Historians have only recently begun to note the increase in demand for luxury goods and services that took place in eighteenth-century England. McKendrick has explored the Wedgwood firm’s remarkable (1) s________ in marketing luxury pottery; Plumb has written about the proliferation of provincial theaters, musical festivals, and children’s toys and books. While the fact of this consumer revolution is hardly (2) i________ doubt, three key questions remain: who were the consumers? What were their motives? And (3) w________ were the effects of the new demand (4) f________ luxuries?

An answer (5) t________ the first of these has (6) b________ difficult to obtain. Although it has been possible to (7) i________from the goods and services actually produced what manufacturers and servicing trades thought their (8) c________ wanted, only a study of relevant personal documents written by actual consumers will provide a precise picture of who wanted what. We will need to know how large this consumer market was and (9) h________ far down the social scale the consumer for (10) l________ goods penetrated. With (11) r________to this last question, we might note in passing that Thompson, while rightly restoring laboring people (12) t________ the stage of eighteenth-century English history, has probably exaggerated the opposition of these people to the inroads of capitalist consumerism (13) i________ general: for example, laboring people in eighteenth-century England readily shifted (14) f________ homebrewed beer to standardized beer produced by huge, heavily capitalized urban breweries.

To answer the question of (15) w________consumers became so eager to buy, some historians have pointed to the ability of manufacturers to advertise in a relatively uncensored press. This, however, hardly seems a sufficient (16) a________. McKendrick favors a Veblen model of conspicuous consumption stimulated by (17) c________ for status. The “middling sort” bought (18) g________ and services because they wanted to (19) f________ fashions (20) s________ by the rich. Again, we may (21) w________ whether this explanation is sufficient. Do not people enjoy (22) b________ things as a form of self-gratification? If so, consumerism could be (23) s________ as a product of the (24) r________ of new concept of individualism and materialism, but not necessarily of the frenzy for conspicuous competition.

Finally, what were the consequences of this consumer demand for luxuries? McKendrick claims that it goes a long (25) w________ toward explaining the coming of the (26) I________ Revolution. But does it? What, for example, does the production of high-quality pottery and toys have to do (27) w________ the development of iron manufacture and textile mills? It is perfectly possible to have the psychology and reality of a (28) c________ society without a heavy industrial sector.

That future exploration of these key (29) q________ is undoubtedly necessary should not, however, diminish the force of the conclusion of recent studies: the insatiable (30) d________ in eighteenth-century England for frivolous as well as useful goods and services foreshadows our own world.