Middlemen in English Business 343 



tury preceding this date. Stowe ascribed the extravagant spending, 

 of which he complained, to the fact that display windows "made 

 such a show in passengers' eyes, that they, could not help gazing on 

 and buying these knickknacks."^ 



The Great Fire in 1666 caused a dispersion of the shops. New 

 streets became shopping districts. Shopkeepers who had erected 

 temporary quarters in these new streets found it convenient to stay 

 here.2 Suburban shops were also arising quite fast.^ The specializa- 

 tion of shops according to wares gave a wide variety to the eighteenth 

 century retailing places. On Fleet Street forty-seven kinds were 

 listed: the more numerous were those of the booksellers, goldsmiths, 

 printers, drapers, hatters, and clockmakers.'' In the coffee-houses 

 auction sales were conducted by the assembled traders. It was the 

 custom of the tradesmen to board their apprentices and assistants.'^ 



A foreign shopper in 1715 described the mercer's shops as "perfect 

 gilded theatres," and the mercers as "the sweetest, fairest, nicest, 

 dished-out creatures" with "elegant address and soft speeches;" 

 ushers "completely dressed at the door" bowed to all coaches that 

 passed and handed the ladies out and in. This tendency to cater to 

 the public was so extravagant that this visitor somewhat with disgust 

 pronounced the mercers "the greatest fops in the kingdom." Displa}- 

 of goods was a more important part in retailing than formerly.*"' 

 Defoe in 1745 said it was "a modern custom, and wholly unknown to 

 our ancestors ... to have tradesmen lay out two-thirds of 

 their fortune in fitting up their shops;" the sum thus spent in decora- 

 tions, fine shelves, shutters, glass windows, columns, etc., was fre- 

 quently in excess of £500.'' The modern principle of display had 

 been caught. The newspaper, which had been but recently begun, 

 gave opportunity for advertisements and the stores published their 

 stocks of goods. These advertisements often took a very modern 

 tone, and they also promoted the adoption of the method of fixed 



1 Besant, Stuart London, 195-6. 

 = Ibid., 250-1. 

 3 Ibid., 196. 



* Besant, Eighteenth Century London, 96-8. See Ust in Campbell, 128-30, 

 177-8, 199, 200, 202, 215, 283. 



"• Ibid., 249. 



* Cf. Mantoux, 98, for the opinion that the seventeenth century shop was with- 

 out windows and display of goods. Citations have been given above showing 

 this was not the general condition. 



7 Defoe, Com. Eng. Tr., Ch. XII. 



