Before there were telephones, how did multinational companies in the 17th century gather data to make business decisions?

Question

Before there were telephones, how did multinational companies in the 17th century gather data to make business decisions?

In: Economics

Answer 1

Slowly. Via letters that would take days, or even weeks to cross an ocean. There was a period between the 17th century and the telephone’s invention when the telegraph was widely used. However, that could still take a considerable amount of time to get through to its destination, especially if the message was incorrectly routed or became indecipherable because of transmission conditions.