Owen Blum L&S Social Sciences
Building a New Commons: Female Street Vendors in 18th C. England
In the late 18th century, England was experiencing massive urbanization as well as what historians call the ‘consumer revolution.’ I seek to ask how these massive changes in the composition and economy of the English city were processed by urban female workers, specifically through the figure of the female street vendor. I particularly seek to achieve a novel synthesis of spatial and economic analyses to ask how this unique category of proletarian women engaged with the communal and informal economy of the early modern street to achieve subsistence. By honing in on this transitional period of the late 18th century, an answer to this question can help us glimpse English women’s active innovation amidst profound dislocation and change. By better illuminating the changing gendered economy of the communal space that was the early modern English street, we can thus reforge a crucial link between feudalism and industrial capitalism that has remained unexplored in the literature.
Message To Sponsor
The late 18th century stands as one of the most profound moments of transition in history. It is in this liminal frontier that street vendors sold their wares and achieved an ever-precarious subsistence. I want to thank those who are helping me, because by better understanding the lived experiences of these previously obscured figures, I believe we can gain a crucial glimpse into how this moment of transition was felt by those outside the emerging 'formal' economy of the 18th century.