Empire of Things

by Frank Trentmann

  Rökk, Marika 313

  Rolling Stones 352

  Romania 327, 645

  romanticism 290, 496

  Rome 156

  Rooiyard, Johannesburg 252

  Roosevelt, Edith 227

  Roosevelt, Franklin Delano 285–6, 287

  Roosevelt, Theodore 9

  Röpke, Wilhelm 306

  Roppongi-zoku 378

  Roscher, Wilhelm 3, 116

  Rosenberg, Ethel 307

  Rosenberg, Julius 307

  Rosenfeld, Art 671

  Rouen 124

  Round about a Pound a Week 149

  Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 95, 100–101, 117, 230, 234, 279, 435, 677

  routines 14, 87, 688 see also habits; rituals

  Rowntree, Seebohm 306, 313

  Royal British Legion 512

  Royal Society 97

  Royal Tailors 201

  Royer Law (1973), France 349

  rubber 225

  rum 166

  running water 221

  Russell, Bertrand 234

  Russia 122–3, 203, 276–7, 292–6, 328, 480, 535 see also Soviet Union; 1917 revolution 276; Bolsheviks 276–7; company services 535–6; consumer politics 276–7, 294–5; tea-drinking 80, 163

  Russian empire 80

  Ryukyu 25

  safety 226

  SAGA 512

  Sagan, Françoise 311

  Sainsbury, Alan 350

  Saint-Geours, Jean 325–6

  Saint-Pierre, Bernadin de 79

  St Petersburg 225, 512, 558

  salesmanship 69

  ‘Salon of Taste’, Turin 470

  salt 141

  salt merchants 49, 52

  Salter, James 86

  Salut des copains 312

  Salviati family chapel 33

  San Francisco 671

  Sánchez, Fernando 588–9

  Sandys, George 78

  Sankey, Ira 608–9, 612

  Santander 77

  Sant’Elia, Antonia 636

  Santiago, Jalisco 591

  São Paulo 176, 204, 208

  Sartre, Jean-Paul 307

  Saßnitz 331

  satin 21, 31, 51, 60, 64, 140

  Saudi Arabia 590, 618

  Savanarola, Girolamo 36

  Save Money and Reduce Trash (SMART) 648

  savings 342, 363; in America 305, 342, 418, 420, 421, 422; in Asia 11, 362–4, 372, 417, 418, 420, 421, 426, 438, 679, 681; banks 243, 362, 417, 418, 419; bonds see bonds (savings/financial); in Britain 418–19, 420, 421, 430; campaigns as trojan horse for world of goods 419; in Canada 540; channelled by banks into sub-prime mortgages 426; compulsory 371, 418; credit, spending and 417–28; in Finland 364, 418, 419, 420, 421, 679; in Germany 414–15, 422, 426, 430, 438, 679–80; global decline in 1980s and 1990s 422–3; household savings rates 362–3, 372, 417, 420, 421; lifecycle model 420–21, 422; motivations for 420–22; and nationalism 364, 415; permanent-income model 420, 421–2; and public assistance 681; save and spend model of consumption 362–4; stamps 417; ‘target’ saving 364, 419; and tax exemptions 414–15; Volkswagen saving scheme 290–91; and war 417–18, 419

  Saxony 81, 88, 148

  Say, Jean-Baptiste 153, 157

  Scandinavia 40–41, 225, 320, 339, 426–7, 438–9, 449, 460, 531–2, 537, 541, 547, 551, 557, 679 see also individual countries; elderly people 507, 508, 510, 557; household waste 1980–2005 643

  scarcity 41, 98, 185, 284; affluence and ‘increasing scarcity of time’ 460; bolstering state power 277; and consumer activists 393; economy 332; protection against 278; shaping world view 290–91, 393

  scavenging 216, 382, 651

  Schaffendes Volk exhibition 291–2

  Schama, Simon 57, 324

  Schäuble, Wolfgang 479

  Schelling, Friedrich 233

  Schlink, Fred 287

  Schloesser, Robert 276

  Schmidt-Bleek, Friedrich 665

  schnapps 166

  Scholes, Abner 94

  School Xhosa 347–8

  schools 305, 312; American in-school advertising and branded give-aways 485; in Beijing 494; clothes 497; consumer clubs in Indian schools 390; free water in 177; hygiene in 177–8, 189; Indian 391; meals 543–4; shaping tastes and leisure 543–4; and waste 648

