Abstract

BEAUR, Gérard. Niveles de vida, revolución por objetos y revolución industriosa en la Europa moderna: verdades y fantasmas. Meaux y su campiña (Región de Brie), siglos XVII y XVIII. Mundo agrar. [online]. 2021, vol.22, n.49, e162. ISSN 1515-5994.  http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24215/15155994e162.

Based on a large corpus of post-mortem inventories from the small town of Meaux and its countryside, in the Brie, very close to Paris, over two centuries, the article proposes a reassessment of two concepts that are currently structuring the field of the history of consumption at the end of the early modern period. These two concepts: “a consumer revolution”, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, “an industrious revolution” (brilliantly advocated by Jan de Vries) are supposed to articulate the one with the other. The industrious revolution would be the matrix of the consumer revolution and it would have occurred first in the 17th century in Holland. The statistical processing of our corpus certainly allows us to validate once again the hypothesis of a consumer revolution. It clarifies its calendar, its temporal rhythm, as well as its social scope and limits, both in the town and in the countryside. On the other hand, it calls into question the relevance of the industrious revolution and the exceptionality of the Dutch behavior claimed by Jan De Vries. It argues that the changing economic context and the widening of the supply provide better keys of explanation than a new attitude of the population which would push them to work more, to earn more, and thus to be able to consume more.

Keywords : Consumer revolution; Industrius revolution; Meaux; Rural history; Early Modern Europe.

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