Horse-drawn wagons/trade caravans

[Merlin34]

In my story, there's a part where the two protagonists barter passage with a trade caravan to get to a destination. My questions come up when talking about the horse-drawn wagons the caravan is composed of.

1) How large could a four-wheel horse-drawn cart be?
2) How much weight could, say, two horses pull?
3) How fast could they travel? How long would they spend traveling per day?

Thanks.

 

[CupofJoe]

There are a lot of things that can change the answers I'm going to guess at...
Some factors are external [weather, roads, terrain...].
Some are more internal [technology, materials...]
Some are sort of both [draught animals available, load to be carried, distance to be carried...]
but assuming about 1750-1850 technology and materials, horses to pull, fairly benign load and weather conditions, and a long distance to cover over fairly easy terrain; my guestimates would be
1) 15-18 ft long, 4-5ft wide [cargo of up to 2tonnes] - but that would probably need 4 horses for long distances.
2) a wagon and load of 1 tonne [about half of that cargo]
3) 0-20 miles [average at 12] depending on terrain and for about 6 hours each day [a slow walking pace plus times to stop and water/feed horses]

Farm and delivery wagons could go faster and carry more but for much shorter distances and probably not every day
.
In many places [North America, Southern Africa and Australia - that I know of] oxen were often preferred to horses for long distance draught work because they worked better slower [and if you were settling at the end - you could bring your cows with you...].
And [I think in much of North America] mules were often preferred to horses as well because they were better value [pound for pound] at draft work - but you'd look a bit silly riding them.

I'd be interested to see the guesstimates/knowledge of others, as I am not at all certain, this is just what I've read or worked out...

 

[SeverinR]

Time/technology period would adjust that too.
How they built the wagons made it easier to pull for the team, easier means ability to last longer, harder means the team needed to rest more.
There wasn't great advances in technology but every little bit helped.
Also roads would affect speed.
If you follow a trail or blaze your own, you will travel slower and stop sooner, because the team pulling the wagon will work harder then one pulling along a smooth road.
Prolonged rain will add to time, even the best unpaved roads were affected by alot of water. When the wheels sink in the mud it is harder to pull them out of the mud, and more slippery for the pullers.

I have seen quite a few mule riders that don't think they look silly at the fair.

 

[skip.knox]

All the cautions mentioned here are accurate and sensible. I'll add a specific example, taken from Marjorie Boyer's excellent 1951 article in Speculum.

The Earl of Derby went through southeastern France to Paris from 26 May to 22 June 1393. At first he travelled about 16 miles per day, but once he had detached from his baggage train, he was able to average 30 miles a day.

She provides many other 14thc examples in that article. I plan to do a blog post in a month or two on the topic.