Description
Book SynopsisSet in rapidly changing late 17th-century London, Ingenious Trade reveals a generation of young women taking up apprenticeships and making their way in trade. Drawing on engagingly detailed court cases, it recovers their ambitions, conflicts, networks and careers, showing the significance of women's work to their identities, and to the city.
Trade Review'Gowing puts female apprenticeship convincingly front and centre in the history of early modern women, showing how girls learned the gendered mix of agency and contingency that would shape their lives as producers, traders and consumers. This book is a pleasure for its readers and a triumph for its author.' Cynthia Herrup, University of Southern California
'This wonderful book shifts women's artisanal training from the historiographical margins to the centre of city life. Focusing on people rather than things, Gowing's meticulous research brings to life the female makers and sellers of the consumer revolution and shows how women's skilled work crafted gendered identity alongside producing goods.' Alexandra Shepard, University of Glasgow
'… she writes in a style that makes her book readily accessible to students and those generally interested in early modern daily life.' Joseph P. Ward, Seventeenth-Century News
Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Bred in the Exchange: Seamstresses and Shopkeepers; 2. Girls as Apprentices; 3. Managing the Trade: Women as Mistresses; 4. What Girls Learned; 5. Making Havoc: Discipline, Demeanour and Resistance; 6. Freedoms and Customs; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.
