What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“French and Dutch GOODS.”
In an advertisement in the August 19, 1776, edition of the Boston-Gazette, Martin Bicker listed an array of textiles and other goods in stick at his shop. He offered a “very great choice of callicoes, patches, printed linens, fine lawns, cambricks, silk gauzes, … silk and linen handkerchiefs, cotton and linen checks, … ribbons, black sattin, persians, kid gloves, pins and needles, … middling and coarse broad-cloths, trimmings to match, … breeches patterns, thread and worsted hose, bedticks, buckrams, durants, sagathees, duroys, wiltons, white silk Damascus, writing paper, [and] castor hats.” Modern readers may not recognize the names of many of those textiles, but eighteenth-century consumers knew them and could distinguish among them. Bicker invited prospective customers to make selections according to their own tastes and budgets. To that end, he carried “macaroni velvets,” but he also had “plain” velvets for those who considered the alternative too extravagant or too expensive. He concluded his list with “&c,” the abbreviation commonly used for et cetera, to indicate even more choices among his “good assortment.”
Bicker’s advertisement looked much like one that would have run in an American newspaper before the Revolutionary War, but with one exception. The headline proclaimed, “French and Dutch GOODS.” Bicker reiterated the origins of his wares when he stated that he “has just received a very good assortment of French and Dutch Goods, which are ready for sale.” He did not explain how he acquired that shipment, though he certainly expected promoting “French and Dutch GOODS” would resonate with consumers in Boston and the surrounding towns. After all, the Declaration of Independence so recently adopted by the Continental Congress and published in the Boston-Gazette included “full Power to … establish Commerce” among the “Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.” When Massachusetts was a colony, Bicker and other entrepreneurs had been restricted to trading with Great Britain. Retailers gave consumers access to “English Goods,” as they were so often described in newspaper advertisements. Bicker knew that the origins of his merchandise distinguished his shop from others. The “French and Dutch GOODS” he sold contrasted significantly with the “Variety of ENGLISH GOODS” offered in the advertisement that appeared immediately above his notice.