, p1 ""1$ ?ustitia, 'he Iueen and the constitution, the producer and the consumer, or 2rotection , what is it, and whereto put it (ondon, "L")1 ?ames /enimore Cooper, 'he Crater, or , KulcanGs 2eak ("L*$), "H1 Brockhaus("L), although note that >rimmGs !oerterbuch still did not ha5e an entry on either Kerbraucher or6onsument, ?acob und !ilhelm >rimm, 3eutsches !oerterbuch, 5ol " ("LL. ; "-. reprint eipig S1 %irel

Kerlag)1$H 'he >ladstone 3iaries, ed1 %1C1>1 Matthew, 5ol &, H+ ?une "LLH, p1*.$1$* 'he 'imes, ?anuary "-"H, p1L1

"L


19/46


her belief in an inescapable union between consumption and production1$ 7n the popular

/ree 'rade campaign at that time the consumerG could still ser5e as an organic category of

the nation uniting the interests of shoppers with those of industrial consumers of imported

raw materials alike1$.

!ater !ars /rom ser to Consumer in the Kictorian Battle @5er !ater

'he growing attention to the consumer in different political traditions and knowledge

systems in the "L-+s and "-++s did not occur in a 5acuum but followed on from a discursi5e

and socio=political strengthening of the consumer as a category of identity, social pra0is, and

persona with legal and political rights1 Consumer cooperati5es spread from the "L*+s across

#urope, though membership of societies did not automatically create a collecti5e identity of

consumers and was mediated by different traditions1 Significantly, >erman co=operati5es did

not call themsel5es 6onsumenten5ereine but 6onsum5ereine; here consumption was obQect,

not identity, which remained centred in production or class categories, as in the big 6onsum,

Bau= und Spar5erein 2roduktionG in %amburg 8ltona1$$ 7n /rance the centrality of labour in

political discourse, and the emphasis on the mutual dependence between consumption and

production hampered the coming of a distinct consumer identity until the "LL+s1 8s with the

urney, Co=operati5e culture and the politics of consumption in#ngland, "L$+="-H+ (Manchester Manchester ni5ersity 2ress, "--.); #llen /urlough and Carl Strikwerda,

(eds1), Consumers 8gainst CapitalismF (@0ford


20/46


basic goods, especially water, in the battle between propertied users, water companies, and

municipal authorities that reached a peak in ondon in the "L$+s="L-+s, and second a more

global=local conQuncture in which cultural and political an0ieties o5er international trade

energised consumption as a question of national identity and citienship in the decade before

the /irst !orld !ar1

'he conflict between users and natural monopolies in Kictorian Britain produced a

seminal link between material needs and collecti5e consciousness and action1 'his early

synapse of consumer politics that was initially fused by propertied and commercial users

through notions of access, public accountability and representati5e go5ernment, rather than

choice or uni5ersal democratic inclusion1 7n a utility like gas, those who defended their

interests as consumers were almost e0clusi5ely commercial users, merchants, shopkeepers

and industrialists1$- !hen a >as ConsumerG asked in a pamphlet of "L*- 8re the Citiens of

ondon to ha5e better >as, and more of it, for ess MoneyF the writer presented himself as a

plain tradesmanG1 'he consumer was mobilised in a battle against monopoly for cheaper and

safer ser5ice, and to make companies accountable to their consumers in a way analogous to

the !estminster model of parliamentary representation1 iberal thinkers and commercial

users alike feared that utility companies were e5ol5ing into a new breed of pri5ate

monopolies like the #ast 7ndia Company and corrupt the public spirit1L+ !hen asked how

monopoly would be a5oided by forming a Company comprised of consumers for the supply

of the City Tof ondonUG, the gas consumerGs answer is re5ealing1 'he citiens Tof the CityU

will ha5e a double security; in the first place the consumers will elect their own 3irectorsG1L"

Secondly, they will ha5e a fi0ed ma0imum price, with di5idends on profits reducing the

price further1 'he consumer had become dependent on the citien accountability 5ia

representation went hand in hand with consumer protection in the form of lower and stable

prices1

$- 7n !ol5erhampton in "L*$, o5er eighty per cent of gas consumption was for commercial use, with anadditional "HR used by streetlights, and only R used in (wealthier) households; percentages based on cubicfeet cited in Martin 3aunton 'he Material 2olitics of Natural MonopoyG, in 2olitics of Consumption, p1$.1L+ See, 3aunton, Natural MonopolyG, esp1 pp1 $+ff; Martin 3aunton, 'rusting e5iathan 'he 2olitics of'a0ation in Britain, "$--="-"* (Cambridge, ++"), pp1 ..ff1 3a5id @wen, 'he >o5ernment of Kictorianondon, "L="LL- 'he Metropolitan Board of !orks, the Kestries, and the City Corporation, eds1


21/46


7t was water that was the single most fiercely contested good in nineteenth=century

ondon politics1L !ater users became articulate consumers whose growing self=confidence

sparked an infrastructure of 5oluntary consumer ad5ice centres and legal and political

challenges to water companies1 By the "LL+s="L-+s the social category of consumers had

widened from propertied rate=paying pri5ate and commercial users to include the public

more generally1 'he politicisation of water was dri5en by the widening gulf between the

rising cultural and political status of the article and it being a natural resource with

diminishing returns and hence escalating costs of supply1 !ater carried a high symbolic

capital as 4the first necessary of life9, a significance reinforced by the politics of public

health in the early Kictorian period1LH 7t was an article, as necessary to e0istence as light and

airG which, in the words of early reformers could not be left safely in the hands of

monopolistsG and these Qobbers in one of >odGs choicest blessingsG who were treating

customersPlike so many NegroesG1L* 'he "L$ 2ublic %ealth 8ct required local councils to

ensure adequate and clean water supply1 Some commercial users paid for a metered amount

of water consumed, but unlike in cities like Berlin, water to pri5ate users was not metered in

ondon before the introduction of continuous supply in the "LL+s=-+s1 7nstead, water was

paid for through rates, a local ta0 on the rateable 5alue of property1 7n the eye of local

go5ernment, water companies, and ta0=payers, consumers were owner=occupiers and tenants

abo5e a certain rent who paid their rates directly O not anyone drinking water (women,

children, tra5elling salesmen, poorer tenants who paid compounded rates, etc1)1

Cholera outbreaks in "L*L=- turned the problem of intermittent supply of poor

quality water into a more fundamental question of public 5ersus pri5ate and central 5ersus

local control and the legitimate relationship between state and markets1 @n the one end, the

