136 Corn and Corn Products Trades 



carried it down the river and harbor, and, outside the customs limits, 

 met ocean-going ships onto which the wheat was transferred. This 

 trade was carried on to such an extent that the ballast discharged as 

 the corn was loaded on the latter ships was filling the channel and 

 havens of Kingrod and Hungrod to the ruin of their commerce. From 

 many references^ it appears that the lader was essentially a freighter 

 of vessels, and might or might not be master of the vessel used. His 

 function seems distinctly that of freight-forwarder. In this capacity 

 he was a buyer of corn to sell again, and a distinct middleman. 



Another excellent illustration of the operations of a lader is found 

 in Henry Best's method of seUing his "Doddread Wheate" in York- 

 shire in 1641. Samples of his wheat were sent by the salters (who 

 were going that way) to the ship-master (or lader) and the price de- 

 manded for the wheat was stated. If they could arrive at a sale, a 

 day was arranged for delivery of the wheat at a specified key. The 

 ■ lader then carried it to Newcastle or Cumberland for sale.- In this 

 case the transition of the lader to the merchant is very evident. 



D. Brogger. 



Brogger (brager, bragger, broger) appears etymologically to be a 

 corruption of broker,^ suggesting that his function was originally as 

 agent buyer for a principal. He was found in London in the thir- 

 teenth and fourteenth century. The corn-broker brought buyer and 

 seller together and acted as lawful witness of the sale; by an easy step 

 he acted as agent of one party or the other for a commission. The 

 city government regarded him with suspicion and laid many regula- 

 tions,^ Agency for strangers was interdicted. It was a function of 

 the Cornmongers' Mistery to elect the corn-brokers. But by the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century this characteristic of agency was 

 lost in the more general notion of corn-buyer and forestaller of the 

 market. Brokers in the period 1660-1760 were classified into three 

 classes, (a) brokers of exchange, (b) brokers of stocks, and (c) brokers 

 of merchandise.^ In each case broker has the sense of agent buyer, 

 and brogger falls more nearly under the last of the three classes. 



■■ See instances in Cart. Mon. de Ram., Ill, 146, 175, of the fourteenth centurj.-, 



-Surtees, 33:100. 



3 Stowe (1754 ed.), II, V, XV; cf. 25 Hen. VIII, Cap. 1. 



^ Lib. Alb. I, 315, 586, 587. 



^Hatton, Mer. Mag., 208. 



