Empire of Things
Page 1
Dedication
For Oscar & Julia
Contents
Dedication
List of Illustrations
List of Figures
Introduction
PART ONE
1 Three Cultures of Consumption
2 The Enlightenment of Consumption
3 Imperium of Things
4 Cities
5 The Consumer Revolution Comes Home
6 Age of Ideologies
7 Inside Affluence
8 Asia Consumes
PART TWO
Preface
9 Buy Now, Pay Later
10 Not So Fast
11 From the Cradle to the Grave
12 Outside the Marketplace
13 Home and Away
14 Matters of the Spirit
15 Throwaway Society?
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index
Illustrations
About the Author
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
List of Illustrations
1. Cassone, Tuscany, Italy, c.1430–60. (© Victoria & Albert Museum, London)
2. Maiolica dish, Urbino, Italy, c.1559. (© Victoria & Albert Museum, London)
3. Porcelain bottle, Jingdezhen, China, c.1590–1620. (© The Trustees of the British Museum)
4. Stoneware bottle from Frechen, Germany, c.1600. (© Victoria & Albert Museum, London)
5. Jasperware teapot by Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd, England, c.1790. (© Victoria & Albert Museum, London)
6. Woman’s jacket and matching petticoat, c.1770s. (© Victoria & Albert Museum, London)
7. Flowered cotton, textile token, left with a young girl at the Foundling Hospital, 18 December 1747. (© Foundling Hospital, which continues as the children’s charity Coram)
8. Doll in fashionable dress, c.1760, French. Gown of flowered chintz, underskirt of linen and silk brocade shoes. (© Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
9. La xocolatada, Barcelona, 1710. Ceramic tiles. (© Museu del Disseny de Barcelona, Legacy Joaquim de Càrcer, 1923)
10. Maté Cup (a) and Bombilla (b), nineteenth-century South America. Silver, a: 6 11/16 x 6 5/16 in. (17 x 16 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1941, Frank L. Babbott Fund, 41.1274.14a–b. Creative Commons-BY (© Brooklyn Museum)
11. ‘The Coffeehous Mob’. Satirical engraving by an anonymous artist, from: Edward Ward, Vulgus Britannicus: or the British Hudibras, London, 1710, following page 116. Folger Shakespeare Library Shelfmark: PR3757.W8 V8. Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. (© Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC)
12. A Cottage interior: a woman preparing tea, oil painting by William Redmore Bigg, 1793. (© Victoria & Albert Museum, London)
13. Young Swahili woman wearing printed kanga, Zanzibar, c.1900. (Private Collection)
14. The Temperance Society Kumase (Ashanti/Ghana) with Revd Ramseyer, 1903. (© Basel Mission Archives)
15. Anti-slavery sugar bowl, probably from Bristol, 1820s. (© The Trustees of the British Museum)
16. Mr Peiris and family, Ceylon, 1907. (Arnold Wright, Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon, 1907; photo: © Harvard Library)
17. Cafés du comptoir des colonies: Java-Moka-Martinique. Colour lithograph poster by Edward Ancourt, c.1890. (© Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris; photo: Laurent Sully Jaulmes)
18. Paula Girl, advertising poster by the Paulig company, 1926. (© Paulig Company, Helsinki)
19. The Bon Marché department store, Paris, engraving, 1887 (Wikipedia: Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication)
20. The Bon Marché, the grand hall, c. early 1920s. Photographer: F. Harand. (Private Collection)
21. The Cooperative shop, Newmarket, England, 1899. (© Bishopsgate Library, Bishopsgate Foundation and Institute)
22. Central Market Hall, Berlin Alexanderplatz. Engraving by G. Theuerkauf, c.1890s. (Private Collection)
23. Tianqiao market, Beijing, 1933–46. Photographer: Hedda Morrison. (© Harvard-Yenching Library of the Harvard College Library, Hedda Morrison Collection, Harvard University)
24. Uncle Paul’s Pawn Shop, Augusta, Georgia, c.1899. (© US Library of Congress)
25. Ginza-dōri, Tokyo: the first electric arc light, November 1882. 1883 engraving by Utagawa Shigekiyo. (© Denki no Shiryōkan; Electric Power Historical Museum, Tokyo, Japan)
26. Water Famine in London, 1898, from The Sketch, 31 August 1898. (Private Collection)
27. Luna Park at night, Coney Island, New York City, 1904. Part of a 3-D stereo-card. (Private Collection)
28. The ‘flying machines’ at Blackpool, England, c.1910. Postcard. (Private Collection)
29. Overcrowded single-room tenement on Thompson Street, New York City, 1912. Photographer: Lewis Wickes Hine. (© U.S. Library of Congress)
30. Bourgeois interior in 1913 Radautz in the Austro-Hungarian empire. Photographic postcard. (© Archive of the Museum Strom und Leben, Umspannwerk Recklinghausen)
31. Atelier Berssenbrugge in The Hague, Netherlands, 1921. (Commons. wikimedia)
32. Henkel men advertising washing powder, 1914. (© Henkel Archive, Düsseldorf)
33. Telefunkensuper radio, 1933. (© Historisches Archiv, Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin)
34. Horse-drawn van advertising gas-heated bath, Norwich, England, 1908. (© National Grid Archive, Warrington)
35. Gigantic electric oven at the entrance to a 1953 fair. (© Vattenfall archive, Hamburg: HEW/Hamburger Elektrizitätswerke collection)
36. Mr and Mrs Pickens’ first electric cooker, California, 1938; photographer: G. Haven Bishop. (© Southern California Edison Archive. Courtesy of The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA)
37. Japanese board game showing the benefits of gas, c.1925–43. (© Edo-Tokyo Museum)
38. ‘White Label’ by the National Consumers League from a bathing suit, USA, 1910s. (© Sage Collection, Indiana University, Gift of Christopher Marshall)
39. ‘By the Sweat of My Brow’, from the album ‘The Realm of the Absurd’, 1917. Lithograph by Gaganendranath Tagore. (© Victoria & Albert Museum, London)
