CHAPTER HI. 



Middlemen in the Animal and Animal Products Trades. 



distribution. 



Corn excepted, cattle were the most general product of English 

 agriculture. Not only were the grass lands, as the moors, fens, and 

 mountainous parts, devoted to cattle and sheep raising, but these 

 animals engaged a part of the economy of every farm wherever sit- 

 uated. The wide distribution of cattle raising is indicated in the 

 tabular display of the various counties' products appended to the 

 previous chapter. In nearly every county the reporters in these 

 several years found cattle a leading product. The distribution of 

 sheep was the same as that of wool described in another chapter.^ 

 The total yearly breed and the total stock in England and Wales 

 about 1700 is shown by the following table :'- 



Animal Yearly breed Total slock 



Beeves, etc 80,000 4,500,000 



Sheep, lambs, etc 3,600,000 12,000,000 



Swine, pigs, etc 1,300,000 2.000,000 



In consequence of this wide dispersion and the plenty of each farm, 

 the movement of cattle, sheep and meat, effected by the dealers' 

 organization, was toward the town and city consumer, and toward 

 the exporter. Of the former, London was the grand objective; every 

 part of the isle of Great Britain contributed to the supply of this city, 

 even the distant parts of Scotland.^ England did not export meats 

 especially. Bristol and Liverpool in their West India trade sent out 

 small quantities; but on the whole England was in need of the importa- 

 tion rather than the exportation of her animal products. Much 

 agitation arose in times of dearth and high prices for the repeal of 

 the laws prohibiting the importation of Irish meat cattle. The 

 EngUsh graziers bought many cattle in Wales. Pococke notes the 

 great cattle-markets, for example, at Cadvestone.'* 



^ See Chapter V. 



- Davenant, on Trade, Works, II, 219. 



^Anderson, Origin, III, 468; Defoe, Tour, I, 69; Postlethwaite, s. v. British 

 Empire. 



* Pococke, II, 200. 



187 