  Schor, Juliet 443–4

  Schorndorf 575

  Schulze, Oskar 503

  Schumpeter, Joseph 119, 141

  Schütte-Lihotzky, Grete 249–50

  Schweppes 639

  Schwitters, Kurt 636–7

  science 96, 609; home

  science 256

  Scotland 104, 186, 475, 478, 513; Scottish Enlightenment 102

  Scrivener, Christiane 552

  Scuttler gangs 498

  second-hand goods market 71, 145, 375, 629, 632–3, 656–7, 658–9, 660

  Second World War 272, 279, 312, 504, 573; destabilizing hierarchies of class, gender and race 305; and the mutation of company services 529; and mutual dependence 573; post-war consumer boom 10, 12; post-war cultural reconstruction 351–2; production 529; and US savings bonds 418

  secularism 306, 606, 607 see also materialism

  security 238, 272, 307, 341, 392, 579, 614, 661; guards 313; and savings 420–22 see also savings; social see welfare; and the veil 619

  Seeber, Guido, Wanderkino 212

  Seibu 384

  Seikosha 359

  Seiyu (department store) 534

  self see also identity: authentic 96, 100, 235; and body see body; cult of the self 284, 285; as a fiction (Hume) 101–2; material see material self; a pure self 101; restless 231; role of things in development of 231–5; separated from things 95–7, 230–31, 235–6; socialist 294

  self-control 35, 36, 419 see also restraint

  self-denial 117, 287, 306 see also restraint

  self-expression 314–15, 387, 439; and finding of identity through consumption, goods and possessions 6, 104–5, 231–5, 314–15, 320, 344, 375, 484, 677, 681, 686

  self-fashioning 30, 63, 94, 108, 281, 323, 498, 681

  self-fulfilment/improvement 229–30, 316, 348, 411; Asian ideas of 387, 472, 473

  self-help 555, 556; manuals 107–8; and Pentecostalism 614

  self-identity see identity

  self-realization/actualization 94, 316, 323

  self-reliance 261, 680

  self-respect 135, 177

  self-restraint see restraint

  self-service 69, 348, 349, 350–51; shops 328, 329, 330, 349 see also supermarkets

  selfishness 105, 156, 297, 568, 613; and consumption 102, 156, 397, 403; and neo-liberalism 567; self-centred hedonism 5 see also hedonism; selfish culture of instant gratification 607 see also instant gratification; selfish individualism 549 see also individualism/individualization; selfish materialism 224, 273

  Selfridge, Gordon 199, 201

  Selfridges 193, 194, 199, 201

  Seligman, E. R. 412–13

  Semedo, álvaro 44

  Sen, Amartya 539

  Seneca 677, 678

  Senegal 591

  Senegambia 124, 125

  Seoul 351, 384, 661

  serfdom 123, 203

  SERO (Kombinat für Sekundärstofferfassung) 646

  servants 21, 22, 42, 43, 78, 90; Asian 48, 51, 144; dress 21, 22, 67, 68, 73–4; Elizabethan 58–9; French 68

  Seventeen 312

  sewage 178, 179, 180, 634

  sex 304, 305, 441, 453, 454, 455; and affluence in South Korea 384; consumption and libido 320; and the elderly 501; and family planning 365; and Freudianism 284; premarital, in China 369; promiscuous 313; selling power of 196; sexual freedom 304, 325; and shopping 485; teenage 217, 311, 313, 333

