Middlemen in English Business 235 



such as either burned it themselves or retailed it at a reasonable price/ 

 An irregular supply, however, coupled with a seasonable demand 

 which came from the poor and needy of London, made the execution 

 of this policy impossible and undesirable. There was a larger con- 

 sumption of coal in winter than summer, especially after it had become 

 the custom to burn it in fireplaces. On the contrary, the supply 

 came to the City altogether in the summer: the Ips\vich colliers, 

 though built with remarkable strength, did not hazard themselves 

 in winter seas, and not until about 1760 did coal begin to arrive by 

 winter shipping.- This contrariety of supply and demand was the 

 most essential condition occasioning the wholesale man, the coal 

 merchant or first buyer. The City had to depend on accumulated 

 supplies; the consumers became dependent on a middleman class 

 from whom they bought as exigencies of consumption required and as 

 their financial ability made it possible. By the most natural process 

 of differentiation, the larger and more competent of these middlemen 

 began to supply their less able colleagues wnth coal for retail selling: 

 the larger became wholesalers, the smaller remained retailers depend- 

 ent upon them; the former were called "first buyers," the latter 

 "dealers" or "small coal men." 



The "first buyer" bought entire cargoes upon the Coal Exchange 

 from the factors, and sold in broken bulk to several sorts of cus- 

 tomers, such as "loaders-on-account," "second buyers," i.e., sub- 

 wholesalers, and retailers, and those whose business had not become 

 highly specialized sometimes sold directly to consumers and house- 

 keepers. The first buyers, after they wxre permitted in 1730, acquired 

 craft of their own for unloading the ships.^ They bought usually on 

 28 or 30 days' credit.^ After 1730 all time payments were required 

 to be evidenced by promissory notes given by the first buyer and con- 

 taining the specific words, "Value received in Coals. "-^ When a 



^ 7 Ed. VI, Cap. 7, Sec. 5. The iiigrosseror forestaller of coal is met with in va- 

 rious parts of the Kingdom and at various times. Instance Nottingham in 1480. One 

 Thomas Marshall of Sandcliflfe "forestalled 4 wainloads of sea-coals, not allowing 

 those coals to be led and carried to the king's market in the town." Stevenson, 

 Rec. Boro. Nott., II, 421; V. C. H., Nott. II, 325, 328. Or again towards the close 

 of the seventeenth century, when it was alleged that the dealers accumulated such 

 large stocks as to hinder and forestall the market. Stevenson, op. cit., V. 



- The change may be determined by comparing Defoe, Tour, I, 33, and Rep. 

 from Com. H. C, X, 571. 



3 For the ownership of lighters in the latter part of the centurv see Rep. from 

 Com. H. C, X, 552. 



^ Ibid., 548. 



5 3 Geo. II, Cap. 26, Sec. 7. 



