The book explores the previously under-researched patterns and practices that fashioned a modern consumer society, charting the evolving habits among English men and women across three centuries.

Beverly Lemire is Professor of History and Henry Marshall Tory Chair at the University of Alberta, Canada.

1. Introduction: everyday practice and plebeian affairs
2. Gender, the informal economy and the development of capitalism in England, 1650-1850; or, credit among the common people
3. Credit for the poor and the failed experiment of the charitable corporation, c. 1700-50
4. Shifting currency: the practice and economy of the secondhand trade, c. 1600-1850
5. Refashioning society: expressions of popular consumerism and dress, c. 1660-1820
6. Savings culture, provident consumerism and the advent of modern consumer society, c. 1780-1900
7. Accounting for the household: gender and the culture of household management, c. 1600-1900
8. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index