DFG project: Consumer revolution and changes in household consumption in probate inventories in Northwestern Germany (16.-19. c.)

Consumer Revolution in Northwestern Germany?

The project, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) since January 2020, examines the extent to which the thesis of an early modern consumption revolution applies to the Northwestern German hinterland. In this context, the term "consumption revolution" means the reorientation of needs in early modern households from a primarily subsistence-oriented household economy to an economic behaviour oriented towards market products. It is based on the analysis of probate inventories and the material culture of early modern households reflected in them. The project aims to investigate several contrasting communities from the Westphalian Münsterland region, which differ with regard to varying commercial penetration, socio-economic setting and distance to urban centres and to the Netherlands.

The project

Based on the change in the material culture of rural households for the period from about 1550 to 1808, the project examines the extent to which the thesis of a pre-modern consumer revolution can be verified for the Northwestern German hinterland. It goes beyond previous studies on Germany, which have focused largely on urban areas, and thus have only taken a small minority of the population into consideration. The thesis of the consumer revolution can be examined from perspectives of economic history, social history and cultural history. The project aims primarily at a quantitative social history oriented on economic-historical topics, which takes significant elements of a changing material culture into account and examines them for consistent references of a possible consumer revolution. In addition, a contribution to the change of consumer culture is made by looking at practices of satisfaction of needs and consumption differentiated according to social contexts and life courses on the basis of selected case studies. In this way, social practices are contrasted with contemporary normative statements, such as those that can be traced back to restrictions on expenditure, and can be understood as a practical sense of the appropriation of material culture.

Sources and research area

The source basis for the project are probate inventories and additional sources. These probate inventories originated in the context of self-dependence, the predominant form of Eigenbehörigkeit of farmers in Westphalia. Due to the dependence on the landlord, the landlord was entitled to claim up to half of the mobile property of the deceased. In order to calculate this levy, inventories were drawn up, which have been preserved in abundant numbers.
Criteria for the selection of the study communities were, in addition to a sufficient number of records, the geographical location: the varying distance to the Netherlands as a core country of the early modern consumer revolution and to urban centres; its different socio-economic and denominational contexts, especially with regard to the commercial, proto-industrial penetration of the local economy; and a qualitatively and quantitatively sufficient stock of sources, if possible over the entire period under observation.

Publications and Presentations

Recent publication:

Henning Bovenkerk / Christine Fertig: Consumer revolution in north-western Germany: Material culture, global goods, and proto-industry in rural households in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries', The Economic History Review 76,2 (2023), 551-574.
[DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.13192]

Presentations:

Henning Bovenkerk: 'Farm system, protoindustry and the ‘noble touch’: Preconditions of changing consumption in rural Northwestern Germany, late 16th to early 19th centuries', International workshop: The consuming countryside. Rural material living standards, consumption patterns, and economic growth, 17th-19th centuries, 15.-16. December 2023, Antwerp.

Christine Fertig: Social class, rural economy and living standards in North-western Germany. The material culture of probate inventories in proto-industrial and agricultural communities, Rural History 2023, 11.-14. September 2023, Cluj-Napoca, Rumänien.

Henning Bovenkerk: " Living on Alms in the Countryside. Material Culture of the Rural Poor, Northwestern Germany, 17th -18th Centuries", Vortrag auf der 14. European Social Science History Conference, 12.-15. April 2023, Göteburg/Schweden.

Henning Bovenkerk: "Materielle Kultur armer ländlicher Haushalte in Nordwestdeutschland im 18. Jahrhundert", Vortrag auf dem V. Kongress für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte 'Verteilung und Teilhabe: Konflikte in polarisierten Gesellschaften seit dem Mittelalter', 29.-31. März 2023, Leipzig.

Christine Fertig: Globale Güter und die frühneuzeitliche Konsumrevolution. Schöne Stoffe, Kaffee und andere Drogen in Nordwestdeutschland (17. – 19. Jahrhundert), Vortrag in der Ringvorlesung Histoire globale / Globalgeschichte / Global history (F/D/E), 17. November 2022, Universität Luxemburg.

Henning Bovenkerk: North-western Germany and the early modern Consumer Revolution: Global goods and material culture in rural households, Westphalia 17th c. – 18th c., Vortrag auf der German Studies Association Conference 2022, 15.-18. September 2022, Houston, Texas.

