"The volume provides a detailed account of the Symson family, and an appendix profiles some 200 correspondents, including many north west families."--BOOK JACKET.

Three decades of research into retailing in England from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries has established a seemingly clear narrative: fixed shops were widespread from an early date; 'modern' methods of retailing were common from at least the early eighteenth century; shopping was a skilled activity throughout the period; and consumers were increasingly part of - and aware of being part of - a polite and fashionable culture. All of this is true, but is it the only narrative? Research has shown that markets were still important well into the nineteenth century and small scale producer-retailers co-existed with modern warehouses. Many shops were not smart. The development of modern retailing therefore was a fractured and fragmented process. This book presents a reassessment of the standard view by challenging the usefulness of concepts like 'traditional' and 'modern', examining consumption and retailing as inextricably linked aspects of a single process, and by using the idea of narrative to discuss the roles and perceptions of the various actors in this process - such as retailers, shoppers/consumers, local authorities and commentators. The book is therefore structured around some of these competing narratives in order to provide a richer and more varied picture of consumption and retailing in provincial England.

This is a comparative study of the effects of local, regional and national changes of nine parishes in the Upper Eden Valley in north Westmorland during the Victorian years. The analysis of 65,000 records from these sources has given a rare, if not unique, insight into a series of rural parishes.

Beginning in the 18th century, a turning point in labour history as work encountered an industrialising modernity, this book explores how different forms of work have been valued up to the present day. Focusing on the cultural, intellectual, social and political implications of wages, the chapters in this collection historicise the labour market, conceiving it as complex system of social relations which evolve through time and differ according to space. They show how the level of wages and other forms of remuneration reflect not only marginal productivity and scarcity but also the nature of work relations and wider political, social and economic circumstances. With examples ranging across several centuries and different parts of the globe, it shows how wages are influenced by the specific organization and processes of work, conflict and power, social status and hierarchies between workers, custom and identity, family structure and professional ethics, ideology, politics and policy. Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches The Value of Work since the 18th Century also addresses two interlinked questions; how did theoretical interpretations and techniques of wage measurement emerge and evolve, and to what extent does this matter in understanding the social and political history of work?

The travel journals and letters of Matthew and George Culley give a fresh and practical picture of agriculture and related conditions in England and Scotland in the late eighteenth century, as seen by two successful farmers who pioneered and spread improved methods and livestock breeds in Northumberland and beyond. These down-to-earth journals are worthy to stand alongside such famous contemporary works as Arthur Young's Tours and John Byng's Diaries.