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ABSTRACTS
Carolyn Dougherty, University of York,
British Common Carriers and the Railways, 1830-1850
Since at least the 17th century a sophisticated multimodal goods
distribution network has existed in Britain. Historians have researched
and written about the components of this network, but little has been
written about how these components linked together, how the network was
used, and how it contributed to Britain’s early economic regionalisation.
The effectiveness of the network depended on the long distance common
carriers who used packhorses, carts, wagons, and water transport to move
goods between London and the rest of the country. As private investors
used their capital to develop canals and turnpike roads during the 18th
century, carriers took advantage of these improved corridors; when
general-purpose railways began to be constructed in the early 19th
century the established carriers expected to use these new corridors in
the same way. The railway companies, however, began to adopt a different
pattern of operation, in which the owners of the capital asset also
managed freight conveyance on their corridors, and although carriers were
initially able to incorporate the new railways into their distribution
networks they were eventually pushed to the margins as the railway
companies consolidated and amalgamated, creating their own distribution
network that took over the long distance carrying trade.
John Hinks, University of Leicester,
The
Early Book Trade in England: Centres, Peripheries and Networks
Following the spread of the new technology of printing through Europe in
the late fifteenth century, the sixteenth century saw both the production
and distribution of printed books emerging as complementary trades.
Bookselling developed in a variety of ways in different local situations,
sometimes (but by no means always) continuing the older trade of
stationers selling manuscript books. In some places printer-booksellers
became the norm but elsewhere production and distribution developed as
separate trades. Although England lagged behind some parts of mainland
Europe in terms of book trade development, it did tend to follow the
continental pattern of a few towns emerging as key centres of both
production and distribution: mainly London, plus the university towns of
Oxford and Cambridge and, to some extent, York. This paper will argue that
the rest of the country beyond these centres should not be dismissed as
mere ‘periphery’ and suggests that a ‘network’ model more accurately
reflects the early development of wholesale and retail bookselling in
England. This paper arises from my preparation of an essay for a
forthcoming volume, Printed Culture and Provincial Cities in Early Modern
Europe, edited by Benito Rial Costas.
Ragnhild Hutchison, Norwegian University of Science and
Technology,
Internal market development on the outskirts of the early modern European
growth areas – the case of Norway ca 1750-1830
The
emergence of internal markets in Europe in the early modern period had
wide-reaching economic consequences, however most studies of internal
market formation have focused on economic leaders such and Britain or the
Netherlands. By looking at Norway between ca 1750 and 1830 this paper
seeks to increase our understanding of both how the process of internal
market formation could take place in countries on the outskirts of the
early modern economic growth area, and also how geography could impact on
this.
Claire
Jones, University of Warwick,
'Distribution Strategies within the Medical Trade: The British Medical
Trade Catalogue, 1880-1914'
By
the early years of the twentieth century, catalogues had become a main
method of product promotion within the medical trade. Often extending to
over five hundred pages, catalogues provided medical companies with a way
to promote their comprehensive product ranges in one conveniently bound
book. Catalogues were also a convenient way for medical practitioners to
order the tools, instruments and pharmaceuticals they required,
particularly for those based at a distance from the company premises.
Indeed, practitioners all over Britain and much of the world ordered
products from these catalogues. Yet, despite their evident importance for
both companies and practitioners, historians have largely neglected the
significance of medical trade catalogues. In fact, historians have
generally neglected the relationship between medicine and commerce
altogether. In this paper, I will examine companies’ catalogue
distribution strategies between 1880 and 1914, and will argue that
companies adopted these strategies because they were the most suitable
methods of promoting their products to the largest number and most elite
medical practitioners. I will examine catalogue distribution by post,
distribution at trade exhibitions and medical conferences and finally,
distribution by travelling salesmen. In conducting this analysis, I aim to
provide new insights into the dynamics between medicine and commerce
during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Rosalind Watkiss, University of Wolverhampton,
' “Off the back of a lorry”: the redistribution of goods in the post-war
Black Country'
During the post-war years crimes of theft were increasing as workers in
Black Country manufacturing industries ‘redistributed’ goods and raw
materials from their places of employment. In the three close-knit
communities of Pensnett, Sedgley and Tipton this was not perceived as
theft, or in any sense illegal, but as the rightful ‘perks’ of
employment. The appropriation of goods from impersonal institutions,
wealthy employers or government departments was viewed very differently to
taking goods from members of the local community. Offences were,
inevitably, clandestine in nature and their discovery did not necessarily
result in prosecution. Consequently, statistical evidence produces only a
partial view of criminal activities and court records reveal only those
who were apprehended and charged. However, using evidence from oral
interviews and newspapers it is possible to examine distribution methods
and the views of the distributors, receivers, the employers and the
judiciary in the period between 1945 and 1970. These reveal that crime was
condoned as a contingency against poverty, as method of “making a bit on
the side”, as a means of circumventing government controls and
redistributing wealth and goods from ‘them’ to ‘us’. |