M2 /rancis Mowatt called for a water parliamentG representing rate=payers,L on the other

'he #conomist warned that municipalisation of water would open the floodgates for

socialism by legitimising the public pro5ision of all necessaries of life publicly and land

nationalisation1 7t was now that political economy was drawn in to the contro5ersy speaking

L /or a larger, in=depth discussion of water consumer politics and the changing construction of needs, seeKanessa 'aylor and /rank 'rentmann, iquid 2olitics Needs,


22/46


on behalf of the consumer1 Mobilised by the Metropolitan Sanitary 8ssociation, ?1S1 Mill

pronounced in "L" that the argument for pri5ate competition failed since water was a

natural monopoly and concerned a necessity1 T'Uhe arrangement between the companies and

the consumer is as much compulsory as if the rate were imposed by >o5ernment1G 'he only

effecti5e guarantee for efficiency was public opinion, a check which would operate much

more efficiently on a public boardG, ideally at the municipal le5el O the possession of the

monopoly by indi5iduals constitutes not freedom but sla5eryG1 Aet, this also meant that the

consumer politics of necessity would be kept distinct from the broader arena of markets

through which most other consumption goods circulated1

7n most 5estries (units of local go5ernment) it was ratepayers, that is the more

pri5ileged section of commercial and propertied pri5ate users who paid for water use

through their direct local ta0es (not water users in general), who now agitated as consumers

to take the water supply and distribution into their own representati5e hands1L. Complaints

about supply, access, quality, and price escalated as water companiesG costs rose and

consumers became more 5ocal about companies raising water rates at a time of falling

commodity prices1 7n Britain in the last quarter of the "-th century, population rose by H$R,

rateable 5alue by ."R, and rates by "*"R1L$ 7t was in this pressure cooker that the consumer

first consolidated its propertied e0istence and then spilled o5er into a more asserti5e and

uni5ersal category of social entitlement1LL 7n "LL=LH, the barrister 8rchibald 3obbs

successfully challenged the water companiesG rating policy in court1 %e became the hero of

the rate=paying publicG and promised to continue his personal battle to secure the same

ad5antage for e5ery water consumer in ondon1GL- 8 network of !ater ConsumersG 3efence

eagues sprang up all o5er ondon, in 7slington and Nottinghall, Battersea, Clapham and

elsewhere1 'hey set up ad5ice bureaus to members, circulating posters with 7nstructions to

ConsumersG, organising boycotts, and pro5iding legal support for aggrie5ed consumers1-+

Consumer rights, at first, remained tied to property rights as the basis of

citienship and representation1 3obbs charged that the water companies had led an in5asion

L. #1g1 the propertied and commercial users in the 5estry of St1 ukes; 'he 'imes, "+ ?uly "L", . c1L$ Cit1, Millward, 2olitical economyG, p1H-1LL 3obbs 51 >rand ?unction !aterworks Company; No51 "LLH; e0cerpts of the case and ruling are in /rancisBolton and 21 81 Scratchley (eds1), 'he ondon !ater Supply (ondon, "LL*; nd edn "LLL), pp1 "L=LL1'orrensG 8ct confirmed the basis of 5aluation1L- 'he 'imes, + 3ecember "LLH, . e, meeting at %ollway=hall in 7slington1-+ 2


23/46


of the property of water consumersPa confiscation of the statutory rights of ratepayers1G-"

!hen a subsequent prominent lawsuit by commercial users in the City sought to define the

consumerG, entitled by statue to demand water supply, 3obbs still limited this consumer

right to propertied persons who were able to enter into contractual arrangements with water

companies, not to users in general, including women, children, tra5ellers or the poor 1- !ater

companies sought to dri5e a wedge through a consolidating consumer interest, but in the

process ga5e the consumerG e5en greater currency through a massi5e counter=campaign that

targeted wasteful consumers as responsible for water shortages, waste, dirt, and increased

prices1 Contamination was the result of those consumers who kept their cisterns and tanks in

a disgusting and filthy stateG1-H 'he disco5ery of the propertied consumer with rights went

hand in hand with the disco5ery of the apathetic consumerG1-*


24/46


in the #ast #nd, and female tenants1-$ 'he mobilisation of the consumer reached its peak

during the so=called water faminesG of the mid="L-+s, in which, after a cycle of droughts

and frost, the #ast ondon !ater Company reintroduced intermittent supply1 'he #ast

ondon !ater ConsumerGs 3efence 8ssociation pressed for municipal control of the water

monopoly and called on consumers to boycott local ta0es for water not supplied1


25/46


Consumption,

7nternational

'rade, and

National

2ower

'he early

genealogy of

the consumer

in local water

politics in

Britain was

marked by

distincti5e

features1 7t

concerned a

basic good and

natural

monopoly1 7t was a scarce, finite good that raised questions of waste, not abundance1 'here

were no indi5idual market transactions, nor (before the introduction of meters) was the price

determined by the 5olume of consumption1 sers turned into consumers protesting as much

about conditions of supply as price, and called for entitlements and accountability, not

choice1 Consumers wanted regulation and public control, not competition1 Consumers, in

short, acquired their 5oice in an area of consumption that was not only different but outside

the widening uni5erse of commodity culture O and it was this special status that ga5e

