Rag Collectors: Mobility and Barter in a Circular Flow of Goods
Abstract This chapter traces a forgotten, yet important itinerant means of livelihood, namely rag collecting. Rags played an essential role as raw material for the paper and textile industries in the nineteenth century. The chapter identifies a business logic based on the idea that material perceive...
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| Format: | Book Part |
| Language: | unknown |
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Springer International Publishing
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98080-1_4 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-030-98080-1_4 |
| Summary: | Abstract This chapter traces a forgotten, yet important itinerant means of livelihood, namely rag collecting. Rags played an essential role as raw material for the paper and textile industries in the nineteenth century. The chapter identifies a business logic based on the idea that material perceived by one individual as worthless could be turned into something of economic value. As rags were commodified, they acquired new value in a different context. By analyzing newspapers, periodical articles and responses to ethnographic questionnaires, the authors follow a group of rag collectors from the Karelian Isthmus, who utilized their favorable geographic location to gain a livelihood from a circular flow of goods. The chapter demonstrates how an earthenware pot could be bartered for a discarded garment, which in turn became a piece of the puzzle in the process that kept industry and economic growth going. |
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