Anglo-Swedish scholarly correspondence from the mid-eighteenth century contains repeated mentions of two merchants, Abraham Spalding and Gustavus Brander. The letters describe how these men facilitated the exchange of knowledge over the Baltic Sea and the North Sea by shipping letters, books and other scientific objects, as well as by enabling long-distance financial transactions. Through the case of Spalding and Brander, this article examines the material basis for early modern scholarly exchange. Using the concept of logistics to highlight and relate several mercantile practices, it examines ways of making scholarly knowledge move, and analyses merchants' potential motives for offering their services to scholarly communities. As logisticians in the Republic of Letters, these merchants could turn their commercial infrastructure into a generator of cultural status valid in both London and Stockholm. Using mercantile services, scholarly knowledge could in turn traverse the region in reliable, cost-effective and secure ways. The case of Spalding and Brander thus highlights how contacts between scholarly communities intersected with other contemporary modes of transnational exchange, and it shows how scholarly exchange relied on relationships based on norms different from the communalism often used to characterize the early modern Republic of Letters. Thus the article suggests new ways of studying early modern scholarly exchange in practice.

中文翻译：

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文人共和国的后勤：早期现代学术知识流通的商业暗流

十八世纪中叶的英瑞学术通信中反复提到了两位商人，亚伯拉罕·斯伯丁和古斯塔夫·布兰德。这些信件描述了这些人如何通过运送信件、书籍和其他科学物品以及实现长途金融交易来促进波罗的海和北海的知识交流。本文通过斯伯丁和布兰德的案例，考察了近代早期学术交流的物质基础。使用物流的概念来突出和关联几种商业实践，它研究了使学术知识流动的方法，并分析了商人向学术社区提供服务的潜在动机。作为文学共和国的后勤人员，这些商人可以将他们的商业基础设施变成在伦敦和斯德哥尔摩都有效的文化地位的发生器。使用商业服务，学术知识可以反过来以可靠、具有成本效益和安全的方式在该地区传播。因此，斯伯丁和布兰德的案例突出了学术团体之间的接触如何与其他当代跨国交流模式相交，并表明学术交流如何依赖于基于规范的关系，而这些规范不同于通常用来描述早期现代文学共和国特征的社区主义。因此，本文提出了在实践中研究早期现代学术交流的新方法。具有成本效益和安全的方式。因此，斯伯丁和布兰德的案例突出了学术团体之间的接触如何与其他当代跨国交流模式相交，并表明学术交流如何依赖于基于规范的关系，而这些规范不同于通常用来描述早期现代文学共和国特征的社区主义。因此，本文提出了在实践中研究早期现代学术交流的新方法。具有成本效益和安全的方式。因此，斯伯丁和布兰德的案例突出了学术团体之间的接触如何与其他当代跨国交流模式相交，并表明学术交流如何依赖于基于规范的关系，而这些规范不同于通常用来描述早期现代文学共和国特征的社区主义。因此，本文提出了在实践中研究早期现代学术交流的新方法。