The peasantry’s second hand : Auctions and clothes in the late 18th century Blekinge countryside.

The aim of this study is to examine what access the people living in the countryside of the late 18th century south-Swedish district of Blekinge had to consumption, as well as what part clothes had in the auction trade. By increasing knowledge about the peasantry’s access to clothing in a local second hand market, we can study the conditions for the rural population at a time when access to both new and used clothing was severely limited. Protocols of auctions attached to estate inventories is a vital source of information about when, why and how auctions where performed, and how clothes were a distinguished object category in the holding of the peasantry families. Auctions were held for various causes, which could be of more or less imperative nature. Some estates were deeply in dept and needed to sell items in order to pay their debtors, though other estates held auctions without such reasons. In the latter cases it seems that the auctions could be a practical solution to handle the dividing of the inheritance, or to dispose of items not needed in the household. Here, the clothes form a special category that are more often sold as a whole than other items. The auctions were, as the society in general, dominated by men but with a closer look at the protocols it is clear that women also were frequent participants, especially when the selling estate was female.