Kictorian reformers the ideological ammunition to call for consumer protection and

representation at a time of dominant confidence in the superior workings of the market1 'he

turn of the century added a 5ery different dynamic1 8midst trade and imperial ri5alries and

an0ieties of racial and national sur5i5al, consumption was now politicised 5ia the

international circulation of food and commodities in the domestic market1 Consumption

became a contested site in debates about agricultural and trade policy and the relationship

between citienship and nationhood1 'he politico=economic and cultural debates about /ree'rade in Britain, protectionism in >ermany, and alien commodities in China can be seen as


26/46


part of a global conQuncture1 'he degree to which this conQuncture mobilised consumer

identities, howe5er, differed markedly according to traditions of citienship and ri5al social

and national solidarities1 !hereas the consumer became a firmly established political and

social 5oice in Britain before the /irst !orld !ar, it remained underde5eloped and

subordinate in imperial >ermany, and was stillborn in the Chinese case of commodity

nationalism1

More than anything, it was the politics of /ree 'rade that established the consumer as

an identity and actor in Britain, especially through the popular campaigns of the #dwardian

years ("-+H="-"+)1-- reat #0hibition, noting thatall men are consumers, and as such their common bond of interest is to purchase e5ery thing in the cheapest marketG, 'he #0position of "L" or, Kiews of the 7ndustry, 'he Science, and the >o5ernment of #ngland(ondon, "L"), p1 **1 Contemporaries sometimes talked of consuming nationsG, not indi5iduals or socialgroups1"+" Sophismes #conomiques (2aris, "L*.), esp1 p1 *-1 BastiatGs !hat is Seen and !hat is not Seen or, 2olitical#conomy in one lesson1appeared in newspapers and book form in "L-; Selections of his Sophisms and #ssayson 2olitical #conomy went through se5eral peopleGs editions in the "L$+s=L+s1 /amously, BastiatGs lastrecorded words on his deathbed in "L+ were 9!e must learn to look at e5erything from the point of 5iew ofthe consumerG91 8s Charles >ide noted, such statements were politically stillborn since, after all, it was

presumed that free competition would automatically make for consumersG greatest satisfaction 'he consumer,like a king, has only to let himself be ser5ed1G >ide, 2olitical #conomy (Cours dG#conomie 2olitique) p1 $++1"+

ynda Nead,


27/46


from women in department stores to male shoppers and their changing sensibilities and

tastes1 'he political debate, too, remained open for national and male representations1 7n a

depiction of the 5ulnerable position of the consumer under protectionism, the /ree 'rade

nion depicted a troubled middle=class shopper standing in front of a shopwindow with

leathergoods at higher prices under tariff reform1"+H

=llustration 0' Bristol >ni!ersit7 Archi!e, 6& ??. Free Trade >nion, *eaflet no/ ;0:, 0@ $o!/ .1.'

'he strength of /ree 'rade rested partly on its ability to incorporate older and newer images

of the consumer1 By the end of the campaign, /ree 'raders had mo5ed beyond a fi0ation on

necessities (the cheap loaf) to a broader display of goods, ranging from basic foodstuffs to

branded goods and clothing for different social groups1 8t the same time, discussions on how

(Berkeley ni5ersity of California 2ress, "--.), p1"1 and pp1 $$f1 See also isa 'iersten, Marrianne in the3epartment Store >ender and the 2olitics of Consumption in turn=of=the=century 2aris, in >eoffrey Crossickand Serge ?aumain (eds1), Cathedrals of Consumption 'he #uropean 3epartment Store, "L+="-H- (8ldershot,"---); Sheryl 6roen, 3er 8ufstieg des 6undenbrgersF #ine politische 8llegorie fr unsere _eitG, in 2rin,`berfluss, esp1 pp1 *+="1"+H Bristol ni5ersity 8rchi5e, 3M ..- /ree 'rade nion, eaflet no1 HL, * No51 "-+-1 See also ibid1, leafletno1 H"+1 Note, again the consumer here is not necessarily the end user, as some of the glo5es and shoes ondisplay are ladiesG articles1 7t is debatable whether, because of the language of separate spheres, the consumer

became fi0ed on women, as /urlough has argued, Consumer Cooperation, pp1 + ff1, "- ff; note, e1g1, the "L-Hcooperati5e illustration of the male pau5re consommateurG crushed by the weight of o5ercharging retailers andwholesalers, ibid1, pL$1 7n /rance, %ubertine 8uclert, argued in "-+L (e 5ote des femmes) that women as

producers and consumers should ha5e the 5ote because they were ta0ed, see 8uslander, p1 -.; Similarly in the

nited States, ?1 !1 Sulli5an, Markets for the 2eople 'he ConsumerGs 2art (New Aork; Macmillan "-"H),addresses male and female consumers1 See also the photos of the man e0amining a shirt, representing the8merican consumerG, in Building 8merica, 77, . (March "-H$), p1H1

$


28/46


duties were paid by the home consumerG rather than the foreigner grouped all Britons

together1 /ree 'rade businessmen, like 8lfred Mond, the chemical industrialist, emphasised

how industries were consumers Qust as ordinary Britons and equally threatened by

protectionist duties1 7n contrast to the earlier tradition of the consumer, with its persona of

the propertied rate=payer and its emphasis on finite utilities, the consumer now had become

an integral part of society and politics, whose interests were tied to /ree 'rade in 5irtually all

spheres of the economy and whose ci5ic consciousness was considered integral to Britain as

a ci5il society1

'here was nothing ine5itable about the coming together of this synapse of consumer

politics1 Mass politics and debates about the standard of li5ing and the costs and benefits of

trade regulation were features of many societies at the turn of the twentieth century without

producing a strong identity of the consumer1 8cross #urope, the consumption and sa5ing

habits of different social groups became a central topic of social in5estigation1"+* 7n 7mperial

