Lanthandeln : En studie av den fasta handelns regionala utveckling i Västmanlands län 1864-1890

Sammanfattning: This thesis has studied rural retail trade in the county of Västmanland over the period 1864-1890. The investigation has focussed on three different districts with differing pre-conditions for the development of rural retail trade. The biggest differences were found to be between the industry dominated mining region and the region of open landscape dominated by agriculture. For example in the mining district there were both very large and small retail outlets, a variety of forms of ownership and retailers who specialised in certain kinds of products. The retailers were also comparatively younger when they established themselves in business and fewer of them came from towns. The forest region was characterised by forestry in combination with other occupations. Special features of the structure of the retail trade here were that the incomes from the trade were relatively homogeneous and that the traders were more likely to own property than in the other two regions. There were also more traders in relation to the size of the population. In the open landscape, agricultural district the traders were very similar with regard to income from their businesses and in that it took a comparatively long time before there were more than a few traders in the region. The traders were also older when they set up in business.