Organising the distribution of goods to country houses in Germany and England, c.1740–1800

The growing range and quantity of goods consumed by eighteenth-century householders did not just appear at the customer's house, yet we know remarkably little about the routes, processes and costs of transporting them between the (work)shop and the home. In this article, we start to address this lacuna through comparative analysis of consumers from the land-owning elite in Germany and England whose archives offer invaluable insights into how the many and varied things they consumed arrived at their country residences. Drawing on correspondence, bills and account books, we discuss the ways in which different goods were packaged for transportation, the choices made in terms of the mode and route by which goods were carried, the role of agents in cities, and the costs that all of these incurred for the householder. Bringing together an analysis of Germany and England allows us to assess the common concerns and processes involved in moving purchases to the customer's house. These commonalities are apparent despite differences in retail networks, local state involvement, topography and geography. Overall, we argue that both countries had systems of logistics that were well integrated and allowed for the (generally) safe movement of consumers goods, often over long distances.