Retailing and the Language of Goods, 1550-1820

This book explores the meanings assigned to goods sold retail from 1550 to 1820 and how their labels were understood. The first half of the book focuses on mercantile language more broadly; how it was used in trade and how lexicographers approached new vocabularies. In the second half, the author turns to the goods themselves, and their relationships with such terms as ’luxury’, ’choice’ and ’love’. The study of consumables opens up new ways of looking at the everyday language of the early modern period as well as the experiences of trade and consumption for merchant and consumer.