1. The concept ‘Consumer Revolution’ has been applied to several different processes and time periods, and the current consensus among historians is that there is no such thing as ‘a Consumer Revolution’. However, for the sake of clarity and because of the lack of a better overarching term I will refer to the early-modern consumer changes as ‘the Consumer Revolution’. For a thorough discussion of the concept and its problems see M. Berg (2005) Luxury and Pleasure in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 10–11
2. and F. Trentmann (2012) The Oxford Handbook of the History of Consumption (Oxford: Oxford University Press) esp. pp. 3–8.
3. See for instance: N. McKendrick, J. Brewer and J.H. Plumb (eds.) (1982) The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth-Century England (London: Europa Publications)
4. L. Weatherill (1988) Consumer Behavior and Material Culture in Britain 1660–1760 (London: Routledge)
5. M. Berg (2002) ‘From imitation to invention: creating commodities in eighteenth-century Britain’, Economic History Review, 55, pp. 1–30