IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ehsrev/v62y2009i4p802-827.html

Mr Drage, Mr Everyman, and the creation of a mass market for domestic furniture in interwar Britain1

Author

Listed:
  • PETER SCOTT

Abstract

This article examines strategies used by durable goods retailers to create a mass market in interwar Britain, via a case study of domestic furniture. Interwar demand for new furniture witnessed particularly rapid growth—mainly owing to the extension of the market to lower‐income groups. A number of innovative national retailers developed liberal hire purchase (HP) facilities in order to bring furniture within the economic reach of these groups, while sophisticated national advertising campaigns were used both to legitimize the buying of furniture on HP and to project the idea that furnishing by this means was key to achieving the type of aspirational lifestyles being promulgated in the popular media.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Scott, 2009. "Mr Drage, Mr Everyman, and the creation of a mass market for domestic furniture in interwar Britain1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 62(4), pages 802-827, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:62:y:2009:i:4:p:802-827
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00480.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00480.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00480.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bowden, Sue & Turner, Paul, 1993. "The Demand for Consumer Durables in the United Kingdom in the Interwar Period," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(2), pages 244-258, June.
    2. Broadberry,Steve N., 2005. "The Productivity Race," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521023580, January.
    3. Peter Scott, 2008. "Marketing mass home ownership and the creation of the modern working-class consumer in inter-war Britain," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(1), pages 4-25.
    4. Sue Bowden & Avner Offer, 1994. "Household appliances and the use of time: the United States and Britain since the 1920s," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 47(4), pages 725-748, November.
    5. Peter Scott, 2008. "Did owner‐occupation lead to smaller families for interwar working‐class households?1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 61(1), pages 99-124, February.
    6. Peter Scott & Peter Walsh, 2004. "Patterns and determinants of manufacturing plant location in interwar London," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 57(1), pages 109-141, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sean O'Connell & Chris Reid, 2005. "Working‐class consumer credit in the UK, 1925–60: the role of the check trader," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 58(2), pages 378-405, May.
    2. David Clayton, 2004. "The consumption of radio broadcast technologies in Hong Kong, c.1930–1960," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 57(4), pages 691-726, November.
    3. repec:ehl:wpaper:22348 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:ehl:wpaper:22314 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Foellmi, Reto & Wuergler, Tobias & Zweimüller, Josef, 2014. "The macroeconomics of Model T," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 617-647.
    6. R.Ramya, 2019. "Care Work and Time Use: A Focus on Child Care, Personal Care and Elderly Care Time," Shanlax International Journal of Economics, Shanlax Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 34-41, March.
    7. Broadberry, Stephen & Ghosal, Sayantan & Proto, Eugenio, 2011. "Is Anonymity the Missing Link Between Commercial and Industrial Revolution?," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 974, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    8. Brian D. Varian, 2022. "Imperial preference before the Ottawa Agreements: Evidence from New Zealand's Preferential and Reciprocal Trade Act of 1903," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(4), pages 1214-1241, November.
    9. Ben Fine, 1999. "Consumption for Historians: An Economist's Gaze," Working Papers 91, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    10. Jean-Pierre Dormois, 2006. "Tracking the elusive French productivity lag in industry 1840-1973," Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series d05-152, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    11. Broadberry, Stephen & Wallis, John Joseph, 2025. "Growing, Shrinking, and Long-Run Economic Performance: Historical Perspectives on Economic Development," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 85(2), pages 505-540, June.
    12. Crafts, Nicholas & Mills, Terence C., 2004. "Was 19th century British growth steam-powered?: the climacteric revisited," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 156-171, April.
    13. Broadberry, Stephen & Ghosal, Sayantan & Proto, Eugenio, 2017. "Anonymity, efficiency wages and technological progress," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 379-394.
    14. Pérez-Sánchez, Laura À. & Velasco-Fernández, Raúl & Giampietro, Mario, 2022. "Factors and actions for the sustainability of the residential sector. The nexus of energy, materials, space, and time use," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    15. Fremdling, Rainer & Jong, Herman de & Timmer, Marcel P., 2007. "Censuses compared. A New Benchmark for British and German Manufacturing 1935/1936," GGDC Research Memorandum GD-90, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    16. Walker Hanlon & Taylor Jaworski, 2022. "Spillover Effects of Intellectual Property Protection in the Interwar Aircraft Industry," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(645), pages 1824-1851.
    17. Crafts, Nicholas, 2020. "British Relative Economic Decline in the Aftermath of German Unification," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1295, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    18. Timothy Leunig, 2003. "A British industrial success: productivity in the Lancashire and New England cotton spinning industries a century ago," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 56(1), pages 90-117, February.
    19. Leslie Hannah & Robert Bennett, 2022. "Large‐scale Victorian manufacturers: Reconstructing the lost 1881 UK employer census," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(3), pages 830-856, August.
    20. Ark, Bart van, 2004. "Productivity and employment growth: an empirical review of long and medium run evidence : background working paper for the world employment report 2004," GGDC Research Memorandum 200471, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    21. Broadberry, Stephen & Burhop, Carsten, 2008. "Resolving the Anglo-German Industrial Productivity Puzzle, 1895–1935: A Response to Professor Ritschl," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(3), pages 930-934, September.
    22. Fouquet, Roger, 2012. "Trends in income and price elasticities of transport demand (1850–2010)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 62-71.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:62:y:2009:i:4:p:802-827. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehsukea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.