Collana | Studi di storia
Miscellanea | Printing R-Evolution and Society 1450-1500
Capitolo | 16 Patterns of Consumption in Renaissance Venice

16 Patterns of Consumption in Renaissance Venice

Abstract

Reconstructing prices and price indexes for pre-industrial societies is always a challenge for researchers. Despite the fact that several account books have been preserved and may offer purchase and sale prices of a wide range of goods, the definition of a consumer basket – a set of different quantities of goods forming the basic consumption unit for an average individual or family – faces several difficulties. Average consumption is difficult to establish even in pre-industrial times, since buying activities vary of course not only according to wealth and income, but also to social class; and it is usually difficult to record and assess self-consumption. It seems more important to offer some parameters from a single case study, the ledger of a Venetian patrician recording his purchases on a daily basis, in a couple of months in 1455.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Presentato: 01 Luglio 2019 | Accettato: 05 Settembre 2019 | Pubblicato 24 Febbraio 2020 | Lingua: en

Keywords Cost of living • History of consumption • Family expense • Venetian Republic • Consumer prices • Material culture

Copyright © 2020 Isabella Cecchini. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-332-8/016


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