The social and economic history of "fashion" has been a neglected subject attracting only minor interest of economic historians, and existing studies have been mainly concerned with pre-industrial revolution time. This paper attempts- to bring in "fashion" as a central theme of social and economic history. Focusing on textile industries in Yorkshire and Lancashire, it analyses the relationship between manufacturers and merchants, and their reaction to the market in the first half of the nineteenth century. Business records and official papers are consulted to illustrate producers' and sellers' responses to the rise of a consumer society. The pursuit of "novelty" is an aspect which fashion, by nature, creates to capture consumers' eyes. It was an essential activity for the manufacturers and merchants to produce novelty so that they might be able to compete in both national and international markets. In the first half of the nineteenth century the industrial Structure of the textile industries in Britain went through various phases of transformation; the merchant classes became dominant over the manufacturers in the area of financing and marketing. At the same time the merchants began to stress taste and fashion to the manufacturers who became subordinate to the former in this respect too. Business correspondences are a fascinating source in which the behavior of merchants, the degree to which they control the manufacturers, and their confidence in judging good and bad patterns are demonstrated. Their activities in everyday business which were affected by the "tyranny of fashion" in every season are also illustrated.
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