CHAPTER II. 



Middlemen in the Corn and Corn Products Trade. 



The study of the middlemen handling corn and corn products 

 covers a greater geographical part of England than the study of the 

 dealers handling any other commodity. Of all the products of 

 English soil corn was the most universally raised. Except for some 

 minor parts, as the fens, the heaths, the mountains of Wales, etc., 

 nearly every farm was in part devoted to corn. Being so closely 

 linked with the food supplies, e\'ery farmer sought to produce enough 

 at least for his household's consumption, and where opportunity of 

 market existed he turned the surplus into the hands of the middle- 

 men, on its w^ay to consumers who were not producers and who resided 

 principally in the cities and larger towns, or abroad. 



The most characteristic phase of the general industry of England in 

 the period, 1660 to 1760, antedating the Industrial Revolution, was 

 the meager local specialization. By 1760 a few centers in Lancashire 

 and Yorkshire had specialized at textile manufacturing to the degree 

 that they gave over, comparatively speaking, agriculture and so de- 

 voted themselves to manufacturing as to become dependent upon 

 adjacent districts for corn supplies. In other parts, as in the West of 

 England and Norfolk, where manufacturing had long been seated, 

 the specialization had not become so intense, and sufficient food-prod- 

 ucts were produced among the manufacturers to supph- themselves. 



The geographical distribution of the corn-producing regions in the 

 century preceding the Industrial Revolution is presented in the 

 accompanying table. ^ It is indicated that nearly every county had 

 corn in the list of its products, and in many it was the chief crop. 

 The counties of the South, the East, the Thames, the Severn and the 

 Trent embrace the generality of the corn-area. The Thames district 

 was particularly rich in corn. It was an age when agriculture was 

 undergoing a revival after the Civil Wars and a transformation in the 

 technical processes of cultivation and in the variety of crops; but if 

 the testimonies of these observers can be trusted the corn area abided 

 about the same throughout the century. 



^ See Appendix. 



130 



