Book Chapter

Economic growth and prosperity: two sides of the same coin? A comparison of the countryside of Antwerp and Piedmont in the long eighteenth century

  • Alberto Concina
  • Maïka De Keyzer
  • Jan Peeters

This paper proposes a comparative study of social mobility between peasant and commercial societies in two distinct rural areas of Europe, namely the Low Countries and Piedmont. The paper focuses on changing consumption patterns under the frame of the premodern consumer revolution to identify what kind of society was more mobile. The adoption of new facets of consumption especially in the form of novel luxuries and colonial products has long been identified as an effort from households to adopt more refined lifestyles thus improving their prestige and status relative to the rest of society. It will be shown that while commercial societies appeared better at promoting the circulation of prestigious goods across social groups, the phenomenon remained highly elitist.

  • Keywords:
  • Inequality,
  • Material wealth,
  • Consumption,
  • Peasant societies,
  • Market societies,
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Alberto Concina

Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium - ORCID: 0000-0002-7159-2125

Maïka De Keyzer

Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium - ORCID: 0000-0003-2885-6989

Jan Peeters

Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium - ORCID: 0000-0003-4441-5403

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  • Publication Year: 2025
  • Pages: 307-327
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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  • Publication Year: 2025
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Economic growth and prosperity: two sides of the same coin? A comparison of the countryside of Antwerp and Piedmont in the long eighteenth century

Authors

Alberto Concina, Maïka De Keyzer, Jan Peeters

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0667-9.15

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2025

Copyright Information

© 2025 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

La mobilità sociale nelle società preindustriali: tendenze, cause ed effetti (secc. XIII-XVIII) / Social mobility in pre-industrial societies: tendencies, causes and effects (13th-18th centuries)

Editors

Angela Orlandi

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

612

Publication Year

2025

Copyright Information

© 2025 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0667-9

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0666-2

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0667-9

eISBN (xml)

979-12-215-0668-6

Series Title

Datini Studies in Economic History

Series ISSN

2975-1241

Series E-ISSN

2975-1195

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