Middlemen in English Business 241 



miner might with the consent of the king's gaveller dig for iron ore or 

 coal where he pleased within the bounds of the forest Dean whether 

 on the royal demesne or on the lands of private persons.^ The result 

 of this freedom was small-scale, individualistic production and the 

 dispersion of the industry. The result of the dispersion was to make 

 each section quite self sufficing, to prevent any well-defined directions 

 in the trade, and to check the rise of middlemen since trade was direct 

 from producer to consumer. 



Two lines of public policy also restrained the rise of middlemen 

 dealing in iron. One is illustrated by an ordinance of York, 1417, 

 which was meant to keep the girdlers' trade within that town. "Na 

 man of the gyrdeler-crafte (was to) passe oute of this cite unto na 

 market but alanely unto cried opyn faires to sell any girdeles by 

 retaile or holesale within the space of xxxii mile."- The effect of 

 this enactment was to limit the points of the market and to make the 

 out-of-town sales periodic; both of which facts made it more easy for 

 the manufacturer to do his own marketing. The other policy was 

 that very common one which required every handler of a ware to 

 transform that ware before selling it again. In this case smiths were 

 forbidden to buy un wrought iron and sell it again "in lyke manner 

 and fourme, not altered, converted, wrought and made in manner and 

 fourme accordinge to theire scyence."^ The smiths were rather 

 manufacturers than middlemen. 



The "iron age" was really born of the eighteenth and nineteenth 

 century inventions for mining, smelting and transporting iron and 

 coal.* The volume of the trade in iron did not generally require 

 middlemen before the Industrial Revolution. During the seventeenth 

 century the iron miners either had small furnaces of their own for 

 smelting or else disposed of their ore to proprietors of furnaces. "The 

 proprietors of the furnaces chiefly disposed of their pig-iron to the 

 owners of forges which were settled at several places where water 

 power, as well as charcoal was abundant."^ In Gloucester a miner 

 was forbidden to own a smithy.'' The miners had a monopoly of the 

 carriage of ore and coal but the number of their horses was limited to 

 four and wagons were forbidden.'' The miners' and smiths' operations 

 were limited by the poor credit facilities that existed. The mining 

 and manufacturing were seasonal and credit was needed during the 



1 V. C. H.. Glouces. II, 221. 5 y q h., Shrop. T, 460. 



-' V. C. H., York, II, 390. « V. C. H., Glouces. II, 224. 



' Selden, XIV, 93. ' Ibid., 223, 228, 229. 

 * Galloway, 101-3. 



