Wealth, Household Expenditure, and Consumer Goods in Preindustrial England and America, 1550-1800 (ICPSR 9404)

Principal Investigator(s): Shammas, Carole

Summary: These data explore changes in English and American consumption between 1550 and 1800. The probate inventories (Parts 1-11) include information about personal wealth, household production, and the possession of consumer durables and semi-durables. The household survey for England circa 1790 (Part 12) contains dietary information as well as information about other household expenditures. The wills from England and America (Part 13) are a source for learning about the kinds of goods p... (more info)

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Shammas, Carole. WEALTH, HOUSEHOLD EXPENDITURE, AND CONSUMER GOODS IN PREINDUSTRIAL ENGLAND AND AMERICA, 1550-1800. Milwaukee, WI: Carole Shammas, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Dept. of History [producer], 1990. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1990. doi:10.3886/ICPSR09404.v1

Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09404.v1

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Summary:   These data explore changes in English and American consumption between 1550 and 1800. The probate inventories (Parts 1-11) include information about personal wealth, household production, and the possession of consumer durables and semi-durables. The household survey for England circa 1790 (Part 12) contains dietary information as well as information about other household expenditures. The wills from England and America (Part 13) are a source for learning about the kinds of goods people obtained from their families through inheritance. Finally, information pertaining to the distribution network in eighteenth century England is contained in the aggregate county-level data on the shop and peddler's tax (Part 13).

Subject Terms:   consumer assets, consumption, diet, durable goods, eighteenth century, historical data, households, inheritance, nineteenth century, seventeenth century, sixteenth century, taxes, wealth

Geographic Coverage:   England, United States, Global

Time Period:  

• 1550--1800

Date of Collection:  

• 1975--1987

Data Types:   event/transaction data, and aggregate data

Data Source:

(1) County probate records from England and the United States, (2) Havinden, Michael Ashley, ed. HOUSEHOLD AND FARM INVENTORIES IN OXFORDSHIRE 1550-1590, (3) Eden, Frederic Morton. THE STATE OF THE POOR (3 volumes), (4) Davies, David. LABOURERS IN HUSBANDRY, and 5) other printed data sources

Original ICPSR Release:  1990-12-04

Version History:

• 2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 15 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.
• 2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 15 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

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