Middlemen in English Business 313 



Of course, this proper business had no middleman quality; but as 

 early as 1692 it was said that it had been "usual for a considerable 

 Merchant to leave the buying of four or five hundred Cloths to a con- 

 siderabe Packer, and take his account made up to his hand;"^ that is, 

 the packer acted as factor for the merchant and bought his cloth. At 

 the same time complaint was laid to the effect that the cloths were 

 no sooner entered the Blackwell Hall and pitching charges paid, than 

 they were carried directly to the packer's house.- It was claimed that 

 there was a greater business in merchants' cloth done at the packer's 

 house than at the Hall and that since only the packer's friends were 

 admitted opportunity existed for a damaging monopoly.^ These 

 allegations were likely exaggerations of occasional practices, and indi- 

 cate evasions of the Blackwell Hall regulations. In another direc- 

 tion, the packers expanded their business assuming the office of 

 merchant and some of them were "large Adventurers in the exporta- 

 tion" of EngHsh manufactures.'* The simple craft of packing cloth, 

 in these ways, acquired a considerable middleman characteristic. 



Travelling Merchant. 



It has been stated that one class of buyers at the great Cloth Fair 

 at Leeds was the travelling merchants. These were a class peculiar 

 to the northern manufacturing section and were often called the 

 "Manchester Men." They were wholesale merchants (more prop- 

 erly, tradesmen). There was a demand all over England for the 

 cheaper cloths — kerseys, cottons, as well as the other manufactures 

 such as cutlery, hardware, clocks, almanacs, etc., which were made 

 in the north, and the Manchester Men acted as distributors to the 

 shopkeepers of the Island. Throughout the century under particular 

 study this system was in operation. In a pamphlet dating from 

 about 1685 it was spoken of, as a thing accustomed, that "the Man- 

 chester Men, the Sheffield-men, and many others .... do 

 Travel from one Marker-Town to another; and there at some Inn do 

 profer their Wares to sell to the Shopkeepers of the Place. "^ They 

 sold wholesale to shops, warehousekeepers, and to country chapmen 

 at this date. 



'^" Clothiers Complaint," 5. 



2 Ibid., 14. 



3 Ibid., 16. 



^Campbell, 201; Yarranton, Extract from a Dialogue (quoted in Smith, Mem- 

 oirs, I, 318). 



^ "Trade of England revived," 21. 



