Intoxicants and the invention of 'consumption
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3254258 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Phil Withington (0000-0002-1567-5751, University of Sheffield, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 384-408 |
| Publication date | 2020-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Economic History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-0117 • E-ISSN: 1468-0289 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/ehr.12936 |
| OpenAlex | W2976901309 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 32 |
In 1600 the word 'consumption' was a term of medical pathology describing the 'wasting, petrification of things'. By 1700 it was also a term of economic discourse: 'In commodities, the value rises as its quantity is less and vent greater, which depends upon it being preferred in its consumption'. The article traces the emergence of this key category of economic analysis to debates over the economy in the 1620s and subsequent disputes over the excise tax, showing how 'consumption' was an early term in the developing lexicon of political economy. In so doing the article demonstrates the important role of 'intoxicants'-that is, addictive and intoxicating commodities like alcohols and tobaccos-in shaping these early meanings and uses of 'consumption'. It outlines the discursive importance of intoxicants, both as the foci for discussions of 'superfluous' and 'necessary' consumption and the target of legislation on consumption. It argues that while these discussions had an ideological dimension, or dimensions, they were also responses to material increases in the volume and diversity of intoxicants in early seventeenth-century England. By way of conclusion the article suggests the significance of the Low Countries as a point of reference for English writers, as well as a more capacious and semantically sensitive approach to changes in early modern consumption practices
Consumption (sociology) · Economics · Excise · Ideology · Lexicon · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Term (time) · Value (mathematics) · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Philosophy
Consumption and the World of Goods
Commercial crisis and change in England, 1600-1642
The Industrious Revolution
Food, Energy and the Creation of Industriousness
Natural and Political Observations
The Capital and the Colonies. London and the Atlantic Economy 1660–1700
Protestant evangelicals and addiction in early modern English
Full Cups, Full Coffers
The Politics of Consumption and England's Happiness in the Later Seventeenth Century
Consumption and Consumerism in Early Modern England
Popular Politics and Public Policy
The Industrious Revolution, the Industriousness Discourse, and the Development of Modern Economies
Voyages and Discoveries
Intoxicants and Society in Early Modern England
Early Modern Consumption History
Ideology and Theory
Material progress and the challenge of affluence in seventeenth-century England
Introduction
From Spice to Tea
Where Was the Coffee in Early Modern England
A Simple Model of London's Importance in Changing English Society and Economy 1650-1750
Tobacco retail licences and state formation in early modern England and Wales
Studies in Elizabethan Foreign Trade
The Trade of Elizabethan Chester
Societies, Cultures and Kinship, 1580-1850
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |