Middlemen in English Business 205 



siderable cheese through four or five centuries.^ A fair was held at 

 Ipswich, "a very considerable one for Butter and Cheese, to which 

 the whole Country round resort(ed), to furnish themselves with 

 Winter Stores" and "also many of the London Dealers in those 

 Commodities."- 



The Cheshire cheese was deUvered by the farmers at Chester, where 

 it was shipped directly to London, or at Frodsham, from which place 

 it was conveyed by way of Liverpool to the London market.^ In 1722 

 London was consuming, according to Defoe, 14,000 tons; this is more 

 than twice as much as Maitland reported: the figures are rough 

 estimates by these writers, and can only be thought of as indicati\T 

 of a large trade. Defoe also stated that 8000 tons more were dis- 

 tributed by way of the Severn and Trent, the former to Bristol, and 

 the latter to York, and the towns enroute. Considerable ciuantities 

 also went to Ireland and Scotland.'^ Shropshire, Staffordshire and 

 Lancashire also produced a surplus of cheese for market. The Cheshire 

 men carried the London cheese either "by long sea" around southern 

 England and up the Thames, or else "by land to Burton upon Trent, 

 and so down that River to Gainesborough and Hull, and so by Sea 

 to London." This divided route will in part explain the disparity of 

 Defoe's and Maitland's statistics. About 4000 tons went by this 

 way of Hull; during the wars when the sea-route by the EngUsh 

 Channel was dangerous the part going by the north and east route 

 was much larger.^ 



Gloucester cheese came by land-carriage to Lechdale and Crickdale 

 on the Thames and down this river.'' A big proportion of this county's 

 cheese was consumed in Bristol and Bath; these two cities also ex- 

 ported much to the West Indies." On the London market Wiltshire 

 cheese was known as Gloucestershire cheese. It was carried by 

 wagon to the Thames and by barge to the metropolis. Its spring 

 cheeses were very popular in the city during May and June. War- 

 wichshire had no water carriage nearer than by way of Oxford on the 

 Thames. So they carried it by land a hundred miles to London; the 

 London cheesemongers then distributed it by sea and river navigation 

 into Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. Or else they 

 carried it by land once a year to Stourbridge Fair, whence the shop- 

 keepers of all the inland counties bought it.^ Banbur>^ in Oxford 



' V. C. H., Essex, II, 370. " Defoe, Tour, II. 371; III, 9. 



"- Defoe, Tour, I, 36. « Ibid., II, 38. 



' HoUand, Survey of Cheshire, 31,S-6. ' Ibid., II, 38. 



' Defoe, Tour, II. 308-9. » Ibid., II, 371-2. 



