In the nineteenth century, courier services were indispensable for trade and communication between towns and villages. In 1849, Jan Hendrik Heijink (1816–1888) started a courier service between Aalten and Zutphen. Heijink owned a farm that still bears the same name and stands on Heijinkdijk, the road named after it. A cashbook from this service has survived. Reading it closely almost brings the past back to life.
Behind the small, yellowed handwriting, people emerge, providing an impression of life in the mid-19th century. One can envision the courier travelling with his wagon over the then largely unpaved roads of the Achterhoek. In the summer, when the sun shone abundantly, it sometimes seemed like a pleasure trip. But in winter, he was often exposed to rain and hail, and the journey sometimes led over muddy roads where the wheels sank deep into the wagon ruts.
Centre of Trade
One could see people bringing goods for transport: small entrepreneurs having their products transported to the ‘capital’ of the Achterhoek, and larger merchants delivering bales, packages, crates, and barrels to be transported further via Zutphen. Shopkeepers received bales of coffee, bags of salt, chests of tea, and barrels of stockfish, while prominent citizens had wine and books delivered in this manner.
In the mid-19th century, Zutphen was the most important city in the Achterhoek and a centre of trade and transport. From Zutphen, products from the Achterhoek were transported further towards the west of the country. At the same time, goods from the west arrived in Zutphen via the rivers.
Ledger
Heijink usually recorded a trip “To Zutphen” once a week. The distance between Aalten and Zutphen was approximately an eight-hour journey. At the end of the year, he prepared an overview of the costs associated with this service. Under the heading “Paid for travelling in 1849,” he regularly mentioned the costs of “sustenance” along the way:
“January 10 By me on journey 3.80; January 17 By me on journey 5.75; February 7 By me on Journey 7.00; February 12 By Me on Journey 10.21.”
These amounts are remarkably high in relation to the rates Heijink charged his customers. For example, he charged f 1.60 for the transport of five chests of tea, f 1.00 for “100 cans of oil,” and f 1.40 for a 360-pound barrel of syrup. Based on this, it is likely that he stayed overnight in Zutphen and only returned to Aalten the following day with a new load.
The horses also required feed, and sometimes the journey was made with two wagons. In such cases, “Jentink had to provide extra horses.” On other occasions, it was Hiddink or Drenthel. Heijink noted, for example:
“February 7 Jentink extra horses to Groenlo 1.20; February 19 Hiddink extra horses 1.00; Two wagons sustenance Oats on Journey 14.00; February 27 By me consumed and oats together 12.00.”
In addition, he naturally incurred other costs:
“January 5 Bussink reset two horseshoes 1.35; January 16 Bussink one pair of new shoes and one pair reset 0.85; January 20 For Bussink a pair of new hoops on the front wheels and on the small leathers and the wheels on the dump carts paid together 21.10; January 25 Hoopman Bros. a pair of new hoops on the rear wheels, crown bands, and for the rear bands paid together 25.50; March 5 Paid for a new cover on the wagon 0.50; For the making 0.50.”
The Middle Class
Heijink’s customers consisted largely of local tradespeople, which provides an interesting picture of the Aalten middle class in the mid-nineteenth century. Foodstuffs and household items formed the majority of the imported articles. Coffee and sugar were not yet delivered in packages of 250 or 500 grams, as they are today. These and other products were delivered in bales to the shopkeepers, who weighed the desired quantities for their customers themselves.
Below is a list of goods that Willem te Gussinklo, a shopkeeper on the Market square, had delivered by courier Heijink:
“March 7 5 Leyden cheeses; March 12 2 barrels of fish, 1 small chest of heifers (likely meaning: vases), 2 baskets of earthenware; March 16 2 bales of rice, 3 bales of coffee, 1 small barrel of raisins, 2 small baskets of figs; April 18 package of textiles; April 19 3 bags of linseed; April 25 1 barrel of sugar, 2 small baskets of rock candy, 1 barrel of currants, 2 bales of coffee, three packages of paper.”
Salt was delivered in bags, while syrup, oil, soda, laundry blueing, chicory, and soap were brought in barrels. Tobacco arrived in barrels as well as in bales, packages, or baskets. Notable is the mention of “3 straw bloaters”. It is possible that the bloaters, in a certain quantity or weight, were packed in straw.
Flax Cultivation and Rapeseed Oil
The importance of flax cultivation in this region is clearly evident from the large quantities of linseed that shopkeepers stocked in the spring of 1849: in March and April, this amounted to 27 bags and 3 barrels. For one of the customers, the weight of three bags is mentioned: five hundred pounds. Additionally, farmers would have harvested seeds from their own flax crops. The flax was sown in the spring and harvested in the summer. After the necessary processing, it was spun and then woven. Sheets and shirts were made from the best quality. When used for outer clothing, such as a jacket or smock, it was first dyed by the black or blue dyer.
Other products, which were delivered throughout the year, were rapeseed oil and patent oil, which was primarily used for lighting. Rapeseed oil also served as cooking fat, including for finger-thick buckwheat pancakes.
Customers
Manufacturer Heinrich Driessen used the courier service every week to bring in bales of cotton, yarn, potash, machinery and, from time to time, a cask of wine. Woven fabrics were taken to Zutphen for onward transport.
Heijink’s customers also included the Aalten surgeon and accoucheur Servaas van Leuven, who had goods transported such as “a small chest, a small basket, a small cask and a pound of corks”.
Shopkeepers
Among the principal customers were food retailers Willem te Gussinklo and his brother Bernardus Engelbartus te Gussinklo, Gerrit Willem Vaags, Bernardus Hendrikus Becking and Hendrikus Brethouwer, who often worked together with Burchard D.G. Muller.
It is not always easy to assign the delivered goods to the correct customers. Alongside Bernardus Hendrikus Becking, for example, the ledger also mentions Hendrik Jan Becking, as well as Becking Brothers and J. Becking. The cashbook often records only the surname.
The same applies to the name Vaags. Alongside Gerrit Willem Vaags, the ledger mentions ‘Draaijer’ Vaags and Lodewijk Vaags, but often simply ‘Vaags’. Lodewijk Vaags was a baker who lived at the beginning of Gasthuisstraat, now Haartsestraat. He received only flour, sometimes buckwheat flour. Another baker was Degenaar, who likewise received only flour. ‘Draaijer’ Vaags was a chair turner and regularly received bundles of rushes for reseating chairs.
Gerrit Willem Vaags: ‘Gerrit of Everything’
Gerrit Willem Vaags lived at the beginning of Dijkstraat. According to the family genealogy, he was known as a grain merchant, but also as ‘Gerrit van Alles’ — ‘Gerrit of Everything’ — a nickname reflecting the variety of goods he sold. The cashbook confirms this impression: among other things, he had Leiden cheeses, boxes of candles, bales of coffee, bundles of paper, casks of laundry blueing, a barrel of syrup, 400 rapeseed cakes, a basket of nails and a small basket of rock candy delivered. Pipes, potash, herbs, vinegar, tobacco, zinc wire, almanacs, corks and chicory were also part of his range. The nickname was therefore well deserved.
