Key Points, Buying Respectability

The “Buying Respectability&4dquo; story line describes the “consumer revolution,&4dquo; the far-reaching transformation in people’s standards and styles of living that revolutionized trade, commerce, technology, and, ultimately, the way people lived at every level of society. Seeking respectability, many people craved fashionable wardrobes, formal houses, the latest tablewares, and a variety of social refinements.

Background

During the Middle Ages, everyday domestic life among all classes except the nobility required very little in the way of clothing, furniture, and food-related equipment. A person’s reputation was measured by the amount of land, labor, and livestock he owned.

Rising Deamnd

By 1700, growing numbers of ordinary people in northern Europe and America began to demand and acquire newly available consumer goods, use services, and engage in social, recreational, and educational activities, all of which went far beyond meeting or improving their basic physical needs.

Creating an Image

To achieve respectability within an increasingly urbane mobile society, affluent Virginians dressed in the latest London fashions and built houses suitable for entertaining. They furnished their houses with new furniture forms, took tea from the newest tea wares, and learned the rules of polished behavior that reaffirmed their position within their social station and differentiated them from the lower ranks.

Selling Respectability

By mid-century, local tradesmen and merchants offered an ever-increasing variety of consumer goods and services made possible by advances in British business practices and industrial technology.

Democratization

Widespread possession of fashionable items, combined with etiquette-book manners, contributed to a novel idea—equality—a belief in every person’s equal worth and his or her right to strive for a better life.

Clashing Interests

The consumer revolution was rejected by some, disadvantaged others, and led to a variety of conflicts. The tug-of-war between haves and have-nots, slave and free, men and women, country and city, and different religious groups became ever more apparent over time.

Coming of the Revolution

Their widely shared democratic experience as consumers enabled Americans of various backgrounds to express in unison their anger at Parliament and their resolve to oppose what they perceived as its unjust laws.