Consumers in the Bush
Shopping in Rural Upper Canada
The everyday material world of rural Canadian families in the nineteenth century.
Description
General stores are essential to the image of a colonial village. Many historians, however, still base their stories of settlement on the notion of rural self-sufficiency, begging the question: if general stores were so common, who were their customers? To answer this, Consumers in the Bush draws on the account books of country stores, rich evidence that has rarely been used. Douglas McCalla considers more than 30,000 transactions on the accounts of 750 families at seven Upper Canadian stores between 1808 and 1861. These customers were typical of rural society - farmers, artisans, labourers, and often women. At village stores they found a wide variety of products, most imported from Britain, a few from the United States, and a surprising number that were produced locally. Three chapters focus on the major product categories of dry goods, groceries, and hardware; a fourth considers local products, and a fifth addresses a variety of items - from household goods to footwear to school books. In telling us about the goods colonists bought, this book explores what they were used for and the stories they allow us to tell about rural lives and experience. By seeing rural Upper Canadians as consumers, Consumers in the Bush reveals them as full participants in the rapidly changing nineteenth-century global world of goods.
Reviews
"McCalla's groundbreaking findings lead him to question the emigrant guides, descriptions of colonial life, policy documents, and reminiscences that have shaped understandings of this society. Rejecting the myth of the self-sufficient pioneer farmer, he c
"A most welcome book carefully crafted around some inventive approaches to archival resources. [Consumers in the Bush is] valuable reading for anyone interested in the variation of rural life in the mid-19th century [and] a great example of how historians
"Offers a unique perspective on early rural Ontario that shows that "Upper Canadian men and women were consumers of goods that were modern in the context of their times" and were fully engaged in the nineteenth century international world of consumer goods. This is an important lesson for all scholars working on frontier settlement and consumption history. Of immense value to future scholars of nineteenth century material and consumer life are the tables and appendices that McCalla provides at the end of the book." Journal of Economic History
"Here is a book which offers in extraordinary detail the consequences of pursuing a very simple idea. McCall set out to mine … retail account data for an economic study of Upper Canada. Compiling and analyzing this data produced 36 different tables plus f
"Douglas McCalla constructs a vivid and unparalleled portrayal of consumption patterns through analysis of general store sales in rural Upper Canada, while also providing sound analysis of the existing historiography. Consumers in the Bush is a valuable c
"[A] solid and useful starting point to promote additional investigations of early Canadian consumer history. The findings are summarized in seven extremely detailed chapters, a thirty-six-table appendix, and a list of purchased goods indicating the dates