Middlemen in English Business 199 



than twelve thousand sheep yearly. One White sold nearly eleven 

 thousand calves on Newgate Market, about one fifth of the total 

 business. Two salesmen of hogs, Odell and Roberts, sold 80 per 

 cent of the 147,000 hogs sold on the London markets, and no others 

 sold much above one-tenth as many as either of these. These dealers 

 speciaUzed in one kind of animal and meat handled — one dealt in 

 cattle and beef, another in sucking pigs, another in mutton, etc., and 

 their operations were centered more or less on certain markets, for 

 instance, those dealing in calves dealt mostly at Newgate, those in 

 pigs at Leadenhall, etc. Their business was somewhat seasonal, 

 doing a minimum in the hot summer months and a maximum in 

 winter. 1 



The wholesale butchers were of two classes, one of which might 

 be denominated grazing butchers, for they lived near London, owned 

 stock lands, bought stock at Smithfield in the autumn and, having 

 fed it a few months, sold the meat in carcass in winter at a better 

 price. 2 The representative of the other class was more exclusively a 

 middleman: he bought at Smithfield or scoured the country like the 

 jobbers and bought on the roads and farms; he slaughtered his animals 

 and sold them to the cutting butchers.' Butchers of this latter class, 

 throughout the eighteenth century were regarded as forestallers of 

 the meat market,"* through their buying, like jobbers, live stock 

 enroute to the market. The cutting butchers fell into an economic 

 dependence upon the carcass butchers and complained continuously 

 of not being able to get live stock or meat except through them. 



It was the policy of Parliament to restrain the butcher from jobbing 

 either animals or meat. In the middle of the sixteenth century the 

 butchers were forbidden to buy fat cattle or sheep with the intention 

 of selling them again alive.^ A century later it was reported that this 

 prohibition had failed to effect the intended reformation " by Reason 

 of the Difficulty in the Proof of such buying and selling, being for the 

 most part at Places far distant, if not in several Counties, by Means 

 whereof the Parties so offending have escaped unpunished." Another 

 act was therefore passed giving the informant a half of the fine imposed 

 upon the \aolator of the prohibition.'' The same idea was put into 



' The above data are gleaned mostly from Maitlanrl, Lonflon, 11, 757. 

 - Defoe, Tour, 1, 7. 

 '"Abuses relative to provisions," 7. 



'Compare Defoe, Tour, II, 171 (1722), and J. H. C, 29: 1046 (1764), J. H. C. 

 -SI: 640 (1796). 



* 3 and 4 Edward VI, Cap. 19. Sec. 3. 

 " 15 Chas. II, Cap. 3. 



