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“Ambassadors of Commerce“: The Commercial Traveler in British Culture, 1800–1939

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

Michael French  and
Andrew Popp
Michael French
Affiliation:
MICHAEL FRENCH is professor of economic and social history at theUniversity of Glasgow.
Andrew Popp
Affiliation:
ANDREW POPP is senior lecturer in business history at theUniversity of Liverpool Management School.
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Abstract

This paper presents a reading of British literary representations of commercial travelers between 1800 and 1939. Three forms of representation are used: nonfiction representations by others, travelers' self-representations, and fictional representations. We find remarkable continuity in representations of commercial travelers across this long time period, particularly in terms of a sustained tension between the image of the disreputable “drummer” and the more respectable “model” salesman. These readings and findings are used to address two debates: one concerned with the timing of any transition to “modern” selling and salesmanship in Britain; and the second having to do with the processes whereby British society accommodated itself to modernity, commercialization, and the birth of a consumer society.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 82 , Issue 4: A Special Issue on Salesmanship , Winter 2008 , pp. 789 - 814
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2008

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