Branding before the brand: Marks,imitations and counterfeits in pre-modern Europe

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the practices of branding adopted in the European pre-modern economy in order to communicate information about the product to the consumer. It examines the nature and function of master’s marks and collective marks and their interaction with processes of imitation and counterfeiting, and takes a stance in the debate on the origins of the modern brand, arguing in favour of the thesis that early forms of brand may be found only in the economic context of the eighteenth century and not before.