If you want to get a package to someone in Edinburgh and you live in Stoke on Trent the options are vast. There are so many courier carriers and means of transport to get it there you could even just take it yourself. Go back some 200 and 300 years ago and your options were severely limited. Stoke is a town in the Midlands so the only option that you had was overland and this was fraught with dangers. You could use the stage coach but that would risk damage to the package. The roads at the time were nothing but tracks that were heavily affected by the weather.
The other problem was if it got stolen. The regions of Cumbria, Northumberland on the English side and Dumfries and Galloway with Borders on the Scottish side were notoriously lawless and ruled by the powerful Reiver gangs and families who considered anything that passed through as fair game for them to take.
As Britain became a much more lawful society the modern world began to provide the answer. The railways were truly a revolution to the islands. The ability to travel great distances for business and pleasure were suddenly in the grasp of the populace. Stoke would have been served by both Railway and Canal making it a manufacturing hub for pottery. Nowadays we’d just use a van. You can make sure that vehicle chevrons from Chapter 8 Chevrons will make sure that van can be seen at night as it makes the trip.