  Sha’arawi, Huda 202–3

  Shakespeare, William 107, 499

  shamanism 616

  Shandong 46, 299

  Shanghai 149, 178, 179, 180, 299, 374, 376–7; cholera 633; credit and debt 408; kitchens 249, 250; labourers 361, 408; municipal markets 208; as ‘Paris of the East’ 359;
pawnshops 408; wages 408; waste disposal 633–4

  Sharar, Abdul Halim 137

  shares 423, 428, 436, 437

  Shinto 585, 615–16

  shipping 23, 24–6, 84, 88, 120, 124, 168, 357, 565

  Shiseido 516

  shoes 38–9, 51, 58, 114, 143, 282, 293, 660; repairmen 660; sports shoes 320

  Shonen Jump magazine 492

  shop assistants 196, 197, 202, 281, 350, 351, 480, 486, 487, 495

  shopkeepers 35, 40, 76, 141, 192

  shoplifting 197, 306–7, 321

  shoppers’ leagues 275, 549–50

  shopping 3, 6, 190–210, 403, 456, 618 see also customer service; fair trade; and advertisers’ view of shoppers 288; in America 371; arcades 194, 198; bags 671; binges 13, 14, 681; and Chanukah 615; in China 190–91, 371; Christmas 156, 477, 529, 574; and the city 190–210; and class 350; clothes shopping by British women 674; and control of one’s life 324; as core element of public concern and policy 9; on credit 201, 328, 407, 412, 424, 429 see also credit; cultured 295; customer control 317; dehumanizing impacts of 197; Empire shopping weeks 300, 572; empowerment through 6, 203; ethical 155, 390, 567, 569 see also fair trade; in France 685; galleries 192; and gender 6, 156, 198–9, 200–201, 204, 332, 350; habits 570; in India 141, 371, 375; in inter-war Russia 276–7; as a leisure activity 93, 191, 480–82; for local/regional food 580–88; mail order 416–17, 524; as a meaningful social experience 6; and men 200–201; moral and sexual anxieties about 196, 197; in music-hall song 201; Muslim 618, 619; opening hours for 295, 332, 349, 372, 476, 477–81; for pleasure 154, 659, 678; and public space 194, 198, 207, 208; and Ramadan 618; recreational 100, 480–82; by Renaissance aristocrats 35; Renaissance suspicion of 35; retail therapy 485; rhythms 209–10; ‘sales’ 194; self-service see self-service; and sex 485; in Spain 196; ‘specials’ and over-shopping 649; from street sellers see street sellers; supermarket shopping see supermarkets; total shopping 194, 206; travel for 685; in USSR 295; virtual 481–2; and women 6, 156, 198–9, 200, 204, 332, 350

  Shopping Hours Reform Council 478–9

  shops see also retail trade: architecturally notable 192; Benjamin on 198; candy stores 217, 219; charge plates 412; charity 574, 624, 654, 657; Chinese 190–91; clothing shops for infants and children 486; co-operative 205–7; company shops 524–5, 528; with covered arcades 194, 198; decorating 89; department stores see department stores; discount stores 205, 221, 372, 478; displays 160, 192, 194, 202, 263, 295; English Shops Act (1911) 476; ethnic 597; fair-trade/world shops 564, 565, 566, 574–5, 576; French 351; hypermarkets 371, 618; Japanese 372; luxury shops in East Germany 334; multiplication of small shops across Europe 205; ‘national’ 300; opening hours 295, 332, 349, 372, 476, 477–81; with own cafés 330; pawnshops/pawnbrokers 71, 113, 114, 361, 406, 408, 409, 410; proliferation with urban growth 191; and public space 194, 198, 207, 208; second-hand 145, 632–3, 656; self-service 328, 329, 330, 349 see also supermarkets; Soviet 293, 295–6, 330, 334; stealing from 197, 306–7, 321; Sunday closure/restrictions 156, 476, 477–81; supermarkets see supermarkets; virtual 481–2; Western shops in the Gulf region 618

