Elite horse riding and driving in eighteenth- century London. A consumption history analysis through newspaper advertisements

Abstract

This article reconsiders the role of horses and carriages in the eighteenth-century consumer revolution. Building on Thomas Almeroth-Williams’s call to integrate equestrian culture into consumer history, it analyzes large samples of advertisements for horses and carriages in the Daily Advertiser (1744, 1796) and the Morning Chronicle (1796). The findings highlight both the spectacular growth and professionalization of the elite metropolitan horse market and the paradoxical decline in detail within advertisements as grouped sales increasingly replaced private ones. Focusing on the thriving second-hand market, the article reveals how features usually associated with ‘new luxuries’ (product variety, consumer choice, speed of change) also shaped this ‘old luxury’ sector. Carriage design innovations, aesthetic criteria, and the pursuit of stylish mastery over horses were crucial markers of civility and social order. Ultimately, the bourgeoisification of equestrian culture demonstrates that consumer change cannot be captured by simple transitions from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’.