Middlemen in English Business 145 



Others (farmers) bring only Parcels of Corn in a Bag or Handkerchief, which 

 are called Samples; and these are expos'd, perhaps, in private Houses, to a few 

 Jobbers or Engrossers.^ 



Carrying grain to a market where buyers were contingent and sales 

 unsure or even forced by the expense of carrying it home again, and 

 carrying it to a market and past possibly the very man's door who 

 might buy it, were foolish operations, viewed in the light of ease and 

 savings accruing by the device of sales by samples. Farmers having 

 grain to sell needed only to carry a small sample of the grain to market 

 and make known the quantity they had to sell like the sample; when 

 buyers had been found, the delivery was done with less expenditure 

 of effort and time. 



The method naturally lent itself to large buying. Defoe describes 

 the tendency about 1740 thus: 



The factor looks on the sample, asks his price, bids and then buys; and away they 

 go together to the next inn, to adjust the bargain, the manner of delivery, the 

 pavTiient, etc.; thus the whole bam, or stack, or mow of corn, is sold at once.- 



Large buyers thus had a vast advantage after 'sample' sales were 

 devised: heretofore a load or two, which the farmer could bring up to 

 market, constituted the maximum sale, and most buyers were able to 

 buy; but now the farmer would prefer a buyer who could take all he 

 had to sell rather .than bargain with many small buyers; and if a small 

 buyer wanted to buy he had to pay more than the larger.^ 



Selling by samples was chiefly carried on in those market-towns 

 which were at a small distance from London, or at least from the river 

 Thames, such as Romford, Dartford, Grayes, Rochester, Maidstone, 

 Chelmsford, Maiden, Colchester, Ipswich, Morgate and Whitstable. 

 By 1750 it was quite the general practice and even very "small mar- 

 kets" like Lamborne and Kingscleer sold "a large quantity of corn by 

 sample."^ Each of these markets presented an appearance at odds 

 \vith the accustomed corn-market. Instead of the vast numbei; of 

 horses and wagons of corn on market day, there were crowds of 

 farmers, with their samples, and buyers such as mealmen, millers, 

 bakers, corn-buyers, brewers, etc., thronging the market; and on the 

 days between markets the farmers carried their corn to the hoys and 



"■ "Essay against Forestallers," 20. 



-Defoe, Com. Eng. Tr., II, 181. The practice is well described by one Lcch- 

 mere in the House of Commons; see Pari. Hist., Vol. 32, 237. 

 3 V. C. H., Oxford, II, 203. 

 < Pococke, II, 50, 58. 



