Introduction
In general, economists and economic historians have focused more on production than on consumption and living conditions, with the latter being of greater interest to social historians. This chapter broadly charts some of the major changes in the patterns of Irish consumption and living conditions across the social spectrum. It is hard to grasp the scale of the change in a little more than 250 years. For example, in rural Ireland in 1750, and even still a hundred years later, much of consumption would have taken place directly through home production of food in particular, for the vast majority of the lower-income classes. For most having shelter from the elements, a place to sleep, water to drink and a basic diet would have constituted the major elements of their daily consumption. The bulk of personal consumption hinged on acquiring the bare necessities, with subsistence and semi-subsistence agriculture co-existing in the economy at large with market-driven transactions.
Living standards and living conditions are clearly closely related. Living standards are usually measured in terms of average income per head of population in a society. It is incomes that allow consumption to take place. As average incomes increase though, basic consumption requirements and living conditions can be greatly extended and for small sections of the Irish population such possibilities existed even in the eighteenth century, with some experiencing lavish living conditions in terms of magnificent houses, fine clothes, personal services provided by others such as tuition for their children and housework, travel for leisure purposes and fine horse-drawn carriages. Such living conditions, though, were still a distant dream for the vast majority of the pre-Great Famine population. In the century after 1850 rising incomes meant that the consumption possibilities rose significantly across the social spectrum and included better housing, diet, education and health services. Technological innovations impact on the composition of living conditions, such as, for example, the advent of trains, then cars and telephones, and most particularly electricity. Air travel, radio, TV, dramatic changes in medical care and the internet followed later in the twentieth century.