342 Tradesman and Merchant — Commercial Population 



About 1600 the stalls had become sheds (roofed stalls) -with " solars" 

 over them; and then they were becoming enclosed stalls, i.e., shops. 

 The shops were open in the lower part and protected with a shutter 

 or glass which was closed up at night; the upper part was provided 

 with glass windows.^ Goldsmith's row had "the most beautiful 

 frame of fair houses and shops that be within the walls of London, or- 

 elsewhere in England. It containeth in number ten fair dwellings 

 houses and fourteen shops, all in one frame, uniformily builded four 

 stories high, beautiful toward the street with the Goldsmith arms 

 and the likeness of Woodmen."- It was "beautiful to behold the 

 glorious appearance of Goldsmiths' shops in the South Row of Cheap- 

 side."^ A German traveler in 1598 said there were "to be seen in 

 this street, as in all others where there are goldsmiths' shops, all sorts 

 of gold and silver vessels exposed to sale, as well as ancient and mod- 

 ern medals, in such quantities as must surprise a man the first time 

 he sees and considers them."^ 



Another very common shop was the tobacconist's. Barnaby Rich 

 in 1614 estimated that there were over 7000 such shops in London.^ 

 Tobacco was also sold by apothecaries.^ Paternoster Row was occu- 

 pied chiefly by mercers, silkmen and lacemen, and shopping was a 

 popular pastime for the women, gentry and nobility.'^ Book-stores 

 were very numerous.^ Delaney probably gave a picture of his day 

 1632 when he tells the sightseeing trip his clothiers made in London, as 

 follows: "Now when they were brought into Cheapside, there with 

 great Wonder they beheld the Shops of the Goldsmiths; and on the 

 •other Side, the wealthy Mercers, whose Shops shined with all Sorts 

 of coloured Silkes; in Watling-street they viewed the great Number 

 of Drapers; in Saint Martins, Shoemakers; at Saint Nicholas Church, 

 the Flesh Shambles; at the End of the Old Change, the Fish-mongers; 

 in Candleweeke-street, the Weavers."^ There appears to have been 

 a considerable increase in the number of shops in London in the cen- 



^Besant, Tudor London, 199-200, 191, 276. See description of butchers' shops 

 of fifteenth century in Shrewsbury; Abram, 92-3. 

 2 1598, Stow. 

 ^Maitland, I, 301. 



■♦ Besant, Tudor London, 191, quoting Paul Hentzner. 

 ^ Rich, Honestie of this Age, 26. 



*"' Dekker, Gull's Horn Book, quoted by Fairholt, Tobacco, 49, 56. 

 ~ Besant, Tud. Lond., 269, 290; Stuart Lond., 251. 



8 Besant, Tud. Lond., 272-3. 



9 Deloney, Thomas, Ch. VI. 



