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The Death of a Salesman? Reconfiguring Economic Exchange in Swedish Post-War Food Distribution

How are economic orders established? Is there any point in singling out market exchange from other forms of exchange, or indeed, from social interaction at large? And if so, what is specific about markets? Is it the calculations that forego the transactions, or the type of transactions performed? This chapter addresses the close relationships between economic calculations, economic transactions, and economic agencies, all of which can be observed as part of economic ordering processes. This task will be accomplished through a detailed account of the introduction of the Hakon deal, a rationalization programme purporting to ‘economize’ the economic exchanges between a wholesaler, the Swedish firm Hakonbolaget, and its customers within the food retail trade in the late 1940s. The purpose of this programme was to realize a market without salesmen by introducing a mode of transacting based on written orders filled out by the retailers using a pre-printed goods catalogue. The account shows how the process of putting the new system into place was intimately connected to transformations in calculative practices. After presenting the empirical case, the chapter addresses three specific issues concerning the interrelation between calculative practices and economic organizing. First, I revisit the classic argument put forward by Coase concerning the transition between different economic orders. Based on the case, I argue that neither the available alternatives, nor the methods of calculating their respective benefits can be assumed at the outset of an inquiry into a process of economic organizing. Second, I critically assess the existing preoccupation with defining the market as a starting point for such (social scientific) inquiries. I argue that, despite appearances, the present case is not about de-marketization. Third, I discuss the practical shaping of calculative agencies, suggesting that there is a simultaneous paucity and abundance of such agencies, a paradox which is an important facet of the shaping of economic orders.