<p>The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to an increased understanding of the underlying conditions for the development of a domestic market for consumer goods by studying how the distribution of goods between the town and the countryside in the county of Hälsingland, Sweden, was organized during the first half of the 19th century. The thesis has analyzed the different kinds of persons involved in the distribution of goods, their functions and mutual relations. In order to examine how the trade was organized on the individual level, a case study of one Hudiksvall merchant’s trading business has been done. This has made possible an analysis of how the two-way trade carried on by the majority of the merchants in the region was organized. In broad outline, this trade involved the merchants purchasing linen goods in the countryside for further selling in Stockholm and other markets on the one hand, and on the other purchasing different kinds of consumer goods in these markets to sell in the countryside of Hälsingland.</p><p>The conclusion drawn from this study is that the conditions for distributing goods really were in a phase of change, where the possibilities of carrying out trade gradually increased, which meant that different kinds of trade and different kinds of traders operated side by side.</p><p>Furthermore, the trade was in many aspects less hierarchic and more horizontally organized than has been suggested by previous research. The individual merchant’s business depended on other traders, where the individuals involved in different ways played a very concrete role in the success of each merchant’s business. This means that the relationship between different traders was characterized by both competition and co-operation. Sometimes merchants engaged other merchants as middlemen on remote markets; on other occasions they took the middleman’s role in relation to other merchants. </p>

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to an increased understanding of the underlying conditions for the development of a domestic market for consumer goods by studying how the distribution of goods between the town and the countryside in the county of Hälsingland, Sweden, was organized during the first half of the 19th century. The thesis has analyzed the different kinds of persons involved in the distribution of goods, their functions and mutual relations. In order to examine how the trade was organized on the individual level, a case study of one Hudiksvall merchant’s trading business has been done. This has made possible an analysis of how the two-way trade carried on by the majority of the merchants in the region was organized. In broad outline, this trade involved the merchants purchasing linen goods in the countryside for further selling in Stockholm and other markets on the one hand, and on the other purchasing different kinds of consumer goods in these markets to sell in the countryside of Hälsingland. The conclusion drawn from this study is that the conditions for distributing goods really were in a phase of change, where the possibilities of carrying out trade gradually increased, which meant that different kinds of trade and different kinds of traders operated side by side. Furthermore, the trade was in many aspects less hierarchic and more horizontally organized than has been suggested by previous research. The individual merchant’s business depended on other traders, where the individuals involved in different ways played a very concrete role in the success of each merchant’s business. This means that the relationship between different traders was characterized by both competition and co-operation. Sometimes merchants engaged other merchants as middlemen on remote markets; on other occasions they took the middleman’s role in relation to other merchants.