  Shostakovich, Dmitri 292

  Shufuren (All-Japan Housewives’ Association) 393

  Sichuan, China 359

  Sicilians 215

  Siemans, Werner von 523

  Siemens (company) 523, 526

  Sierra Leone 130

  Siliguri, Bengal 375

  silk 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 33, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 58, 64, 67, 83, 140; artificial 144, 299–300, 381; British export 67; and the EIC directors 70; embroidery 36, 48; French export 67; industry 32, 58, 67; London production 58; plush 60; smuggled 65; stockings 140, 293, 294, 299; trade routes 45

  Silk Road 23

  silkworms 64

  silver 25–6, 29–30, 34, 37, 42, 45, 46, 56, 57; China and 25–6, 46, 90; jewellery 48, 140; and maté rituals 80–81; Spain and 25–6, 64; spoons 29–30, 31, 32, 34, 55, 87; tableware 29–30, 31, 32, 34, 55, 87; thread 139

  Simmel, Georg 197, 211, 214

  Simon, Arthur 577

  Simon, Heidi 272–3

  Simon, John 177

  Sims, George 209

  Sinatra, Nancy 352

  Singapore 265, 362, 371, 379, 517–18, 552, 558; Central Provident Fund 418; forced savings 371, 418; New World amusement park 220; public housing 681

  Singer, Hans 573

  Singh, Gooroo Churn 145

  Single European Act 559

  Siwertz, Sigfrid 196

  Skansen museum 231

  SKF 531

  skirts 21

  Slater, Samuel 523

  slavery/slaves 27–8, 63, 91, 122–3, 128; abolition by Britain 121, 122, 123, 125, 572; within Africa 122, 123, 125, 127, 131; African shift from trade in humans to trade in goods 129–31; anti-slavery boycotts 128, 156, 184, 559, 571–2; Ashanti 131; battle against slavery 121, 123–4, 128; as constraint of choice 132; and consumption 123; and destruction of home life 238–9; and eating of English food 170; end of domestic slavery in Africa 122; imperial flow of goods and slaves 82–3; land grants to freed slaves 163; and luxury 123; Portuguese use of 163; slave plantations 79, 91, 123, 162, 163; slavery to wants and pleasure 74, 677; slaves eating English food 170; and sugar 27–8, 79, 91, 162, 571; women slaves 132

  sleeves 21, 37, 43, 69

  Slow Food movement 442, 470, 580, 581, 587

  slow movement 441–2, 470

  slums 179, 329, 553, 554, 575

  ‘smart’ technologies 686

  smartphones 464, 465, 482

  Smiles, Samuel 419

  Smith, Adam 3, 54, 100, 102–3, 104, 151, 274, 390, 611

  Smolensk 546

  smuggling 24, 44, 65, 91, 162, 170

  Snow White (Disney film) 489

  snuffboxes/snuff bottles 22, 103, 110

  soap 59, 170, 178, 254, 262, 294, 315, 358; adverts 171; in Asia 359, 360, 366, 367; in East Germany 645

  sociability 14, 30, 52, 87, 108, 109, 155, 191–2, 270 see also socializing; feminine 87; and politeness 108–9; socializing effect of the internet 687 see also social networking; and trade 96

  social activism 154

  social capital 142, 340

  social citizenship 157, 278 see also citizenship, consumer

  social control 7, 42–3 see also sumptuary laws

  Social Democrats 159, 324

  social equality 12, 13, 36–7, 100–101, 161–2, 383, 438, 681 see also inequalities

  social exclusion 178, 327, 432

  social gerontology 502, 503

  social inclusion 135, 325, 389–90

  social life 3, 155, 239, 341, 461–2, 554, 650 see also leisure; sex; of the elderly 509; of goods 4, 79; urban see cities and urban life

  social metabolism 664, 668, 677

  social mobility see mobility

  social motivation 13

  social networking 464, 465, 654

  social positioning see status and social positioning

  social services 12, 304, 538; company services see company services, and corporate-led consumption; of religious bodies 612