40. Krishna Vihar Swadeshi Cloth Merchant, trade label, 1930s. (Private Collection)
41. Kraft Durch Freude, magazine, Nazi Germany, 1938.
42. Soviet advertisement for ketchup from Ogoniek, 30 July 1937.
43. The Soviet stall of kitchen appliances, next to the American exhibition in Moscow, 1959. Photographer: Thomas J. O’Halloran. (© US Library of Congress)
44. Sanremo 1958. Song brochure of the 8th Festival della Canzone. (Private Collection)
45. Domenico Modugno at Sanremo, 1958. (Commons.wikimedia)
46. Finnish Tango stamp, 1997.
47. Seinäjoki Finnish Tango Festival 2013. Photographer: Jani Pihlaja (© Top Focus)
48. Shanghai, calendar with an advertisement for Scandinavian beer, 1938. (Private Collection)
49. A market of small shops in South Delhi, 2010. (© Frank Trentmann)
50. Pachinko gambling parlour, Tokyo, 2014. (© Frank Trentmann)
51. China Consumers Association playing cards, 2006. (Private Collection)
52. Charge card, Thalhimers department store, Richmond, VA, c.1939. (Private Collection)
53. Benjamin Franklin thrift bank, United States, 1931. (Private Collection)
54. Savings poster, Finland, c.1950. (© Historical archive of Nordea Bank Finland Plc)
56. Savings poster, Japan, 1955. (© Postal Museum Japan)
56. Scuttlers. Mugshots of two members of the Manchester youth gang, 1894. (© Greater Manchester Police Museum & Archives)
57. Poster for a youth dance in East Germany, 1973. (© The Wende Museum, Calif.)
58. Zoot Suiters on their way to Los Angeles County Jail, 1943. (Private Collection)
59. Morning fitness in the retirement community of Sun City, Arizona, 1980. Photographer: David Hurn (© Magnum Photos)
60. Elderly woman on an exercise machine in People’s Park, Shanghai, 2006. (© Frank Trentmann)
61. Sun City, aerial view, c.1970s. (Private Collection)
62. South Pasadena City Pool, undated, 1940s. Photographer: Doug White. (© Southern California Edison Archive. Courtesy of The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA)
63. 19 cent hamburger outlet, Culver City, Los Angeles, 1952. Photographer: Joseph Fadler. (© Southern California Edison Archive. Courtesy of The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA)
64. Electric Edison baseball team, California, 1904. Photographer unknown. (© Southern California Edison Archive. Courtesy of The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA)
65. Edison Girls basketball team, California, 1932. Photographer: G. Haven Bishop. (© Southern California Edison Archive. Courtesy of The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA)
66. Bata’s 1947 football competition. Picture of the winning team from Vernon, France. (© The Bata Reminiscence & Resource Centre and The Bata family)
67. Company housing, leisure and social services at the Henkel firm, Germany 1937 (© Henkel Archive, Düsseldorf)
68. Chiffonier (rag picker) and his donkey, Lozere, France, c.1900. (Private Collection)
69. Boys picking garbage on ‘the Dumps’, Boston, 1909. Photographer: Lewis Wickes Hine. (© US Library of Congress)
70. Self-storage advertisement, Manhattan, 2012. (© Frank Trentmann)
71. E-scrapping of old computers, Guiyu, Guangdong province, China, 2005. (© Basel Action Network)
72. Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram, 1955–59. Combine: oil, paper, fabric, printed paper, printed reproductions, metal, wood, rubber shoe heel, and tennis ball on canvas with oil on Angora goat and rubber tire on wood platform mounted on four casters. 42 x 63 1/4 x 64 1/2 inches (106.7 x 160.7 x 163.8 cm). Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Purchase 1965 with contribution from Moderna Museets Vänner/The Friends of Moderna Museet. (© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation/Licensed by DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2015)
Images reproduced with the kind permission of the owners, institutions, licence-holders and identifiable copyright owners. No reproduction without permission.
