192 Animal and Animal Products Trades 



The jobbers met the herds and flocks along the roads or at the towns, 

 the "restmg places." Such towns were Islington, Mile-end, Knights- 

 bridge, Romford, Southall, Hayes, etc. They also were the most 

 prominent buyers at the fairs and markets.^ The monopoly they 

 developed was sweeping. Various estimates of its extent were given.- 

 In the North it was asserted that they bought up more than half the 

 lean cattle; others said that of all that came to Smithtield both of 

 cattle and sheep three- fourths were jobbed; the maximum estimate 

 was that not one in ten escaped the jobber's hands. At the Newgate 

 Market one jobber was known to have bought up two-thirds of the 

 animals alone.^ But even this does not represent the total business 

 because they were re-sold several times from jobber to jobber, as they 

 moved along, so that before they reached Smithfield they had been 

 jobbed four or five times. ^ As early as 1718 a pamphleteer declared 

 that "in the Space of 10 or 12 Days, the several kinds of Cattle de- 

 signed for Provisions, do commonly pass through Seven or Eight 

 Hands before they come to the Butcher."'' 



Having a monopoly of cattle and sheep the jobbers were able to 

 exercise a dominating influence over the market. They, like all 

 ingrossers in this period, were the object of violent invective and 

 attack for that alleged baneful influence which ingrossers were sup- 

 posed to exert on prices. The butchers claimed that they were de- 

 frauded from a free market for buying fat cattle and the graziers 

 likewise for buying lean; and that prices were arbitrarily raised 

 ^'Twenty Shillings in Ten Pounds," or "20 or SOs." per bullock, or 

 "3 or 4^." per sheep, etc." 



Early in the eighteenth century the jobbers had developed a sort 

 of "Stock Yards." They owned tracts of grass lands in the vicinity 

 of the cities where they marketed.'^ In these they kept a "Reserve" 

 for two purposes : the first was that they might at short notice be able 

 to supply a thin market; the second was that they might at will be 

 able to flood the market, reduce prices, and buy up at bargain rates 

 the cattle and sheep which farmers or graziers might try to market 

 themselves. The first of these had a good economic eff'ect: it tended 



> J. H. C, 51:636, 638. 



- Ibid., 30: 787; 51: 637; 51: 636; 30: 787, respectively. 

 ••'Ibid., 30:787. 

 ^Ibid., 30:788; 51:637. 

 ^ "Essay against Forestallers," 14. 

 " Ibid., 14; J. H. C, 30: 787; 51 : 638. 



^ "Essay against Forestallers," 15, 25; Rep. from Com. H. C".. II, .'•i^l; J. H. C. 

 51:638. 



