Editing Consumerism (section)

===Origins===

The consumer society developed throughout the late 17th century and the 18th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Trentmann |first=Frank |title=Empire of things: how we became a world of consumers, from the fifteenth century to the twenty-first |date=2016 |publisher=Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-241-19840-7 |location=London}}</ref> Peck addresses the assertion made by consumption scholars about writers such as "Nicholas Barbon and Bernard Mandeville" in "Luxury and War: Reconsidering Luxury Consumption in Seventeenth-Century England" and how their emphasis on the financial worth of luxury changed society's perceptions of luxury. They argue that a significant transformation occurred in the eighteenth century when the focus shifted from court-centered luxury spending to consumer-driven luxury consumption, which was fueled by middle-class purchases of new products.

The English economy expanded significantly in the 17th century due to new methods of agriculture that rendered it feasible to cultivate a larger area. A time of heightened demand for luxury goods and increased cultural interaction was reflected in the wide range of [[Luxury goods|luxury products]] that the aristocracy and affluent merchants imported from nations like Italy and the Low Countries. This expansion of luxury consumption in England was facilitated by state policies that encouraged cultural borrowing and import substitution, hence enabling the purchase of luxury items. <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Peck |first=Linda |date=2002 |title=Luxury and War: Reconsidering Luxury Consumption in Seventeenth-Century England |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/4053438 |journal=Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=1–23 |doi=10.2307/4053438 |jstor=4053438 }}</ref> Luxury goods included sugar, tobacco, tea, and coffee; these were increasingly grown on vast plantations (historically by [[Slavery|slave]] labor) in the Caribbean as demand steadily rose. In particular, sugar consumption in [[Great Britain|Britain]] increased by a factor of 20 during the 18th century. <ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Witkowski |first=Terrence |date=1989 |title=Colonial Consumers in Revolt: Buyer Values and Behavior during the Nonimportation Movement, 1764–1776 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2489320 |journal=Journal of Consumer Research |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=216–226 |doi=10.1086/209210 |jstor=2489320}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Evans |first=Chris |date=2012 |title=The Plantation Hoe: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Commodity, 1650–1850 |url=https://doi.org/10.5309/willmaryquar.69.1.0071 |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages=71–100|doi=10.5309/willmaryquar.69.1.0071 }}</ref>

Furthermore, the [[Boston Non-importation agreement|non-importation movement]] commenced in the 18th century, more precisely from 1764 to 1776, as Witkowski's article "Colonial Consumers in Revolt: Buyer Values and Behavior during the Nonimportation Movement, 1764–1776" discusses. He describes the evolving development of consumer culture in the context of "colonial America". An emphasis on efficiency and economical consumption gave way to a preference for comfort, convenience, and importing products. During this time of transformation, colonial consumers had to choose between rising material desires and conventional values.<ref name=":2" />