A consumer revolution? Evidence from Sweden, 1680–1860 (preliminary titel.)

The focus of the project is on the consumption patterns of early modern households, as well as its relations to their material standards of living as well as household production. By examining surviving probate records from southern Sweden, we can investigate not only the material conditions of the early modern household but also their relationship with the quickly expanding, and often international, networks of production and distribution of goods and material trends. The goal is to test the influential theory of the so called ‘Industrious Revolution’, the idea that an increased access to consumption goods led to an increase in working hours as people sought to increase their income, which accelerated the economic development, and its application on Swedish, and to a much lesser extend Danish, circumstances.