The Impacts of Trade with Asia on 18th-century Lorient
Margoline-Plot, Eugénie
The Impacts of Trade with Asia on 18th-century Lorient - 2011.
88
In the prosperous 18th century, Lorient, a new town and home to the French East India Company, became known as the French gateway to India. This sudden intrusion of Asia introduced new tastes and exoticism (tea, coffee, cotton fabrics). These could be found in the packs of sailors returning from the Indian Ocean, in shop stalls, in merchant’s stocks, and in private homes, even at the height of the prohibition. The study of inventories after a death, of shopkeepers’ bankruptcies, and of sailors’ rags points to a certain number of indicators of social and socio-geographical circulation, revealing parallel distribution circuits, situated outside the company’s monopoly. The sailors’ pacotille (a small stock of goods they were allowed to carry back for their private use) was one of the main means of introducing Asian fabrics in Lorient and supplying a family and peripheral distribution circuit—as well as a mercantile network, in which genuine commercial strategies arose involving little-recognized actors and networks: criers, appraisers, dealers, resellers (usually women), second-hand traders, tailors, and small shopkeepers.
The Impacts of Trade with Asia on 18th-century Lorient - 2011.
88
In the prosperous 18th century, Lorient, a new town and home to the French East India Company, became known as the French gateway to India. This sudden intrusion of Asia introduced new tastes and exoticism (tea, coffee, cotton fabrics). These could be found in the packs of sailors returning from the Indian Ocean, in shop stalls, in merchant’s stocks, and in private homes, even at the height of the prohibition. The study of inventories after a death, of shopkeepers’ bankruptcies, and of sailors’ rags points to a certain number of indicators of social and socio-geographical circulation, revealing parallel distribution circuits, situated outside the company’s monopoly. The sailors’ pacotille (a small stock of goods they were allowed to carry back for their private use) was one of the main means of introducing Asian fabrics in Lorient and supplying a family and peripheral distribution circuit—as well as a mercantile network, in which genuine commercial strategies arose involving little-recognized actors and networks: criers, appraisers, dealers, resellers (usually women), second-hand traders, tailors, and small shopkeepers.
Réseaux sociaux