Emma Hart (2) (1972–)

In Emma Hart’s “Trading Spaces: The Colonial Marketplace and the Foundations of American Capitalism” we learn something about the origins of the town markets and fairs of rural England in the centuries leading to the expansion of English power in North America.

People had been trading for goods and services for millenia in England and elsewhere.

The early town markets focussed attempts to regularize trade with standard units of measurement, fair pricing and fair dealing.

Town elders (and show more the local gentry) fought attempts by itinerant peddlers to muscle in on the trade. There are many documented complaints that the peddlers cheated the buyer, transacted commerce in unregistered areas secretly, and then stole out of town before they could be brought to justice.

Just how many of these complaints were just and not simply the result of sour grapes or prejudice we’ll never know.

But it sounds a heck of alot like complaints against unscrupulous merchants on amazon’s marketplace.

In one New York Times feature recently, book publishers complain about cheap knockoffs of new publications undermining the value and demand for new works. A new autobiography comes out and quickly other titles show up on amazon’s website with titles mirroring that of the legit title, with sketchy reviews, and lower prices.

amazon seems to have little or no inclination and/or power to protect the legit publications and the publishers see disappointing sales.

As a main street retailer myself I often get the feeling that amazon is amassing armies of peddlers to undermine commerce. Because of amazon’s control over Internet services (through amazon web services), its purchasing power, its levels of consumer confidence, and its sheer convenience I feel powerless to affect outcomes.

On the other hand, my experience with consumer electronics leads me to believe that the consumer is often ill-served by the convenience factor.

They buy things they don’t understand and can’t use. They have no real relationship to the manufacturer and hence can’t affect future design and manufacturing outcomes. Even worse, from my perspective, their buying decisions contribute to the degredation of the planet.

In her analysis of pre-revolutionary America, Hart posits that the fluidity of the marketplace exacerbates division on the matter what and who is serving the public good.

The hyperspeed of contemporary communications and commerce shows us what dire outcomes are possible when a kind of consumption mania outpaces regulation of the marketplace.

For more on this I highly recommend Dana Thonas highly readable “Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes.”

In this book, Thomas quotes the industry’s own estimates that 75% of garments ordered online end up in landfill.

That can’t be good. show less