mail orders in the 1800s
Natalie Gross
Mr. Roddy
IHSS
26 April 2022
Mail Orders
In the 1800s, people couldn't just go online and order what they wanted from a website. So what they could do was look at mail-order catalogs and mail in a letter saying what you wanted. The mail back then, though, was not the same speed as it was now. The letters could be delivered by horse or by train depending on how far away it was being sent, so it would travel 4-5 miles per hour by horse and 9ish miles per hour by train. Then, once the letter was received, the company would have to process the order, and then it would have to be shipped back for the customer to receive. Due to the length of time it took to receive the items, it wasn't the most popular way of buying things, but it was still used by many. The way people talk about online ordering makes it sound like it wasn't a thing before. But now that I have looked into it, while it wasn't online ordering, it was still mail ordering from a catalog, so it's not like it is some sort of super new invention for lazy people. I thought that researching this was very interesting and provided a new perspective on things and an appreciation for how fast things come in the mail nowadays.
Comments
Post a Comment