JOSIAH WEDGWOOD: AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENTREPRENEUR IN SALESMANSHIP AND MARKETING TECHNIQUES

Abstract

When Josiah Wedgwood was born in 1730, the Staffordshire potters sold their wares almost solely in Staffordshire. Their goods found their sale in the local market towns, and occasionally, carried by pedlars and hawkers, they reached further afield - to Leicester, Liverpool and Manchester. To sell in London was rare, to sell abroad virtually unknown. Yet by 1795 Wedgwood had broken through this local trade of fairs and pedlars to an international market based on elegant showrooms and ambassadorial connections.