Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Shops, Markets and the Urban Landscape in Sixteenth-Century Amsterdam
- 2 Changing Distribution Systems: Differentiation and Specialization in Early Modern Amsterdam
- 3 Shop Location Patterns in the age of the Great Urban Expansions
- 4 The Retail Landscape and the Consumer in the Seventeenth Century
- 5 The Location of Shops in Amsterdam in the Mid-Eighteenth Century
- 6 Stagnation and Modernization in Amsterdam’s Retail Sector, 1700–1850
- Conclusion: Continuity and Change in Amsterdam’s Retail Landscape
- Appendix: Sources for the Location of Shops in Amsterdam and Selection of Sectors
- List of Consulted Sources and Literature
- List of Tables
- Image Credits
- Topographical Index
6 - Stagnation and Modernization in Amsterdam’s Retail Sector, 1700–1850
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Shops, Markets and the Urban Landscape in Sixteenth-Century Amsterdam
- 2 Changing Distribution Systems: Differentiation and Specialization in Early Modern Amsterdam
- 3 Shop Location Patterns in the age of the Great Urban Expansions
- 4 The Retail Landscape and the Consumer in the Seventeenth Century
- 5 The Location of Shops in Amsterdam in the Mid-Eighteenth Century
- 6 Stagnation and Modernization in Amsterdam’s Retail Sector, 1700–1850
- Conclusion: Continuity and Change in Amsterdam’s Retail Landscape
- Appendix: Sources for the Location of Shops in Amsterdam and Selection of Sectors
- List of Consulted Sources and Literature
- List of Tables
- Image Credits
- Topographical Index
Summary
Abstract:
The fact that the spatial distribution of shops remained unaltered does not imply that the period from 1700 to 1850 passed without changes. On the contrary, the street scene and the character of shops changed fundamentally. In line with the general trend in residential housing, shops on the main streets retreated, as it were, behind their façade. From the second half of the eighteenth century, the first examples of purposely designed shop facades began turning up, and along the main shopping streets canopies and signboards were taken down and front steps were cleared of obstacles such as stairs and fences. Nevertheless, even these fashionable shopping streets of Amsterdam could not stand comparison with those in metropolises like Paris and London.
Keywords: street scene, shop interiors, indoor sales, shop exteriors
The shop distribution pattern that I was able to reconstruct on the basis of the Personele Quotisatie of 1742 remained unchanged until after the mid-nineteenth century. Indeed, this is what one would expect, as there were in essence no changes to the structure of Amsterdam's urban grid during this period, nor was there a change in the spatial distribution of income groups. But this need not mean that there were no changes at all. In England, for example, the eighteenth century was a time of fundamental change. In this chapter, we shall first focus on the situation on the other side of the North Sea before turning to examine whether similar developments also took place in Amsterdam.
Shops in Britain in the eighteenth century
In order to find out how the retail shop developed in Britain in the eighteenth century, we need briefly to examine the somewhat older literature on British retail trade in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many of these works have made much of the changes that took place in this period, and not unjustifiably. The most striking expression of these changes in retail trade was, of course, the rise and rapid expansion of large-scale retail businesses. Here it is important to note that scholars studying the modern shop tended to be dismissive of the situation before the mid-nineteenth century, labelling it as ‘traditional’ and ‘underdeveloped’.
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- Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020