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How were goods shipped in the 18th and early 19th Centuries?

I don't mean shoved in a crate and dumped in a ship, but the details of how. When Lord Such and Such in Europe says to a servant "and have that vase sent to my wife", what happens then? How does the vase get from wherever  Lord Such and Such is in Europe to his wife in Castle Posh Nobs in England? There is no postal service beyond letters, so you can't just slap a label on it and drop it off at the local post office. So how does that servant post that vase? 

3 Answers

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  • User
    Lv 7
    6 months ago
    Favorite Answer

    I quote:

    Hill had raised the idea of creating a parcel post in the 1840s, but his dream wasn’t realised until 1883. Prior to that you could deliver packages privately by stagecoach, but it was the railway industry that dominated the delivery of parcels in the United Kingdom.

    So

    basically

    if you wanted a parcel delivered

    you had to pay someone who was "going that way" to transport it for you

    and the onus was on the transporter to deliver it to the intended recipient.

    Lord Such-and-such

    would likely have at his command carriages and/or horsemen and/or pages and/or possibly even ships (either military or transport)

    or the ability to pay a trader or other reputable itinerant who was traveling to the place he needed to send said package.

  • 6 months ago

    Easy. You just slapped a label on it and dropped it off at the local post office. Hope this helped.

  • KennyB
    Lv 7
    6 months ago

    Fundamentally, they employed shipping companies.  While the idea of FedEx had not been realized, there was a need and some enterprising people filled it.

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