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City, trade, consumption and exoticism from the 15th through the 18th century. Historiographical introduction A number of scholarly works have shown the significance of world trade and imported goods for the dynamism of European capitalism in the 17th and 19th centuries. However, and in spite of the renewal of historiography, the study of their locations is left aside. The transformations in architecture and city planning in relation to the circulation of individuals and goods, as well as the establishment within cities of merchant ventures, are less known than the vectors and products of these trades. This gap is now filled by the present collection of articles mixing the socio-economic, cultural and urban history viewed from an aspect in deep renewal of economic historiography – a connected history of consumption. Before the presentation of the pieces herein, a twofold historiographical contextualization describes the debate on the « revolution » of consumption in the modern era, and the increasing social diffusion of goods, from luxury to mainstream indulgence, to necessity.

More than just carpets ? The consumption of oriental goods in the late medieval Low Countries Even a superficial analysis of Early Netherlandish painting reveals the striking presence of oriental goods. Painters such as Jan Van Eyck, Hans Memling and Gerard David show eastern ceramics, textiles and carpets associated with domestic bourgeois or noble scenes and most of all with religious themes involving the Virgin. Yet a closer scrutiny already demonstrates a much more nuanced picture. Eastern commodities are particularly present in works of art manufactured in Bruges from the second quarter of the 15th until the first quarter of the 16th century, while they become rare or are even completely absent from those made in other art centres of the Low Countries (Ghent, Brussels, Tournai). Is this phenomenon mere coincidence, or does the cosmopolitan world of international merchants in a commercial metropolis like Bruges trigger differentiated patterns of luxury consumption ? It also raises questions regarding the process of innovation, communication and consumer taste in this densely urbanized region. In this paper, luxury consumption will be analysed through the ducal and other household accounts and through inventories of the estates of noble, merchant and bourgeois consumers in the 15th century Low Countries. Particular attention will be paid to the presence, the relative importance and the diffusion of oriental goods across social boundaries, but also to their geographical diffusion within the urban network.

To sell exotic goods day by day. Urban settlement of colonial goods (tobacco, tea, coffee and cotton) in Anvers during the 17th century. The case of Anvers offers an interesting basis for the study of the settlement of commercial ventures in 17th century cities. While not the trade center it has been in the past, its population reduced from 73,000 in 1700 to 55,000 in 1788, Anvers and its region remain a strong center of population, urbanity and commerce. This paper will focus on the establishment of merchants, in order to shed light on the relationship between new products from the colonies (tobacco, tea, coffee, chocolate, cotton) and the evolution of the urban model. These products are not identical in terms of social status ; in addition, this status follows an evolution over the years. Tobacco quickly conquers the working class, and is sold by more and more specialized merchants of all social origins, situated in most quarters of the city. In contrast, coffee and tea dealers are confined to the rich neighborhoods of the city center. Over the centuries, tea houses follow tobacco to a broader mass consumption, and aim for general availability. More than any other textile materials, cotton claims the status of a luxury good for the masses, affordable to a wide part of the urban market.

Exotism and decline in the port of Enkhuizen in the 18th century Enkhuizen is a sea port in the province of North-Holland. Its prosperity was among others things based on trade with Asia and America, so that a stream of colonial goods was poured into the city. This exoticism remained in the eighteenth century, despite a dramatic economic decline. Material culture and urban landscapes were still affected by contacts with the Far East. But there was no place for this exoticism in the collective identity of Enkhuizen, perhaps as a consequence of the collapse but also because tropical products seemed to be less exotic.

Spheres of supply of large traders in Nantes export commodities (late eighteenth century) The maritime trade Nantes faces the Atlantic and gradually specializes in relations with Africa and the American colonies. One part of these trade relations deals with trade in african captives and colonial goods. But our focus here is to know and develop thinking about another part of the transatlantic colonial trade : the supply of the largest traders in Nantes export commodities.

Cotton fabrics from the Indian Ocean in 18th-century Lorient. Parallel sales networks : an illicit share of exoticism In the prosperous 18th century, Lorient, bright new town built by the French East India Company, asserted itself as the French gateway to India. This sudden intrusion of Asia introduced new tastes and developed exoticism through the fashion for hot sweet drinks (tea, coffee), and, even more, for cotton fabrics. These could be found among the clothing of sailors returning from the Indian Ocean, on shop stalls, in merchant's stocks, and in private homes, even at the height of the prohibition. The study of inventories after a death, of shopkeepers' bankruptcies and of sailors' rags enables us to pinpoint a certain number of indicators of social and socio-geographical circulation, revealing parallel distribution circuits, situated outside the Company's monopoly. The sailors' pacotille (a small stock of goods they were allowed to carry back for their private use or benefit), was a privileged means of introducing Asian fabrics into Lorient, and to supply a family and peripheral distribution circuit – as well as a mercantile network, in which genuine commercial strategies arose, involving little-recognized actors and networks : criers, pricers, dealers and resellers (usually women), and the second-hand market, as well as tailors and small shopkeepers.

Sugar and spice : shopping for exotic goods in mid-eighteenth-century England The eighteenth-century witnessed rapid growth in the consumption of exotic goods in Britain ; not just the sugar and spice of the title, but also tea, coffee and chocolate. This growth prompted a surge in the ownership of furnishings and equipment for the consumption of these new commodities, including tea tables, kettles and cups, coffee mills and chocolate pots, and sugar bowls. Whilst British manufacturers were soon able to provide many of these durable goods (Berg, 2005), the consumables themselves remained exotic imports. This paper begins by briefly sketching the ways in which imported groceries were promoted through newspaper advertisements and the trade cards of shopkeepers from a variety of towns across provincial England. These placed great emphasis on the exotic nature of these goods, situating the consumer in the world economy and portraying them as cosmopolitan. This stands in stark contrast to the more mundane processes whereby sugar, spices, tea and coffee were actually acquired by the inhabitants of these provincial towns. Drawing on detailed analysis of probate inventories and shopkeepers' account books from the Midlands and north-west England, the paper argues that these goods were widely available and that shopping for them had become an everyday occurrence in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. Rather than constructing an identity as cosmopolitan, the consumption of tea, coffee and sugar was more closely linked to status, gender and especially domestic sociability.

The « Coutume de la prévôté de Caen » : rules of trade and taxes This edition of sources offer three successive versions of the « Coutume de la prévôté de Caen » (consuetudo in prefectura Cadomi). The Latin text, known through three copies from the end of the 13th or the beginning of the the 14th century, may be older by a century. A French version, probably from the second third of the 14th century, as well as a modern text printed in 1595, are known through 19th century copies. In spite of the differences between the three versions, continuity justifies the combination of these texts in the same edition. Far from being mere lists of products and related taxes, those are substantial sources, providing data beyond economical history. They describe the entry, exit and transit of goods in and out of the town, but also within the jurisdiction and the provostry. The categorization of social groups and exemptions offers new insight on social and political history. Transports by land, sea or river are evoked as well as places and times of trade in the town. Goods are carefully listed and quantified, making these texts a trove of linguistic treasures. Although normative texts, these can contribute to the study of productions and economic exchanges.