"The Present Frenzy of our Womenkind": The Impact of the Calico Acts of 1700 and 1721 on Economic and Social Power in Early Modern England
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2024
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Haverford College. Department of History
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Thesis
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eng
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Open access
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Abstract
The founding of the East India Company in 1600 changed fashion and consumption forever. This thesis explores one of the impacts of that change: the Calico Acts of 1700 and 1721. Calico is a printed cotton fabric which was imported from India. It was banned in England in 1700 because its popularity threatened the success of the domestic wool and silk industries. Due to the success of the East India company, foreign goods became increasingly popular in England, creating a consumer revolution primarily guided by women. My thesis examines petitions and pamphlets written about the Calico Acts. These printed ephemera illuminate different motivations behind the Calico Acts. First, many pamphleteers were concerned about a turn away from mercantilism. Mercantilism was an inherently nationalistic economic policy, and the popularity of foreign trade did not support mercantilist’s aims. The Calico Acts were an attempt for England and its domestic industries to maintain economic control. Pamphleteers also wanted to ban Calico because of its accessibility to the lower class. As popular fashions like Calico became more affordable, it became more difficult to distinguish class through attire. The upper class, which was steeped in a tradition of sumptuary laws, feared the dissolve of class boundaries that could come from sartorial freedom for the lower class. Gender was inherent to the debate surrounding the Calico Act, as women were the ones who mostly wore the fabric. Women, both upper and lower class, were granted considerable control over the economy because of the widespread consumerism that erupted as a result of foreign trade. My thesis examines how the Calico Acts were a reaction to the increase in power of people on the borders of society. The Calico Acts reflected the social and governmental pushback against growing power of marginalized groups like women and the lower class. The Acts were a reaction against the rapidly changing world of immorality and dissolving social hierarchies created by globalization and foreign trade.