The Structure of Nineteenth Century Cities by James H Johnson Colin Pooley

Author:James H Johnson, Colin Pooley [James H Johnson, Colin Pooley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367772086
Google: SRMNzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2021-06-30T01:01:50+00:00

Sources

One might be forgiven for wondering why it has taken so long to answer that most basic question of all: did shops actually exist? Mainly, it reflects the fact that the question was rarely asked, but the difficulties of the potential sources compound the problem. The most obvious sources are the directories that date from the later eighteenth century (Norton, 1950), but there are considerable problems in their use. Commercial directories require the disentangling of multiple entries, and of retailers from wholesalers, but much more serious in those compiled before the 1840s is the limited coverage given to small shopkeepers and market traders. These omissions and their subsequent inclusion as the directories become more comprehensive, do tend to exaggerate the rate of growth of retailing in the later period. Early unclassified directories are rather better in this respect, although the obvious step of cross-checking directory entries with rate books to ensure that the listings do represent retail outlets is unhelpful since many small shops were not listed for rateable purposes (Davies, Giggs, and Herbert, 1969). Where rate books have been useful in my own work, however, is in providing information about the occupancy of market sites and this information may also be available for other large towns. Before the later eighteenth century the problem is more difficult. A range of sources have been used to throw some light on the existence of retailers, including the evidence of trade tokens, lists of freemen, guild records, probate inventories; but all are inevitably fragmentary and selective, failing to match up to even the poorest of the directories (Willan, 1976; Brown, 1969; Borsay, 1977).

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