Shops and Shopkeeping in Eighteenth Century England.

Large 8vo. xv, 381 pp, tables, maps, preface, introduction, 14 chapters, Appendix: 1. Geographical Distrifbution of Retail Shops by Rental Category in Provincial Towns and Population per Assessed Shop; 2. Estimates of the National Income; 3. Geographical Distribution of Tea Liscencesin England, Wales, and Scotland, 1795-6; notes, bibliography, index. First Edition, 1986. Off-white cloth with black lettering to spine. "The authors show that by the middle of the 18th century an intricate network of shops was firmly established and increasing, and that many of the innovations previously attributed to early- or mid- Victorian entrepreneurs actually began in the 18th century. Illustrationg their discussion of the many and varied changes which occurred in retailing with discriptions of the merchants of the period, the authors demonstrate that shopkeepeers, particularly the petty shopkeepers frequently ignored by contemporary social enumerators and later historians, were an important part of the developing English economy." from the jacket flap.