The concept of ‘information costs’ has attracted attention as a means of understanding economic dynamics. In the early modern trade economy, the costs of maintaining business correspondence were an important part of information costs. In this article, the Swedish general postage tariff (used in 1693–1747) is analysed in order to reveal the geographic pattern of information costs, measured as postage. It is shown that central parts of Sweden benefited, including the iron-producing regions and its export harbours, while important trade ports in the eastern parts of the empire faced high costs even though Sweden claimed control over large parts of the Baltic Sea area up to 1721. Swedish correspondence with western and southern Europe carried lower costs than correspondence with eastern Europe. This was an effect of a tariff constructed on postage-per-distance and of letting profitable lines subsidise a dense, territorial postal network. Sea post became particularly expensive as the volume of letters was too small for effective use of the post ships' carriage capacity; this challenges the view that early modern commercial networks were connected by sea since transport on sea was superior to land-bound transport. Transfer of information was often better provided on land.
The article is one of the results of the research project The Seventeenth Century Media Revolution in the Baltic Area: Postal Service, News Service, News Consumers and the Postmasters, funded by Östersjöstiftelsen (The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies). I am especially indebted to Heiko Droste, David Gaunt, Mary Hilson, Pernilla Jonsson, Leos Müller and Silke Neunsinger for their helpful comments on the text.
10‘Underrättelse om postgången uti Kongl. Residencen Stockholm, med hosfogad Breftaxa’, and ‘Utdrag af Kongl. Maj:ts underskrefne Post-taxor och andra förordningar […]’, in Schmedeman, Förordningar (Citation1707), 77–181. About the deviations, see Swartling, ‘posttaxor’ (Citation1967), 27–28.
26Riksarkivet, Stockholm – Marieberg (RA): Kanslikollegiet, Skrivelser till Kungl. Maj:t, vol 1, 1656–1695, [Nya taxor för brevporto till städerna] 13 December 1692.
28One öre in silver coins was roughly equivalent to 1 English penny or 1 French Sous tournois or ½ Lübeck Shilling; 1 Hamburg Reichstahler≈67 (Swedish) öre, 1 Swedish daler = 32 öre silver coins, Edvinsson, Valutakurser (Citation2008). McCusker, Money (Citation1978).
29Lilja, Tjuvehål (Citation2000), 406, 415 (Tables 2 and 4).
30RA: Skrivelser [Nya taxor …] 13 December 1692. Carlin, Brevet (Citation1975), 8. Also analysed in: Swartling, ‘Moderation’ (Citation1961) and in Swartling, ‘posttaxor’ (Citation1967).
31Postjakt, from the Dutch Jacht: fast vessels, originally used for interception of ships along the Dutch coast.
32The price for a new yacht was estimated to be 33,500–40,200 öre, and 1,600–1,700 öre were needed monthly for its maintenance, extra costs for repairs of the yacht excluded, Rudbeck, Postverkets (Citation1933), 71. Simonson, ‘Swedish Empire’ (Citation2011), 89.
33Referred to in Winiwarter/Knoll, Umweltgeschichte (Citation2007), 220.
49RA: Kanslikollegium, Kontrollören J. Langes visitationsberättelser, vol. G 2 F:1, ‘Deduction […] Est- och Liflandh’, 15 March 1688, J. Lange. On Lange's mission, see Küng, ‘Lange's Inspection’ (Citation2011), 99–122.
50RA: Kanslikollegium, Kontrollören J. Langes visitationsberättelser, vol. G 2 F:2, Fasc. 1: ‘Langes relation angående postvisitation i Pommern och Wismar, 1694’, fol. 10 pp.
52Smith, Rates of Postage (Citation1917), 9, 13, 60–61, 79–80.
53An Amsterdam correspondent using the Post Office of the United Provinces paid 3–5 Stuyver (4–6 öre), Overvoorde, Geschiedenis (Citation1902), Appendix 3 (1612) and Appendix 4 (1735). The French tariff from 1676 rated 2 sous (2 öre) postage on distances less than 25 leagues (ca. 100 km) up to 5 sous on distances over 80 leagues; at the London post office after 1660, the postage for a single letter was 2 d (2 öre) within 80 miles (ca. 128 km) and 3 d above 80 miles; postage to Ireland was 6 d, see: Smith, Rates of Postage (Citation1917), 80–81. Appendix A, 336–337.
56Evans/Rydén, ‘Iron’ (Citation2007), 194, 198. Florén/Rydén, Arbete (Citation1992), 92–95, 102.
57Several Swedish economic historians have studied the role of social networks in economic performance in recent years, see Simonson, ‘Virtual Communities’ (Citation2009), 392–395.
59RA: Skrivelser till Kungl. Maj:t [Nya taxor …] 13 December 1692.
60Carlin, Brevet (Citation1975), 79–87; compare the list on the revenue 1703–1720 in: RA: Tidöarkivet, Manuskriptsamlingen, vol. 504, Acta No 58, ‘Inkomster wid Påstawäsendet så och Betalte som fribref belöpe för underskrefne åhr, neml. […]’.
61Smith, Rates of Postage (Citation1917), 15–16, 71.
62The postage from Copenhagen to the nearby Roskilde was 4 shilling, and it was 12 shilling to Hamburg, Madsen, Postværk (Citation1991) 267, 313.
63RA: Skrivelser till Kung. Maj:t [Nya taxor …] 13 December 1692, pp. 102–104.
71Innis, Empire (Citation2007/1950), 164–197. McLuhan, Gutenberg (Citation1962). See also, McCusker, who puts ‘better, faster, cheaper’ in a chronological sequence, where ‘faster and cheaper’ only developed in the nineteenth and twentieth century, McCusker, ‘Demise’ (Citation2005), 298, 318–319.
73There are a number of surviving post journals (postprotokoll) scattered in Post Office's archives, where departing post where recorded with weight of letter, destination, fee and the name of the sender. I have used them to reveal the geographic pattern of aggregate correspondence networks for some towns (Avesta, Reval, Stralsund), but not for a sociological study of senders. Simonson, ‘Virtual Communities’ (Citation2009), 408–409.
81On the first international agreements on tariffs in 1874, see Smith, Rates of Postage (Citation1917), 263–274.
82RA: Kanslikollegium, G 2 F:2, ‘relation angående postvisitation i Pommern och Wismar, 1694’, fol. 6, 9.
83RA: Kanslikollegium, G 2 F:2, ‘Nachricht, An welche Oerter aus der Churfürstl. Brandenburg. Residens Berlin, Briefe bestellen werden können, und was dafür an Brief-porto gegeben werden muß […]’, Friedrich/Eberhard von Danckelmann, sine anno, in Allegata N:o 69, fol. 187.
85v. Stephan/Sautter, Geschichte (Citation1928), 94.
86Notification huru porto upbäras skal för dhe til och ifrån uthrikes orter gångande och kommande bref, 9 January 1703, published in Schmedeman, Förordningar (Citation1707), 32.
87RA: Kanslikollegium, G 2 F:1, ‘Deduction […] Est- och Liflandh’, 15 March 1688, J. Lange. fol. 5r.
88RA: Kanslikollegium, G 2 F:2, ‘Nachricht, […]’, Friedrich/Eberhard von Danckelmann, sine anno, fol 187; v. Stephan/Sautter, Geschichte (Citation1928), 127.
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, (
The Northern World 3
),
Leiden/Boston/Köln
:
Brill
.
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