@article{Dobrowolski_2015, title={Watch your pocket — krótka historia zamożności, czyli kradzieże zegarków w Londynie w XVIII wieku}, volume={63}, url={https://journals.iaepan.pl/khkm/article/view/861}, abstractNote={<p><span style="left: 172.99px; top: 387.45px; font-family: serif; font-size: 14.16px; transform: scaleX(0.985662);">“WATCH YOUR POCKET” — A BRIEF HISTORY OF AFFLUENCE, </span><span style="left: 180.32px; top: 404.32px; font-family: serif; font-size: 14.16px; transform: scaleX(0.99388);">OR ON POCKET WATCH THEFTS IN 18TH-CENTURY LONDON</span></p> <p><span style="left: 123.5px; top: 451.09px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.983379);">Building on David Landes’s assumption that the growing popularity of clocks and watches </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 469.96px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.953842);">was a marker of economic progress, this article probes London’s Old Bailey court records (OBSP) </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 488.82px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(1.01349);">to assess the number of pocket watches brought as evidence of theft among the lower middle </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 507.69px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(1.00578);">strata of metropolitan society. This statistical assessment is tied to the question whether in the </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 526.56px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.976429);">second half of the 18th century the boom in the supply of and demand for „luxurious” (or semi-</span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 545.43px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.967874);">luxurious) products affected the lower classes of Londoners due to their growing fi</span><span style="left: 597.04px; top: 545.43px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.983212);"> nancial stabil-</span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 564.29px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.983058);">ity. Did the “relatively” poor become “relatively” wealthier? Two annual series are constructed: </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 583.16px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.970569);">one for 1753 and the other for 1793. Watch thefts occurred as a result of highway robbery and/or </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 602.03px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(1.013);">housebreaking — in which case watches were simply a part of more diversifi</span><span style="left: 584.55px; top: 602.03px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(1.04157);"> ed loot — or in </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 620.89px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.924705);">more individualized, “face to face” situations in the streets or in alehouses. In the latter case </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 639.76px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(1.00666);">culprits were frequently women, especially prostitutes. “Watch theft cases” prove that despite </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 658.63px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.946583);">the persistence of bloody code’s severe legal practices theft was increasingly punished with </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 677.49px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.958012);">imprisonment sentences (although both capital sentences and deportations were signifi</span><span style="left: 648.77px; top: 677.49px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(1.01772);"> cant), </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 696.36px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.974963);">while the number of the acquitted also grew due to more diligent scrutiny of doubtful cases. The </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 715.23px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.972527);">number of cases in which pocket watches served as evidence (clocks were mentioned only twice </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 734.1px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.951552);">in 1793) grew from 3.7% in 1753 to 6.8% in 1793: this was on the one hand a substantial increase </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 752.96px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.990699);">and on the other a proof that a silver watch valued at 2 pounds (the most frequently stolen time </span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 771.83px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.976257);">measuring item) was still a marker of luxury, although it was becoming more affordable to aver-</span><span style="left: 93.5px; top: 790.7px; font-family: serif; font-size: 15.83px; transform: scaleX(0.98969);">age Londoners, e.g. house servants, apprentices and lower class artisans.</span></p>}, number={3}, journal={Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej}, author={Dobrowolski, Paweł T.}, year={2015}, month={sty.}, pages={451–470} }