<P> In 1498, the publisher Aldus Manutius of Venice printed a catalogue of the books he was printing . In 1667, the English gardener, William Lucas, published a seed catalogue, which he mailed to his customers to inform them of his prices . Catalogues spread to colonial America, where Benjamin Franklin is believed to have been the first cataloguer in British America . In 1744 he produced a catalogue of sold scientific and academic books . </P> <P> The Welsh entrepreneur Pryce Pryce - Jones set up the first modern mail order in 1861 . Starting off as an apprentice to a local draper in Newtown, Wales, he took over the business in 1856 and renamed it the Royal Welsh Warehouse, selling local Welsh flannel . </P> <P> The establishment of the Uniform Penny Post in 1840, and the extension of the railway network, helped Pryce - Jones to eventually turn his small rural concern into a company with global renown . In 1861, Pryce - Jones hit upon a unique method of selling his wares . He distributed catalogues of his wares across the country, allowing people to choose the items they wished and order them via post; he would then dispatch the goods to the customer via the railways . It was an ideal way of meeting the needs of customers in isolated rural locations who were either too busy or unable to get into Newtown to shop directly . This was the world's first mail order business, an idea which would change the nature of retail in the coming century . </P> <P> The further expansion of the railways in the years that followed allowed Pryce Jones to greatly expand his customer base and his business grew rapidly . He supplied his products to an impressive variety of famous clientele, including Florence Nightingale and Queen Victoria, the Princess of Wales and royal households across Europe . He also began exporting drapery to the US and British colonies . </P>

How did mail order catalogs help in more rural areas of the country
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