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The “small shop” in XIXth century Paris played an active role in the dynamics of a capital where deregulation facilitated shop openings, often upon wedding. Economic independence distinguished the proprietor from the members of the working class, but there remained a difference between “common shop owners” whose income derived solely from the immediate demand for their goods, and a category belonging more to the middle class, capable of profiting from changes in fashion, family networks and various means of financial support. After a golden age during Haussmann’s Paris, the small shop was hit by the end-of-century crisis and the appearance of large department stores. Shops selling luxury goods resisted, whilst shops trading in more modest goods opened in the outskirts. For all trade typologies these changes were accompanied by harder working conditions, a growing lack of financial security and new tensions between small shop owners and shop workers.