  social spaces 107, 109, 674–5

  social spending 12–13, 284–5, 304 see also consumer activism; welfare; and affluence 304–5, 326, 373; American 304, 305, 539–40, 541, 542; British 537, 539; Canadian 540; and the Cold War 542; and consumer durables 542; cultural 546–7; and distribution of money from richer to poorer 681; on education 148, 304, 326, 537; on energy 538; EU 537, 537, 538, 541; Finnish 539; French 537, 537, 539, 679; German 537, 539, 541; on health 148, 304, 326, 429, 537, 542; household consumption and social transfers 539; Japanese 12, 537, 539; justified by Galbraith’s The Affluent Society 304, 305; in New Zealand 537; OECD countries 12, 537, 539; on pensions 12, 542–3, 681; as percentage of GDP 326, 537, 537, 538, 539, 541; and private savings 681; by Russian state enterprises 535; Scandinavian 537, 541, 679; ‘social transfers’ 13, 243, 538, 539, 541–2, 681; South Korean 384, 539; Spanish 537; transferred to th
e private sphere in Communist China 372; on welfare 537

  socialism: advertising 327; affluence and the socialist consumer culture 326–37; aspirations measured against Western watermark 327, 333, 337; and austerity 331, 337; and the Cold War see Cold War; communist see communism; Maoism; Marxism; Stalinism; consumers’ responsibility for building 295; and consumption 276–7, 295, 326–37; Crosland’s The Future of Socialism 302, 303; French socialists 552; housing under 329, 330, 331, 535; and leisure 327, 545–6; private lifestyles and socialist regimes 333, 375–6, 377; as recipe for private austerity and public squalor 331; Russian 276–7, 292–6 see also Stalinism; the socialist self 294; Soviet/socialist propaganda 293, 644; standard of living under 277, 334; view of the consumer 397; and waste 331, 644–6

  socializing 53, 346, 456, 457, 459, 461, 464, 507 see also sociability; in national time-use surveys 458–9; social networking 464, 465

  Society for the Deceleration of Time 441

  Soconusco 79

  Socrates 98

  Soelami, Miss 263

  solar power 325

  Solzhenitsyn, Alexander 324

  Sombart, Werner 174, 191, 203, 319, 416

  Somerset Waste Partnership 648

  Song Lin 47

  Songjiang 73

  souls 102, 105, 385

  South Africa 158, 236, 254, 285, 590; apartheid 577; Xhosa migrating to East London 347–8

  South Carolina Negro Act (1735) 63

  South Korea 355, 362, 363–4, 371, 372, 379; boycotts and duties on foreign goods 385; company services and leisure 535; conspicuous consumption and the state 384–5; department stores 385; electronic waste 652; ‘excessive consumption’ 384–5, 407; K-pop 379; luxury goods 438; nationalism 385; public sports grounds 545; ratio of children to old people 518; savings 418; shamans 616; social spending 384, 539; and US bankruptcy code 418

  South London Gas Consumers’ Mutual Association 183

  Soviet Union 245, 246, 292–6 see also Bolsheviks; Russia; Cold War see Cold War; collapse of 535, 646, 668, 669; collectivization 277, 331–2; consumer culture and the path to self-destruction 324, 327–37; consumer durables 327; consumer goods spread, 1960s–1970s 301; consumer politics 276–7, 294–5; cultured (kul’turnost’) lifestyle 294–6; department stores 293, 295, 685; education 330, 331–2; factories 330; fashion cravings 302; furniture 327, 330; housing/the home 329, 330, 331, 335; industry 330; leisure 327, 545–6; material culture 293–6; media 329; oil 330; politics of productivity 294; radios 293, 294, 295; shops/shopping 293, 295–6, 330, 334; Stakhanovites 245, 293, 294; Stalinism see Stalinism; state subsidies 330; teenagers 330; tourism 327; ‘uninterrupted work weeks’ 475