>ermany, a public agitation about inflated prices ('euerung) led to growing opposition to

agricultural protection1 'he milk wars, butter boycotts, and protests against dear meat

between "-+=" articulated a new sense of entitlement to an impro5ing standard of li5ing

amongst blue and white=collar workers and parts of the middle classes1 Social democrats and

womenGs groups began to mobilise against price increases in "-+1 By "-" the Christian

trades unions had swung from earlier support to oppose the protectionist regime1 Aet social

groups and political parties were slow to de5elop a unifying language of the consumer and,

instead, were concerned mainly with the 6onsumkraftG of their respecti5e social

constituencies1 Contemporaries bemoaned the 9pure consumer point of 5iew9G of the lower

middle classes (neuer Mittelstand)1 #5en national=liberal ad5ocates for this group separated

salaried employees as 9first of all consumers9G from the rest of the middle classes rather

than stressing shared, public interests1"+ 'he consumer was still far from representing the

nation1 !omenGs shopper or consumer leagues also spread to 7mperial >ermany from

Britain, /rance and 8merica, but here too, a more uni5ersal, inclusi5e identity of the

"+*


29/46


consumer was underde5eloped and the emphasis was on socially responsible consumption as

an instrument for impro5ed work relations between employer and employee1 "+. 'he

%ausfrauen5erein remained sceptical of the language and identity of the consumer and,

instead, presented itself as a corporate organisation of women in charge of managing and

preparing goods as much as purchasing them1"+$

7n China consumption mo5ed to the centre of popular politics in the conte0t of weak

state power and militant patriotism1 /rom "-++ until "-H", there was a steady series of

campaigns for the reco5ery of so5ereign rights, directed first against erthGs important China Made Consumer Culture and the Creation of the

Nation (Cambridge, M8 %ar5ard ni5ersity 2ress, ++H), quoted at p""L, albeit with a different conclusion onconsumer identity1 'hanks to 6arl >erth for additional discussion of this material1 7 ha5e not had time toconte0tualise this more within Chinese history, e1g1 Sherman Cochran, !akeman; #liabeth 2erry and others1

-


30/46


comple0, %anghousGs !est ake #0hibition, had eighteen million 5isitors in "--1 'he

wise consumption of national products was seen as a duty of all citiens fighting for national

sur5i5al, but especially for women1 'he 4determined use of national productsG9 raised her

status in the household to the equi5alent of a commanding officer on the battlefield

9killTingU the enemy for the countryG9, as the !omenGs National 2roducts Aear of "-H* put

it1""+ Building a strong Chinese nation required more conscious habits of consumption

amongst the Chinese people, but the desired actor and identity was that of citienG,

compatriotG, or Chinese 2eopleG and massesG1 8ccordingly, the groups promoting

commodity nationalism formed Citiens 8ssociations, not consumer associations1""" 'he

consumer was stillborn1

'he contrasting forms in which consumption was politicised in these countries and

the different space it created for an articulate consumer identity are suggesti5e about the

contingent and di5erse traQectories of the consumer in modernity1 Commodity culture played

an increasingly important part in all three societies in this earlier period of globalisation, but

it was negotiated and contested through different social and political traditions that mapped

consumption practices onto different social identities1 @ne fa5ourable condition for the

creation of a consumer identity, these cases suggest, is a comparati5ely early erosion of ri5al

social identities based on estates, work, or corporation1 By the late nineteenth century,

workers in Britain and 8merica had largely accepted the reality of wage labour and gi5en up

earlier ideals of artisanal, corporate, or republican independence1"" 7t is in this indirect way

that an early commercialisation of society, as in Britain, created room for the consumer1

!hereas in water politics consumers still remained tied to property, in /ree 'rade people

more generally had become recognised as consumers with a stake in society and polity1

!here corporate and landed identities remained stronger and were seen as commensurate

with the national interest, by contrast, the place for the consumer was more limited1 7n

>ermany, it was not until after the defeat of Naism, in the conte0t of social markets, that a

more inclusi5e, positi5e consumer became an attracti5e cultural 5ehicle of national

refashioning1""H #arly twentieth=century ?apan, 6orea, and 7ndia are different 5ariations on

""+ Cit1, in >erth, p1 -.1""" See the references in >erth, pp1 "+H, "+, "H-, "$, H-, H1 ConsumerG (0iaofeiren) was rarely used1"" awrence B1 >lickman, 8 i5ing !age 8merican !orkers and the Making of Consumer Society (7thacaand ondon Cornell ni5ersity 2ress, "--$)1""H #rica Carter, Ho (erman is She Postar 5est (erman Reconstruction and the Consuming 5oman (S8,"--$)11 'he new cultural ascendancy of the consumer in the "-+s, howe5er, did not create any institutionalised

recognition of the consumer as political actor, as udwig #rhard relied on markets and competition policy;%arm Schr\terP1 in %artmut Berghoff, ed1, %onsumpolitik' 6ie Regulierung des Pri!aten oettingen, "---)1, pp1

