How to Link Wealth and Consumption, or Not

Abstract

Abstract A study of the probate inventories compared the net worth of each inventory with the origin of the different items in it. It provides empirical data that challenge the idea that wealthier colonizers consumed European and Asian imports, while poorer colonizers could only purchase local, Indigenous goods. In fact, there is no correlation between wealth and patterns of consumption of imported or Indigenous goods. There is a stronger correlation between consumption of imported items and time: toward the end of the sixteenth century, as trade became regular and reliable, all colonizers began using more European goods, regardless of their wealth. Further, Indigenous goods could sometimes be more expensive than European imports, depending on their quality and other factors. This chapter challenges the idea that class determines consumption, and it emphasizes people’s choices, power, social strategies, and social connections in shaping consumption and the material world.