138 Corn and Corn Products Trades 



purchases of materials that were not to be immediately used in the 

 industry carried on by the purchaser himself, or consumed in his 

 household's sustenance.^ The only justification of a purchase was 

 that the purchaser intended at once to improve or fit for use the thing 

 bought, or else consume it in his household. The old ideal is stated 

 in a pamphlet- thus: 



Then is this Trade most Fair and Regular, when Provisions pass from the first 

 Producer of them to the last Consumer, through the hands of such Honest and 

 Lawful Dealers and Manufacturers only, as are requisite to fit them for Consump- 

 tion. Fairs and Markets are appointed as places of Resort or Rendezvous for the 

 Parties concern'd, in which to Meet and Treat for the better carr}ing on of this 

 mutual Exchange and Regular Circulation. Whoever therefore gets any of these 

 commodities into his hands, without making them more fit for Consumption than 

 they were before he had them, and without forwaiding them to that End; or who- 

 ever Diverts, Interrupts, or Molests any of those Meetings designed for this good 

 purpose in furnishing the Public with Provisions, is most certainly an Enemy to 

 this Trade, and consequently a Nuisance to his Country. 



The regulations exercised over the London corn and victual markets 

 and customary at the opening of the fifteenth century aimed at this 

 direct exchange between producer and consumer. The victuals 

 markets were limited to special parts of the streets lest they be a nui- 

 sance to passage. Corn-buyers, called in contemporary legal French 

 "bladdiers," who brought corn to the city to sell were not to sell by 

 show or sample. They were to come to certain places established 

 in the city with their carts laden, and with their horses having the 

 loads upon them, without selling anything or getting rid of anything 

 until they reached these established places, as Graschirche. No corn 

 was to be sold till six o'clock in the morning. All ships and boats that 

 brought corn to sell at Billingsgate and other riparian markets were 

 to remain one whole day upon common sale, without selling anything 

 in gross. This was done so that the common people could buy what 

 they needed for their sustenance. There were buyers and brokers of 

 corn in the city who bought of the country folks who had brought it 

 into the city to sell. These buyers seem to have paid only part 

 down, the rest on credit, and frequently dealt fraudulently; heav}- 

 penalties were inflicted for such frauds; the prevention of unfair deal- 

 ing was probably the chief reason for the open public market. Fore- 

 stalling w^as prohibited. Dealers, denizen or stranger, had to refrain 



iSee 4 Hen. VIH, Cap. 11; 22 Hen. VHI, Cap. 1; 5-6 Ed. VI, Cap. 7; .S-4Ed. 

 VI, Cap. 6; 5-6 Ed. VI, Cap. 15; 5 Eliz., Cap. 8; 27 Eliz., Cap. 16. 

 '"Essay against Forestallers," 22. 



