Middlemen in English Business 131 



The present concernment is with the surplus only above the local 

 consumption. Since the rural communities were essentially self-suffi- 

 cient, this surplus did not, could not find a local market. Two outlets 

 were open. One was exportation abroad; the other was the supply 

 of the great cities, especially London. The study, therefore, is to 

 trace the surplus corn from the raiser to (a) the purchaser abroad, or 

 (b) the consumer in the great city London. One other phase suggests 

 itself — part of this corn may be stopped enroute and manufactured 

 into a corn product: this product and further sub-products are to be 

 traced to the final consumer. 



CORN AS A WARE. 



Corn has many valuable qualities as a ware of commerce. It lends 

 itself readily, except for weight, to transportation; it is ver>' divisible, 

 is durable, and has little tare. Accordingly, wherever any surplus corn 

 finds tolerable means of transportation, it is carried to market. Its 

 cost of carriage will be comparatively low. Its price will be more 

 uniform over any area where communication exists than the price of 

 most commodities. It can be warehoused; consequently when a 

 system of business and of middlemen capitalists have arisen, there may 

 be expected to be a more evenly supplied market and more constant 

 prices. It can be graded and standardized, or samples can easily be 

 carried to market : hence there may be anticipated a separation of the 

 market into two parts, viz. the buying and selling place, and the place 

 where the grain is actually handled. It is a prime necessity of life, 

 and universally so; yet it is subject to the whims of the weather, its 

 droughts and bumper crops; the dearth of one year must be equalized 

 with the abundance of another: wherefore there isa pecuUar fitness and 

 opportunity for a speculative middleman. These various qualities—^ 

 ease of handling in bulk, durability in storage, grading and classifi- 

 cation, extensive demand, fluctuating supply but uniform demand — 

 make corn especially subject to speculation, and occasion a class of 

 specialized speculative traders in corn. 



MARKETS. 



In the manorial period the market for the surplus produce of the 

 manor was somewhat peripatetic. The lord and his retinue moved from 

 part to part and consumed in situ his portion. Besides this method of 

 ambulatory consumption certain carrying services were required of 

 manorial tenants.^ Chief of these was the "averagium ad hospitium'" 



^ Ashley, Ec. Hist. 44-5; Neilson, 19; Domesday of. St. Paul, XLI et seq. 



