British agents of Norwegian enterprises.

In 1865 Hjula Weavery made a small equipment purchase from the Glasgow firm of William Hunter & Co., whose invoice heading described them as ‘Machinery Merchants, Agents and Mill Furnishers’. What was entailed by this agency activity, and what was its significance for the diffusion of British technology to Norway? We have seen in the previous chapter that a large number of British textile engineers were potentially available as suppliers to the Norwegian textile industry. On the one hand this implies that the supply side of the machinery market was competitive, which would of course offer advantages to potential customers. But in order to take advantage of the competitive situation, foreign customers would require – at the very least – knowledge of the equipment alternatives, and this might entail considerable effort in seeking and evaluating information on the prices and performance of such equipment. Presumably for Norwegian entrepreneurs the time and effort involved would at worst have been impossible (since it would have meant spending an inordinate amount of time in England away from their enterprises), and at best would imply significant transactions costs. Halvor Schou, who appears to have visited Britain almost every year, pointed to the ‘expense and trouble to go over’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]