Rural Retailing and Global Goods in Early Modern Europe

international comparisons areChanges in retailing have been accepted as a key component of the emergence of modern consumer societies. Yet, the history of the transformation of retailing between 1600 and 1850 has been predominantly written as one of either urban shops or peddlers, mostly neglecting the existence and development of village shopkeepers as well as the interplay between the different actors and forms in retailing which also included weekly markets or more occasional fairs.