"The Right to Purchase Is as Free as the Right to Sell": Defining Consumers as Citizens in the Auction-house Conflicts of the Early Republic
This article explores the commercial turf war over auction houses in the 1820s, a dispute which inadvertently altered how Americans imagined the civic rights and obligations of consumers. Beginning in 1817, east coast merchants embarked on a self-interested crusade to convince Congress to tax auction houses out of existence. As the auctioneers retaliated, this private conflict over profits escalated into a public debate on the state of the nation's political economy. Seeking public sympathy, both sides quickly focused on the needs of purchasers, arguing that their business alone upheld the rights of the consumer in a chaotic and corrupt marketplace. But this strategy failed as the choices and desires of individual shoppers forced both sides to reformulate their understanding of the consumer. As Americans continued to flock to shops that stocked goods bought at auction, merchants in particular conceded that championing the consumer did not serve their cause. Abandoning hope that a tariff would curb the success of the auction-house, the merchants began to argue that consumers must regulate themselves for the good of the nation. By 1828, this argument hardened into a new understanding, that placed the "right to purchase" alongside a set of new obligations, ones that made consumer choice and taste a requirement of good citizenship.
Changing Secondhand Economies
Abstract Research interest in secondhand economies has expanded in recent years among scholars of diverse disciplines, especially anthropology, history, geography, and sociology. The introduction to this Special Issue discusses a number of interdisciplinary and regional perspectives on the topic. After an overview of scholarship relating to secondhand economies, historical and contemporary, we introduce a number of themes that have attracted particular attention, including the growth and expansion of secondhand exchange, the emergence and specialization of diverse secondhand venues, the material objects involved, influences on these modes of exchanges, and the cultural significance of secondhand things and the professions connected with them. Finally, we turn to the articles included in this Special Issue, identifying some of the major issues to which they speak.
Multiple-dose pharmacokinetics of moxisylyte after oral administration to healthy volunteers.
The pharmacokinetics of moxisylyte in plasma and urine was investigated after oral administration. Twelve subjects were treated orally, twice daily with 240 mg of the drug for 6 days; on day 7, the subjects received a last dose of 240 mg of moxisylyte. Moxisylyte was assayed in plasma and urine by a specific HPLC method with fluorimetric detection. Moxisylyte was absorbed rapidly and changed to its metabolites immediately after drug administration; unchanged moxisylyte was not found in plasma. Two metabolites were found in plasma and urine: conjugated desacetylmoxisylyte (DAM) and the conjugate of desmethylated DAM (MDAM). The pharmacokinetic parameters determined after the first oral administration were not modified on multiple dosing. The apparent elimination half-lives of conjugated DAM and MDAM were 2.3 and 3.5 h, respectively. Elimination of these two metabolites in urine averaged 50 and 10%, respectively.