List of Figures
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Ming China, 1600: Internal and external trade routes
45
Possessions among rural households in Leeuwarderadeel, Friesland, 1566–1686
56
Selected possessions in English households, 1675–1725
61
Selected possessions in town and country, England, 1675–1725
62
The divergence in the standard of living
72
The imperial flow of goods and slaves in 1770
82
The requirements of a fair standard of clothing, Philadelphia, 1919
150
Coffee consumption in the world in 1913
164
Thirsty cities: water consumption, 1870–1904
187
Customers of a department store in Germany in 1900
200
Standards of comfort in American owner- and tenant-occupied homes with kitchens, 1950–52
244
United States advertising expenditure, 1920–2005
318
Advertising expenditure per capita in 1980
320
Household saving ratio, 1970–2014
421
Household debt as a percentage of net disposable income, 1995–2013
425
Income share of richest 1%
436
Income share of richest 10%
437
Average weekly hours of work and leisure for all people aged 14+ years in the United States, 1900–2005
446
Average weekly hours of leisure for men by age group in the United States, 1900–2005
446
Average weekly hours of leisure for women by age group in the United States, 1900–2005
447
Percentage of time spent on activities in the United States and France, 2005
454
Misery U-index, by activity, United States and France, 2005
454
Free-time activities of men aged 20 to 74 in Europe, 1998–2002
458
Free-time activities of women aged 20 to 74 in Europe, 1998–2002
459
Leisure cultures by educational background, France, 1997
467
Public social spending in selected OECD countries, in percentage of GDP, 1960–2014
537
Annual fairtrade consumption per capita in 2007, in euros
564
Number of world shops/fair trade shops, 2007
564
Use of remittances by recipient households in selected African countries, by source of remittances, 2009
592
Household access to information and communication technology in selected African countries, by source of remittances, 2009
594
Kilograms of residential waste discarded per capita/annually in New York City in the 20th century
625
United States: total and per capita municipal solid waste generation and recovery, 1960–2012
641
Household waste generation in selected countries, 1980–2005
643
Municipal waste generated and recycled: the three waste regions of Europe, 1995–2013
645
Products in use, in storage and at end of life in the United States, 2009
663
Global development of material use, material intensity, population and GDP, 1900–2009
667
Introduction
We live surrounded by things. A typical German owns 10,000 objects. In Los Angeles, a middle-class garage often no longer houses a car but several hundred boxes of stuff. The United Kingdom in 2013 was home to 6 billion items of clothing, roughly a hundred per adult; a quarter of these never leave the wardrobe. Of course, people always had things, and used them not only to survive but for ritual, display and fun. But the possessions in a pre-modern village or an indigenous tribe pale when placed next to the growing mountain of things in advanced societies like ours. This change in accumulation involved a historic shift in humans’ relations with things. In contrast to the pre-modern village, where most goods were passed on and arrived as gifts or with the wedding trousseau, things in modern societies are mainly bought in the marketplace. And they pass through our lives more quickly.1
In the last few hundred years, the acquisition, flow and use of things – in short, consumption – has become a defining feature of our lives. It would be a mistake to think people at any time have had a single identity, but there have been periods when certain roles have been dominant, defining a society and its culture. In Europe, the High Middle Ages saw the rise of a ‘chivalrous society’ of knights and serfs.2 The Reformation pitched one faith against another. In the nineteenth century, a commercial society gave way to an industrial class society of capitalists and wage workers. Work remains important today, but it defines us far less than in the heyday of the factory and the trade union. Instead of warriors or workers, we are more than ever before consumers. In the rich world – and in the developing world increasingly, too – identities, politics, the economy and the environment are crucially shaped by what and how we consume. Taste, appearance and lifestyle define who we are (or want to be) and how others see us. Politicians treat public services like a supermarket of goods, hoping i
t will provide citizens with greater choice. Many citizens, in turn, seek to advance social and political causes by using the power of their purse in boycotts and buycotts. Advanced economies live or die by their ability to stimulate and maintain high levels of spending, with the help of advertising, branding and consumer credit. Perhaps the most existential impact is that of our materially intensive lifestyle on the planet. Our lifestyles are fired by fossil fuels. In the twentieth century, carbon emissions per person quadrupled. Today, transport and bigger, more comfortable homes, filled with more appliances, account for just under half of global CO2 emissions. Eating more meat has seriously disturbed the nitrogen cycle. Consumers are even more deeply implicated if the emissions released in the process of making and delivering their things are taken into account. And, at the end of their lives, many broken TVs and computers from Europe end up in countries like Ghana and Nigeria, causing illness and pollution as they are picked apart for precious materials.3
How much and what to consume is one of the most urgent but also thorniest questions of our day. This book is a historical contribution to that debate. It tells the story of how we came to live with so much more, and how this has changed the course of history.
Like other key concepts in history, consumption has not had a fixed meaning over time. The term originally derived from the Latin word consumere, which first arrived in French in the twelfth century and from there found its way into English and other European languages. At that time, it meant the using up and physical exhaustion of matter. Food, candles and firewood were consumed. So was the body when attacked by an illness – hence the English use of ‘consumption’ for the ‘wasting disease’ (tuberculosis). To confuse matters, there was the similar-sounding consummare, which meant to complete something, as in Christ’s last words: ‘It is finished’ (consummatum est). In actual usage, ‘waste’ and ‘finish’ were often rolled into one.4