Department of History and Civilization Consumer Behaviour and International Trade in the Western Mediterranean: South-Eastern Spain in a Trans-National Perspective (1730/1808) MANUEL PEREZ GARCIA Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute Florence, June 2011 Perez Garcia, Manuel (2011), Consumer Behaviour and International Trade in the Western Mediterranean: South-Eastern Spain in a trans-national perspective (1730-1808) European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/31934 EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE Department of History and Civilization Consumer Behaviour and International Trade in the Western Mediterranean: South-Eastern Spain in a Trans-National Perspective (1730/1808) MANUEL PEREZ GARCIA Examining Board: Bartolomé Yun-Casalilla, supervisor (European University Institute) Luca Molà (European University Institute) Jan De Vries (University of California at Berkeley) Gerard Chastagnaret (Université de Provence) © 2011, Manuel Pérez García No part of this thesis may be copied, reproduced or transmitted without prior permission of the author Perez Garcia, Manuel (2011), Consumer Behaviour and International Trade in the Western Mediterranean: South-Eastern Spain in a trans-national perspective (1730-1808) European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/31934 Perez Garcia, Manuel (2011), Consumer Behaviour and International Trade in the Western Mediterranean: South-Eastern Spain in a trans-national perspective (1730-1808) European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/31934 Abstract How to focus the analysis of the birth of mass consumption society has been a scholarly obsession over the last few decades. This thesis suggests that an analytical approach must be taken in studies on consumption paying special attention to the socio-cultural and economic transfers which occur when different commodities are introduced to territories with diverse socio-cultural values and identities. Therefore one of the key questions of such an analysis is to examine the role of merchants, who have a very important influence on consumer decisions. This thesis describes the new necessities created by merchants, as “vicarious consumers”, inserted in local, national and international market circuits in the Western Mediterranean area. The increase in the consumption of new goods during the eighteenth century in south-eastern Spain, especially during the second half of the century, entailed changes in household economies through some improvements in everyday life. The systematic analysis of probate inventories demonstrates potential shifts in the consumption of new durable and semi-durable goods in urban and rural families. Certainly, in south-eastern Spain, there was an interest in consuming new, exotic and foreign goods. The desires, aspirations and choices of individuals are demonstrated to have been inspired by a global movement, in which human and material capital circulated trans-continentally, shifting the patterns of consumption of societies - whose values and traditions were challenged by the acquisition of new material goods. I will not simply analyse those relevant theories applied to material culture studies related to Occidental or Oriental societies, such as the “industrious revolution” or “trickle-down” approaches (which have been applied mostly in developed economies to explain stages prior to the Industrial Revolution process). Instead, by observing a southern European society, such as Spain, where the industrialization process was slower than that in Anglo-Saxon territories, we may determine whether both theories occurred simultaneously or separately; identify what the socio-economic forces and agents that prompted the stimulus for new consumer aspirations were; and understand the cultural consequences that the new modern consumerism brought about. 1 Perez Garcia, Manuel (2011), Consumer Behaviour and International Trade in the Western Mediterranean: South-Eastern Spain in a trans-national perspective (1730-1808) European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/31934 2 Perez Garcia, Manuel (2011), Consumer Behaviour and International Trade in the Western Mediterranean: South-Eastern Spain in a trans-national perspective (1730-1808) European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/31934 Contents Preface and Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................page 5 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 11 Part I: The History of Consumption: Debates, Theories, Methods, Sources and Data Bases ........... 15 Chapter 1. Studies on Consumption and Material Culture to Date ........................................................... 19 1.1. - The Analysis of Consumption through the Trans-National and Comparative Perspective ..... 26 1.2. - Studies on Consumption in Spanish Historiography ............................................................... 31 1.3. - Contribution to the Topic of Consumption: Main Working Hypothesis .................................. 33 Chapter 2. Sources and Methodology ........................................................................................................ 37 2.1. - Probate-Inventories and Dowries: Some Methodological Problems ...................................... 38 2.2. - The Census of the Marquis of Ensenada ................................................................................. 44 2.3. - The Use of Treatises to Analyse the Social Backlash on Consumption .................................... 46 2.4. - The Application of a Database to our Study Case .................................................................... 47 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................ 51 Part II: Consumption and Stereotypes in Eighteenth-Century Mediterranean Europe: the Case of South-Eastern Spain ............................................................... 53 Chapter 3. Socio-Political Rules and Fashions: The Intervention of the State ........................................ 57 3.1. - The Emergence of Modern Consumerism versus Religious Interventionism ......................... ..61 3.2. - Rescuing the National Economy through the Regulation of Consumption Practices .............. 70 3.3. - The “Petimetre” and “Majo” in the Local and International Perspectives ............................ 75 Chapter 4. The Development of Global Models: Transforming Dress as a Means to Control Consumption ......................................................................................................... 81 4.1 - Between Fiction and Reality: “Petimetre” and “Majo” ........................................................... 83 4.2. - The National Dress: Construction of a New Identity and Control of Consumption ................. 90 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................... 105 Part III: French Traders and Western Mediterranean Commerce in a Global Context (1730-1808) ......................................................................... 107 Chapter 5. The Roux-Frères Company, French Trade Networks and the Spanish Mediterranean Import/Export Market ........................................................................................................... 111 5.1 - An “Interconnected Community”: Trade Networks Based on Family Bonds .......................... 122 5.2. - The Spanish Mediterranean Import-Export Market: A Dependency of Foreign Manufactures ............................................................................................................ 135 3 Perez Garcia, Manuel (2011), Consumer Behaviour and International Trade in the Western Mediterranean: South-Eastern Spain in a trans-national perspective (1730-1808) European University Institute DOI: 10.2870/31934 Chapter 6. The Circulation of Trans-National Goods from Marseille to Spain ....................................... 153 6.1. - The Craze for Asiatic Textiles: the Building Up of “Global Commodities” ............................ 159 6.2. - The Commercialization of Foodstuff from Asia and America ................................................. 175 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................... 187 Part IV: Examining the “Consumer” and “Industrious” Revolution in South-Eastern Spain: the Kingdom of Murcia (1730-1808) ............................................................. 189 Chapter 7. Consumer Behaviour in South-Eastern Spain: Channels of Diffusion, Household Economy and Fashions ...................................................................................... 193 7.1. - An Econometric First Approach to Measure the Consumer Behaviour in South-Eastern Spain ........................................................................................................... 198 7.2. - Examining the “Industrious Revolution” Theory in the Kingdom of Murcia (1730-1808) ...... 216 7.3. - Criticizing the “Trickle-Down” Theory in the Kingdom of Murcia (1730-1808) .................... 231 Chapter 8. The Trans-Cultural Circulation of New Fashions in Urban and Rural Spaces ..................... 245 8.1. - Towns and Rural Communities: the Influence of the Geographical Variable in the