H+


31/46


this theme1 7n ?apan, consumption remained culturally and politically suspect indi5iduals

were e0pected to contribute to the economic and military strength of the nation through

sa5ing, not spending1""* 7n 7ndia, the campaign to promote khadi turned to indigenous craft

and consumption practices for moral and se0ual cleansing to create conscious nationals in a

more self=sufficient community1"" nlike in China, the consumption of swadeshi goods was

a pronounced turn against a modernity defined by commodity culture, requiring less

consumption altogether1 'he scope for consumer solidarity remained correspondingly

limited1 !hereas /ree 'raders and international cooperators upgraded the consumer to an

internationalist identity, as a unifying human link between societies, the politicisation of

consumption in nationalist traditions fa5oured identities of citiens in territorially=bounded

interdependence1

8ttention to social and political traditions also suggests that the degree of

commodification might account less for the strength of the consumer in the modern period

than con5entionally thought1 'he early campaigns o5er water and gas pro5ision indicate that

the identity formation of consumers need not take place in proper commercial market

settings1 2arado0ically, moreo5er, it was /ree 'radersG ambi5alence towards modern

commodity culture rather than their consumerist embrace of it that pro5ided the consumer

with the necessary cultural and political legitimacy to enter public debate as a confident

social group O without either being subordinated to 4larger9 interests or marginalied as yet

another separate interest1 'he initial focus on necessaries and ta0ed goods O not preferences

or purchasing power in general O was crucial because it allowed the construction of an

organic public interest around ta0payers (propertied ratepayers and pri5ate and commercial

consumers threatened with indirect protectionist ta0es)1 7n politics (high and low), the

consumer could thus emerge as a moral citien, kept largely distinct from the increasingly

commercialised world of goods and ser5ices, department stores and leisure, as well as from

the faceless utilitarian abstraction emerging in economic theory1 2olitics was not immune

from this e0panding world of consumption, which through new commercial spaces, like the

department store and tea=rooms, for e0ample, facilitated middle class womenGs entry into

public spaces1 "". 8t the same time, it is noticeable how different the identity of the consumer

""* Sheldon >aron, Duru0y is the #nemy Mobiliing Sa5ings and 2opulariing 'hrift in !artime ?apan,D 2ournal of 2apanese Studies . (+++)1 See also the notes in 2atricia Maclachlan and /rank 'rentmann,Ci5ilising Markets 'raditions of Consumer 2olitics in 'wentieth=Century Britain, ?apan, and the nitedStatesGin Markets in %istorical Conte0ts, chapter -; aura Nelson, Measured #0cess; >aron and Maclachlan,forthcoming1""

isa 'ri5edi, DKisually Mapping the DNationD Swadishi 2olitics in Nationalist 7ndia, "-+="-H+,D The 2ournal of Asian Studies . (++H)11"".


32/46


fa5oured in political culture and social mo5ements remained1 Consumers here were citiens

with a social conscience and with limited needs, not the flneur or flneuse e0ploring the

infinite desires and phantasies of their sel5es; political debate remained largely fi0ed on

basic goods which were e0hibited in old=fashioned retail shop windows1 7n political

discourse and social mobilisation, the consumer in Britain was thus able to contain and

withstand the charge of being a selfish, apatriotic indi5idual whose obsessions with uni5ersal

cheapness eroded the collecti5e good, a powerful charge on the continent1""$ Materialism and

the social polarisation that came with it were 5iewed as the products of protectionism, as in

the nited States and >ermany1 7n the conte0t of British political culture, then, in5oking the

consumer did not lead to an0ieties of social and moral disintegration of the same order as

those well=documented in continental debates about consumptionGs softening or effeminising

dangers or by contemporaries worried about mass consumptionGs threat to social hierarchies

and cultural order 1""L ord ?ames of %ereford told the annual demonstration of the /ree 'rade

nion in "-"+ that ThUe would willingly, under all circumstances, range himself on the side

of the consumers1 /irst, because they were the more numerous; but also because the

producers, or one class of producers, represented ealth, to hich he did not care to add ,

while the consumers for the most part could not afford to pay more than they did1G""- Clearly,

ord ?ames bracketed a wide range of consumption practices, such as music halls, fashion,

5isits to the seaside, motorcars etc1 'he consumer, then, was inclusi5e and e0clusi5e at the

same time1 'he consumer now referred to the maQority of people but it also limited attention

to a still fairly narrow scope of pro5ision (rather than a much larger world of commodified

practices)1

'he second distincti5e feature of /ree 'rade was that it eschewed any claim for a

direct representation of the consumer interest1 7n Britain the argument for public controls and

consumer representation de5eloped o5er water co=e0isted with an underde5eloped 5iew of

the state and consumer representation in /ree 'rade politics more generally1 Both mobilised

consumers around necessityG1 But whereas ideas of a water parliamentG emerged in

""$ 8ttacks on the consumer from this direction were confined to smaller socialist groups, see /rank 'rentmann,!ealth 5ersus !elfareG, pp1""L 8uslander, book; Note, a national economist like @ldenberg argued that an ad5ancing increase in consumerneeds tended to diminish social inequalities o5er time because it would disproportinally harm the richer classesmost hea5ily engulfed in a wasteful pursuit of distinction, p1""-1 More generally, this fear of consumption as asol5ent of moral and social hierarchies may account for conser5ati5esG suspicion of the consumer, a fear muchmore pronounced on the continent than in Britain1 Note, for e0ample, the neo=conser5ati5e %ans /reyer who inhis 'heorie des gegenwaertigen _eitalters ("-) obser5ed how the consumer (Kerbraucher ) was being

proletarianisied as needs were no longer tied to rank or role in society, a recognition that suggest Qust how latethe consumer acquired more uni5ersal characteristics in >ermany1""- 'he /ree 'rader, p1 "H, my emphasis1

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response to market failure and weak regulation in the case of a natural monopoly, the

consumer interest in /ree 'rade was premised on it working effecti5ely as a substitute

competition policy pre5enting monopoly and trusts from emerging in the economy at large1

Consumers were thus able to a5oid the charge of being Qust another 5ested interest seeking

institutional power1 8 strong 5iew of liberal representation and ci5il society was the other

side of the coin of this soft 5iew of the state1 iberals saw the %ouse of Commons as a kind

of 5irtual representation for all consumers O representing the interests of all ta0payers

whether enfranchised or not == that preser5ed the contemporary ideal of the purity of

politicsG, in which reasoned deliberation of common interests kept sectional interests out of

the political process1 @rganised consumers, like the cooperati5es, were willing partners in

this self=denying 5iew of the state1 Cooperati5e women, who yet had to gain the national

