How did information travel throughout Western Europe in the 1700's without telephones, cell phones, IM'ing, or the internet?

Answer: Coffee Houses

Coffee was first introduced to Western Europe through street vendors and apothecaries of Venice and Milan as a medicine to be chewed and not brewed. The effects of caffeine were recognized for increasing mental capacity and to prolong alertness. For this reason coffee became the favorite drink of that day’s version of the ‘information worker’, i.e., clerks, merchants, businessmen and government bureaucrats.

Merchants soon recognized that a coffee house would be an attractive alternative to the alcohol-serving pubs of the day. The first coffee houses open in England around 1650 and quickly spread to Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna and throughout Germany. By1700 there were over an estimated 2,000 coffee houses that served as the center of information, rumors, gossip and education in London. Another coffee house was located near London’s Royal Exchange and eventually became the London Stock Exchange. Eventually coffee houses became associated with specific subjects. The Grecian attracted those interested in philosophy, Button’s specialty was literature and Slaughter’s became the hub for chess.

The personality of the coffee house conformed to its location. The coffee house closest to the docks attracted ships’ captains, sailors, merchants and the underwriters who insured the ships. At these coffeehouses one could have free access to daily news of the maritime, world news affecting cargo and even conduct auctions of ships and cargo. Underwriters began to rent booths at a coffee house started by Edward Lloyd and eventually formed the Society of Lloyd’s, better known as Lloyd’s of London.

So the networks of communication took root in the early coffee houses. The social and intellectual interaction created an atmosphere of collective discussion that eventually led to innovation and new business opportunities.

These coffee houses also acted as the poor man’s university. Lectures and the social meeting of prominent individuals such as Sir Isaac Newton were common.

Not much different than today’s Internet, minus the social interaction. But one thing is constant, that cup of coffee on the desk or table!