Concepts of Value in European Material Culture, 1500-1900 (The History of Retailing and Consumption)

by: Bert De Munck (Author),Dries Lyna(Author)

Publisher: Routledge

Edition: 1st

Publication Date: 2015/8/28

Language: English

Print Length: 304 pages

ISBN-10: 1472451961

ISBN-13: 9781472451965

Book Description

In contemporary society it would seem self-evident that people allow the market to determine the values of products and services. For everything from a loaf of bread to a work of art to a simple haircut, value is expressed in monetary terms and seen as determined primarily by the ‘objective’ interplay between supply and demand. Yet this ‘price-mechanism’ is itself embedded in conventions and frames of reference which differed according to time, place and product type. Moreover, the dominance of the conventions of utility maximising and calculative homo economicus is a relatively new phenomenon, and one which directly correlates to the steady advent of capitalism in early mode Europe. This volume brings together scholars with expertise in a variety of related fields, including economic history, the history of consumption and material culture, art history, and the history of collecting, to explore changing concepts of value from the early mode period to the nineteenth century and present a new view on the advent of mode economic practices. Jointly, they fundamentally challenge traditional historical narratives about the rise of our contemporary market economy and consumer society.

About the Author

In contemporary society it would seem self-evident that people allow the market to determine the values of products and services. For everything from a loaf of bread to a work of art to a simple haircut, value is expressed in monetary terms and seen as determined primarily by the ‘objective’ interplay between supply and demand. Yet this ‘price-mechanism’ is itself embedded in conventions and frames of reference which differed according to time, place and product type. Moreover, the dominance of the conventions of utility maximising and calculative homo economicus is a relatively new phenomenon, and one which directly correlates to the steady advent of capitalism in early mode Europe. This volume brings together scholars with expertise in a variety of related fields, including economic history, the history of consumption and material culture, art history, and the history of collecting, to explore changing concepts of value from the early mode period to the nineteenth century and present a new view on the advent of mode economic practices. Jointly, they fundamentally challenge traditional historical narratives about the rise of our contemporary market economy and consumer society.