Distanshandel och industrialisering : En studie i den svenska tidiga postorderhandelns framväxt och expansion 1866-1895

Sammanfattning: Distance trading and industrialization. A study in the swedish early mail order emergence and expansion 1866-1895. Petrus Forsgren, Economic History, Magister Degree, Umeå University Spring 2021. The meaning, preconditions, actors with their background, in the early swedish mail order growth and expansion have been studied between the period 1866-1895. Entrepreneurship and structural change have been the underlying theme. The meaning of mail order pointed to a focus on especially the swedish postal service as an important factor. It was found that important preconditions such as railways, consumer markets, the spread of newspapers along with institutional changes in payments started to change 1866 and was fully developed 1875. Before this period, there were obstacles that made mail order only possible in a small more local scale. As a text analysis advertisements were explored in the early period 1866-1874 in regards to the term ”cash on delivery” where it was found that early advertsements came from Denmark and Germany. But results were also found that gave tendencies for a internally domestic origin for mail order in regards to the actors. It was further explored 1875-1895 where the sold items went from light to heavy which indicated that the prerequisitions for mail order were transformed. A total of 15 actors in which the background was studied. They had all similar procedure of selling nationally via advertisments and through the swedish postal service. The actors were in average born 1833, started their business 1861 at 29,5 years of age and expanded with mail order 1876. All the studied actors had previous business experience and none of them had previously been involved in pedlary. Later actors required less previous experience. It further confirms that mail order were a new fenomena that differed from previous types of retail and might have more in common with wholesale, retailing or e-commerce than earlier assumed predecessors.