5ote, saw /ree 'rade as a fa5ourable en5ironment in which they, as consumers in their own

organisations, acquired the knowledge and ethics of responsible citiens1 By instilling a

sense of social conscience amongst consumers, these self=go5erning societies would

ultimately also moralise the market by putting social need before profit=moti5e1"+ Ci5il

society, then, was not merely a fa5ourable infrastructure for consumer politics but part of the

belief and tradition that made it thinkable, creating a synapse between consumer and citien1

7nstead of picturing a natural synergy between the consumer, indi5idualism, and

neoclassical economics, as has become frequent since the mid=twentieth century, it is 5ital to

retrie5e this earlier moment of ci5il society, and, more generally, to appreciate the collecti5e

social and political dimensions of the consumer1 Ne0t to the citien=consumer in /ree 'rade,

we can also think here of the consumer leagues that sprang up in 8merica and continental

#urope in the "L-+s, with their emphasis on the social responsibility of consumers to shop

wisely and with a 5iew to the greater welfare of workers and small traders, by refraining

from shopping after Lpm, by paying in cash, by planning ahead, and by taming the impulse

(especially among young girls) of buying shoddy, fashionable goods made by sweated

labour1"" !e are here in a 5ery different mental world of consumers from the much=debated

uni5erse of hedonism, indi5idualism, unlimited choice, or the city as *=hour mall1

"+

See /rank 'rentmann, Commerce, ci5il society, and the 4citien=consumer9, pp1 H+$="-1"" Kon 6nebel=3oeberit, 4/rau als 6onsument9, H-=**1 Cf1, for 8merica, 6athryn 6ish Sklar, /lorence6elley1

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Social #thics and 2olitical #mpowerment Consumers Between State and Ci5il Society

'he full populist consummation of the consumer happened in the /irst !orld !ar1 'he war

created an unprecedented consolidation of the consumer, from organised consumer boycotts

to state=sponsored institutionalisation and mobilisation, like the war committees of consumer

interests set up in >ermany in 3ecember "-"*1" Scarcities were followed by more asserti5e

demands and mobilisation1 3ebates about economic controls and rationing set in motion a

process that would pro5ide states and consumers with a much more transparent 5iew of the

economy and businesses, all the way down to detailed accounts of prices, profits, supplies

and distribution of particular commodities1 SubQects graduated from the war with an

elementary education of themsel5es as consumers and citiens1


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supply of commodities was its policy implication1" 7t left its imprint on inter=war consumer

politics, with consumers now using rightsG talk O ad5ocating mechanisms of secure

pro5ision and regulation, instead of cheapness and freedom of trade1

'he maturing of the consumer during and after the /irst !orld !ar was ine0tricably

tied to the de5elopment of the state and welfare policies, and first the redefinition and then

displacement of ci5il society by the de5elopment of social citienship1G 8s nineteenth=

century battles o5er the public control of basic goods suggest, this twentieth century story

had historical antecedents1 But the consumer politics of war and welfare were more than Qust

gas and water socialism writ large1 /or one, the consumer was now increasingly only a

pri5ate indi5idual citien or end user O the earlier inclusion of commercial or collecti5e users

becomes rare (though still traceable in some national politics like in !eimar corporatism)1

7n5esting the consumer with socio=economic rights was the other side of the coin of the

stateGs demands on its citiens as soldiers and patriotic mothers1 State planning opened up

new social and economic tasks and identities for the consumer1 7n his middle wayG between

fascism and communism, %arold Macmillan ad5ocated a programme of economic

reconstruction that would guarantee a minimum standard of life to all households whether

the consumer is in or out of work1G". !hen design materials were e0hibited for use in

elementary schools in ondonGs County %all in "-H., the Council for 8rt and 7ndustry urged

local education authorities to remember, e5en where it conflicts with a strict economyPthat

they are educating the future consumer; and may be setting a standard for industry in the

ne0t generation1G"$ /or the world as a whole, internationalists in the "-H+s e0pected

consumers to play a key role in the programme of economic appeasementG and international

peace by reducing e0cess production1"L 'o some consumers were the last defence against

totalitarianism1 7n the nited States, %orace 6allen, who had sat at the feet of !illiam

?ames, argued in the 3ecline and ermany,see M1 >eyer, 1 'he anti=corporate bias of consumer groups in the nited States in the "-H+s also fed on warand post=war grie5ances against profiteering1" See, /rank 'rentmann, Bread, Milk, and 3emocracyG, in 2olitics of Consumption, pp1 "-=.H; Christoph

Nonn, in Berghoff1". %arold Macmillan, 'he Middle !ay ("-HL)1"$

'he 'imes, * 3ec1 "-H., p1 -1 See also Marie ?1 3ollard, 3e5eloping the 7ntelligent Consumer of 8rt,G3esign, H$$ (?an1 "-H.), L1"L #1g1, Mac3ougall and loyd1 eague of Nations1

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the full personality of consumers, for their cultural spirit, their personal disposition, their

social attack, their economic method must oppose themsel5es in unmistakable contrast to

those of the duces, Fuehrers and commissars of the /acsist, Nai and Communist cults as

well as those of the captains of industry and finance of the capitalist economy1G"- %ere was a

pre=consumerist conception of the trinity between consumption, freedom, and 8merican

leadership that would mutate into more materialist features and become an e0port staple

during the cold war1"H+

Aet the state could be the consumerGs ri5al, as well as an ally1 8s a new state

apparatus and new centralism displaced agencies of ci5il society and localist accountability,

the citien=consumer stood in danger of being reduced into a passi5e recipient of social and

industrial policy1 Consumer mo5ements and thinkers responded in different ways to these

challenges, but two dimensions deser5e attention the re5ision of the consumer=citien and

the connection between a new social ethics with considerations of price, quality, and 5alues1

