Dressing the Poor: The Provision of Clothing among the Lower Classes in Eighteenth-Century Madrid

Abstract

This article examines the role of clothes in the survival strategies of the labouring poor in eighteenth-century Madrid, as well as the means of supply and distribution of these products, which included both mercantile (including buying and selling, pawning and payments in kind) and non-mercantile relations (including inheritance, charity and theft). This approach aims, firstly, at bringing to light the role of second-hand clothing trades and markets in the eighteenth-century European urban economy, together with the importance of non-mercantile methods of provision; secondly, at providing some clues to explain the increasing consumption of textiles in eighteenth-century towns whose populations were experiencing a loss of purchasing power.