Brands in medieval Europe

In "No Logo" Naomi Klein tries to show how brands have become ubiquitous, not just in media and on the street but even in the schools. Well Klein is well behind the times. According to this research, Brand Names Before the Industrial Revolution, by Gary Richardson brands where big in medieval Europe.

At this time manufacturers sold durable goods to anonymous consumers in distant markets, Richardson argues, by making products with conspicuous characteristics. Examples of these unique, observable traits included cloth of distinctive colours, fabric with unmistakable weaves, and pewter that resonated at a particular pitch.

These attributes identified merchandise because consumers could observe them readily, but counterfeiters could copy them only at great cost, if at all. Conspicuous characteristics fulfilled many of the functions that patents, trademarks, and brand names do today. The words that referred to products with conspicuous characteristics served as brand names in the Middle Ages. Data drawn from an array of industries corroborates this conjecture. The abundance of evidence suggests that conspicuous characteristics played a key role in the expansion of manufacturing before the Industrial Revolution.