8s the relationship between ci5il society and state shifted, the fairly organic and

uncomplicated equation of the consumer as citien of pre=war years was called into question1

Beatrice !ebbGs 'he 3isco5ery of the Consumer ("-L) offers one window on how

contemporaries sought to resol5e this implicit tension between consumers in ci5il society

and state1 'here may be significanceG, she obser5es, in the fact that during the same century

in which these 5oluntary organisations of consumers ha5e taken so great and so widespread a

de5elopment, the compulsory organisation of citiens that we know as go5ernment has

largely changed in form and in function, so as to appro0imate, more or less, to an

8ssociation of ConsumersG1 @ld states had been based on 5ocational castes and tended

towards military aggression requiring arbitrary ta0ationG1 7n the course of democratisation,

by contrast, the nation comes 5ery near to becoming P1an 8ssociation of consumersG, as

the central go5ernment, carrying out the common will of the citiens, con5eys their letters

and parcels; transports their goods and themsel5es by railway, canal or steamship; pro5ides

for them news and entertainment by 4wireless9; supplies for them a thousand and one

"- %orace M1 6allen, 'he 3ecline and ermany, neo=liberalsG reaction to totalitarianism also upgraded the

positi5e contribution of the consuming desires of consumersG O ike 6allen,


37/46


common requirements, from medical attendance at birth to burial at death, together with

museums, libraries, picture galleries, music, and dramatic performances during life1G"H"

'he question was, how close was the state to resemble an association of consumers,

like the cooperati5es, before undermining a community of citiensF !ebb had long

appreciated the flow of ci5ic awareness and citienship coming out of the cooperati5es,

nursing a practice of democratic self=go5ernmentG1"H Aet would there be a similar flow of

strengthened democratic sentiment and practice if consumer representation was placed at the

centre of the stateF 2artly this was a problem of sie it was wishful thinking that millions of

people sending letters could be marshalled into effecti5e democracy for controlling the

management of the postG1"HH 2artly, most social ser5ices consumed carried a problem of

asymmetry between the minority that used them and the community that paid for them1"H*

She argued that TtUhe suppression of nuisances, the enforcement of uni5ersal schooling, and

the general con5enience of making some ser5ices free (which in5ol5es payment by

compulsory le5ies irrespecti5e of the use of such ser5ices) seem to require an association not

of consumers, but of citiens, adhesion to which cannot be left merely optional1G"H 'here had

to be an enforceable standard of a national minimum of ci5ilised lifeG for the community as

a whole1 Municipal go5ernment was ad5antageous for the election of representati5es and

the le5ying of ta0ationG, as well as pro5iding citiens with a fi0ed sense of belonging1 She

could not see how it would be possible to endow obligatory associations of citiens with the

freedom and elasticity of co=operati5e societies without leading either to inQustice and

oppression or to endless litigation1G"H.

'he unprecedented attention to the consumer in questions of citienship also

reflected the increasingly ambitious and di5ersified field of practices that was absorbed into

the identity of the consumer O a process of e0pansion that began in the late nineteenth

century1 Charles >ide in fin de siecle /rance e0panded its scope to include houses, gardens,

money, furniture, curiosG1 "H$ 'he consumerGs interest mo5ed beyond necessity, though this

did not mean it necessarily pointed to affluence or consumerism1 >ide noted possibilities for

"H" Beatrice !ebb, 'he 3isco5ery of the Consumer , (ondon #rnest Benn, "-L), pp1 *f1"H 7bid1, p1 1"HH 7bid1, p1H1"H* !ebbGs e0ample, it may be interesting to note, was healthcare, a subQect that under New abour is nowmo5ing fast in the direction of markets, consumers, and choice1"H 7bid1, p11"H. 7bid1, p1.1"H$

>ide, 2olitical #conomy(Cours dG#conomie 2olitique), pp1 $++f1 7n /rench, the older meaning ofconsumption had a less destructi5e meaning and there are early "-th century references to the consommateurGas someone who perfects things, see /urlough, Consumer Cooperation, p1 ++1

H$


38/46


recycling and imagined an ideal state of consumption where goods ne5er wore out; in the

nited States, 2atten looked towards a wiser use of natural resources1 'he consumer interest

e0panded to health, housing, leisure, and collecti5e forms of consumption1 Cooperati5es

spoke of being 9consumers of healthG9 in /rance in the "-+s and amongst consumer

acti5ities la cooperation nou5elle co5ered free holidays for children and families1 Consumers

were now bourgeois and petit bourgeois as well as workers and farmers1"HL By "-H., the

British 7nstitute of 8dult #ducation was in5estigating 'he ConsumerGs Kiew of 8dult

#ducation1G"H- 7n the nited States, college and secondary school courses in consumption

included medical care and the purchases of ser5ices as well as food and clothing,

automobiles and electrical appliances1"*+ 7n federal go5ernment, the ConsumersG 3i5ision

identified housing as a critical issue for ?ohn 2ublic O the consumer1G"*" 'he enrichment of

the social body and practice of the consumer, then, was well under way in the "-+s and

early "-H+s and a precursor as much as a response to economistsG and go5ernmentGs

disco5ery of the consumer as the crucial engine of wealth and full employment1 7n "-H*, two

years before ?1M1 6eynesG >eneral 'heory, 2unch (only slightly) caricatured the new public

status of the consumer that put the consumer on par with the worker, indeed associated its

function with work1 !hen asked by a kind old BishopG how he intended to help SocietyGs

planG, the bright=haired lad repliedG 7 want to be a ConsumerP7G5e ne5er had aims of a

