On the Potential of Merchants' Probate Inventories for the History of Trade and Consumption

Salzburg during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries

Abstract

Recent research has often drawn on probate inventories. Merchants’ probate inventories, for example, provide information on the financial or economic status, on credit and business relations mentioning debts, business partners, suppliers and customers, which provides valuable insights into the spatial dimension of the business. Usually stocks of goods were recorded meticulously, documenting the origin, quality, quantity and price of the stored products. In so doing, these inventories allow us a glimpse into the ‘world of goods’. This contribution is mainly based on the inventories of spice merchants in the city of Salzburg during the second half of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and discusses the potential of inventories for historical consumer research.