Across the Oceans: Development of Overseas Business Information Transmission 1815-1875
Across the Oceans: Development of Overseas Business Information Transmission 1815-1875 by Seija-Riitta Laakso
English | Dec. 1, 2006 | ISBN: 9517469047 | 459 Pages | PDF | 7 MB
English | Dec. 1, 2006 | ISBN: 9517469047 | 459 Pages | PDF | 7 MB
The origins of this work go back to Italia ‘98, an international philatelic exhibition in Milan, where a well-known French dealer happened to have a box of old letters on his desk. Two of these letters appeared to be especially interesting. They were business correspondence, sent from New York to August Martell in Cognac, France, in the late 1820s, by the ships France and Charlemagne. At that time, all overseas mail was carried across the oceans by sailing ships. A further examination of these two letters opened up a new world to me. The France and the Charlemagne were American sailing packets on regular line service between New York and Havre. As will be noticed in this study, the idea of ‘sailing on schedule’ instead of general merchant shipping was one of the most important conditions for the development of business information transmission, whether conducted by sail or by steam.