Vicarious Consumers: Trans-National Meetings Between the West and East in the Mediterranean World (1730-1808)

The birth of a mass consumer society in Western Europe has been the subject of much scholarly debate in recent years. In order to come to a further understanding of the issue, this book adopts an analytical approach, paying special attention to the socio-cultural and economic transfers which occur when different commodities are introduced to territories with diverse values and identities. In particular, it examines the role of merchants and their important influence on consumer decisions, alongside a systematic analysis of probate inventories from southern Spain, to reveal shifts in the patterns of consumption of new goods in urban and rural families, underlining a growing interest in new, exotic and foreign goods.

Manuel Pérez-GarcÃ-a (www.manuelperezgarcia.eu) is lecturer at Renmin University of China. He graduated in history from the Universidad de Murcia, Spain, obtained his doctorate degree in economic history at the European University Institute (Florence, Italy) and was visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of the book Armas, limpieza de sangre y linaje. ReproducciÃ3n social de familias poderosas de Murcia (siglos XVI-XIX).