Henning Bovenkerk: Of silver, silk and stoneware - consumption and change of consumption in rural areas of North-Western Germany, 17th and 18th centuries, Vortrag auf der Rural History Conference 2021, 20.-23. Juni 2022

Henning Bovenkerk: Reflections of consumption. Changing language and consumption in probate inventories; Northwestern Germany, 17th and 18th centuries, Vortrag beim Workshop Languages of Consumption in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Mai 2022, Basel

Henning Bovenkerk: Age, family and consumption: Material culture of rural households, 17th and 18th centuries, Vortrag beim Högre seminarium i agrarhistoria, Januar 2021, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, Uppsala

Christine Fertig: Konsumrevolution in Nordwestdeutschland? Materielle Kultur, globale Güter und Proto-Industrie in ländlichen Haushalten (17.-19. Jh.), Vortrag im Forschungskolloquium, Lehrstuhl für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte (Prof. Dr. W. Plumpe), 30.November 2021, Universität Frankfurt.

Henning Bovenkerk / Christine Fertig: Sweet Coffee and Pretty Fabrics: Global Goods in Rural Households (Northwestern Germany, 17th/18th Centuries), Vortrag auf der Tagung Encountering the Global in Early Modern Germany, 1./2. Juli 2021, Tübingen.

Henning Bovenkerk:Quantitative Agrargeschichte und digitale Hilfsmittel, Vortrag auf der Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Agrargeschichte 2021, Juni 2021, Frankfurt a.M.

Henning Bovenkerk:... aus Jhren Mitteln gekauft ... Die Entstehung ländlicher ‚consumer markets‘ in Nordwestdeutschland; 17., 18. und frühes 19. Jahrhundert, Vortrag auf dem 4. Kongress für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, April 2021, Wien.

Henning Bovenkerk: Silk for the Peasants? – Global Goods in Rural Households in 17th and 18th Century Northwestern Germany, Vortrag auf der European Social Science History Conference 2021, März 2021, Leiden.

Henning Bovenkerk: A silver spoon engraved with J:H:H. Changes of materials, shapes and colours in probate inventories of rural households; north-western Germany, 17th-18th centuries, Vortrag bei der Material and Visual Culture Seminar Series, University of Edinburgh, November 2020.

Henning Bovenkerk: Cortun, Boomsiede and Sarßen: Cotton textiles in rural households of Northwestern Germany, 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, Vortrag bei den Graduate Economic History Seminars, London School of Economics, November 2020.

Henning Bovenkerk / Christine Fertig: The spread of the consumption of colonial groceries in Northwestern Germany during 18th and 19th centuries, Vortrag auf der Konferenz Rural History 2019, Session: The introduction of colonial products (coffee, chocolate, sugar, tea, tobacco) in the European countryside. A “consumer revolution“?’, organisiert von Gérard Béaur (Paris) und Rosa Congost (Girona), 10.-13. September 2019, Paris, Frankreich.

Henning Bovenkerk / Christine Fertig: Konsumrevolution in Nordwestdeutschland. Wandel des Konsums von Haushalten im Spiegel von Nachlassverzeichnissen vom 16. bis zum frühen 19. Jahrhundert, Vortrag auf dem 3. Kongress für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, Session ‚ Zeit, Arbeit und Bedarfsdeckung: Gab es in Deutschland im 18. Jahrhundert eine Konsum- und Fleißrevolution?‘, organisiert von Christine Fertig und Ulrich Pfister, 20-23. März 2019, Regensburg.

Christine Fertig: Sweet Coffee, Pretty Scarves? Colonial Goods and Rural Households in the 19th century, Vortrag auf der 12th European Social Science History Conference, Session: ‘Global Goods in Early Modern Europe’, organisiert von Christine Fertig und John Jordan , 4.-7. April 2018, Belfast, Nordirland.

Henning Bovenkerk: Cupboards, Clothes and Crockery: Material Culture and Consumer Revolution in 18th century, Vortrag auf der 12th European Social Science History Conference, Session: ‘Global Goods in Early Modern Europe’, organisiert von Christine Fertig und John Jordan , 4.-7. April 2018, Belfast, Nordirland.