Kate Smith is an associate professor in eighteenth-century history at the University of Birmingham. Her work explores how people related to the material world in the past. Her other books include Material Goods, Moving Hands: Perceiving Production in England, 1700–1830 (2014) and The East India Company at Home, 1757–1857 (co-edited with Margot Finn, 2018).

• Introduction; Property, possession and the importance of loss; Part I. Challenging Property and Possession: 1. Legal and philosophical understandings of property and possession; 2. Cities of loss; Part II. Seeking Return: 3. Systems of reclamation; 4. Who lost and who looked; Part III. Learning from Loss: 5. Describing and knowing possessions; 6. Valuing possessions; 7. Selfhood and the importance of keeping hold; Conclusion. Legacies of loss.

Kate Smith is an associate professor in eighteenth-century history at the University of Birmingham. Her work explores how people related to the material world in the past. Her other books include Material Goods, Moving Hands: Perceiving Production in England, 1700–1830 (2014) and The East India Company at Home, 1757–1857 (co-edited with Margot Finn, 2018).

• Introduction; Property, possession and the importance of loss; Part I. Challenging Property and Possession: 1. Legal and philosophical understandings of property and possession; 2. Cities of loss; Part II. Seeking Return: 3. Systems of reclamation; 4. Who lost and who looked; Part III. Learning from Loss: 5. Describing and knowing possessions; 6. Valuing possessions; 7. Selfhood and the importance of keeping hold; Conclusion. Legacies of loss.

Kate Smith is an associate professor in eighteenth-century history at the University of Birmingham. Her work explores how people related to the material world in the past. Her other books include Material Goods, Moving Hands: Perceiving Production in England, 1700–1830 (2014) and The East India Company at Home, 1757–1857 (co-edited with Margot Finn, 2018).

• Introduction; Property, possession and the importance of loss; Part I. Challenging Property and Possession: 1. Legal and philosophical understandings of property and possession; 2. Cities of loss; Part II. Seeking Return: 3. Systems of reclamation; 4. Who lost and who looked; Part III. Learning from Loss: 5. Describing and knowing possessions; 6. Valuing possessions; 7. Selfhood and the importance of keeping hold; Conclusion. Legacies of loss.