selfish sort, /or that, as 7 know, is wrong1 7 want to be a Consumer, Sir1 8nd help the world

alongP1 7 want to be a ConsumerJ8nd work both night and dayP 'here are too many

people workingJ8nd too many things are made1 7 want to be a Consumer, Sir, and help to

further 'rade1G"*

'he New 3eal created a 5ery different political synapse of the citien=consumers

from earlier traditions, combining an economic model of growth through increased

purchasing power with a democratic model of mobilising consumers as citiens in and

through the state1 Consumer ad5isers in federal go5ernment solicited and energised the

consumer 5oice in the localities, as in the spread of local consumer committees1"*H !hereas"HL /urlough, Consumer Cooperation, pp1 $ ff1 See also >ary Cross, 'ime and Money1"H- !1 #1 !illiams and 81 #1 %eath, earn to i5e 'he ConsumerGs Kiew of 8dult #ducation (ondonMethuen, "-H.), a study of students at


39/46


in /ree 'rade, the public identity of the consumer was anchored in a basic range of goods,

the New 3eal now e0panded it to co5er e5erything from food quality to inefficient machines

and corporate structure, since all of these affected the quantity, quality, and cost of goods1

lickman, D'he strike in the temple of consumption consumer acti5ism and twentieth=century8merican political culture,D The 2ournal of American Histor7 LL (++")1; %ayagree5a etting Aour MoneyGs !orth 8merican Models for the


40/46


concern only goods necessary for personal comfort, health, and education but also hobbies,

culture, and beauty and the fostering of social intercourse for the sake of friendliness and

affection, or for the sake of mental stimulation and e0perience1G 6yrkGs distinguished

between a consumerG and a buyerG1 'he first was concerned with the e5aluation of choices

and the setting of standards, the latter with efficient purchasing decisions1 7mportantly, these

were not ri5al social models but stages in the indi5idual practice of consumption1 'he

buyerG was about the technology of consumptionG e0ercising choice, sa5ing money and

time, and securing a fair price necessary to keep labour and capital fully employed1 'he

consumer was about culti5ating tastes and forming new concepts of need1 7t concerned

questions of moti5es, of 5alues, of ends1G"*$

6yrkGs work reflects how broad and interdisciplinary the intellectual sources behind

the consumer remained in the inter=war years1 'he main intellectual inspiration for 6yrk and

many consumer ad5ocates was ?ohn 3eweyGs philosophy of studying and teaching

knowledge through practice1 7n her prie=winning 'heory of Consumption ("-H), 6yrk

demolished ?e5onsG theory of economics as a mere theory of e0change 5alue that failed to

offer any understanding of the attitudes that lay behind choice1 7ndi5iduals did not ha5e free

choice nor were they rational ma0imisers, but neither were they passi5e minds1 6yrk drew

on philosophy, social and functional psychology, and, in particular, 3eweyGs critique of the

utilitarian model in de5eloping a notion of an acti5e consumer1 8ll psychical life was in

some sense a choosingG1 Kalues and actions determined each other1 Kalue was not a question

of the magnitude of feelings, as in neo=classical economics, nor was it located in the obQect1

7t was about indi5idual will and the social organisation of 5alues1 #mpowering consumers,

therefore, needed to begin with reflections on higher 5alues and new ideals and purposes1

/reedom of choice would let indi5iduals de5elop the personal and social ethics of the

community through their own wise choices1 7t is no coincidence that 3ewey became one of

the co=founders of the eague for 7ndependent 2olitical 8ction in "-- which stressed the

affinities between consumer and citien1 By the "-H+s, questions of 5alue, the position of the

consumer in society, and educational theory were as familiar in consumer education as

technical subQects of labelling, quality, and price1 8 culture of thrift was being eroded, but

instead of being swamped by a culture of abundance or consumerism, it was also being

channelled into a social ethics of consumption1

"*$ %ael 6yrk, #conomic 2roblems of the /amily (New Aork and ondon, "-HH "st ed "--), p1 H-.1, esp1 chs0i0, 00ii, 00iii, cit1 at H-H, H-.1

*+


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Conclusion Consumers Before and 8fter Neo=iberalism

'his essay has presented a new genealogy of the consumer before the periods of mass

consumption and consumerism1 'he elusi5e consumer, with which we began our e0ploration

reading against the grain of the dominant narrati5es of modern consumption and consumer

societies, also pro5ides a concluding point of reflection1 Significantly, consumer ad5ocates

like %ael 6yrk and subsequent generations set out with a self=critical awareness of the

contingent and elusi5e nature of the consumer as subQect and obQect1 nlike many academic

commentators, who ha5e used the consumer as a fi0ed or gi5en category, most consumer

mo5ements ha5e worked to create, mould, and reflect on the changing modes social and self=

identification1 Consumers, 6yrk emphasied, were no easily identifiable separate group

consumers are simply the general publicG1 'ry to lay your hands upon the general public

and it has disappeared or is non=e0istent1 'he consumer from being e5ery one seems to be no

one1G"*L 'aking the consumer seriously as a historical actor and category in this sense, with a

changing sense of consciousness, identity, social body and political orientation raises larger

questions for standard interpretations of modernity and consumption as well as for the

treatment of consumers in the public debate to=day1 'hese questions concern chronology,

causation, and con5ergence1 'here can be little doubt of the growing importance of

consumption in human relations and peopleGs understanding of their sel5es and the world

around them in the modern period1 Aet, the increased amount and 5elocity of consumption

did not automatically create consumers either as an identity or social category of ascription1

'his transformation was a historical not a natural process and it required actors working

through traditions and adapting their beliefs in changing circumstances to a set of new

categories and identities1 Most interpreters of consumer re5olutionsG and commodity culture

ha5e

cultures of consumption

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