Middlemen in English Business 363 



carrying to nnirkel. A \ery good description of the metliod of 

 carriage is gi\en by Henry Best in 1641. The custom was to dispatch 

 a train of eight horse-loads at a time under the charge of two men. A 

 load consisted of two three-bushel sacks of oats. The trip required 

 a long day.' A hke system of horse-pack carriers was used by the 

 Staffordshire potteries to distribute their products and to bring fuel.'- 

 The Manchester men emj)loyed horse-pack trains in their own charge 

 or in that of their agents.^ The petty cha])men and tra\'eUing mer- 

 chants were carriers as w^ell as tradesmen. ■* 



Carriage by wagon and cart increased as the roads were impro\ed. 

 Wagoners Ijrought wool and cloth to London by regular time-schedules'' 

 in 1706 and this was spoken of as a "wonted" practice.'' In 174-5 

 many farmers and others kept teams and carriages for hire to others 

 to bring corn, meal and malt to London, and carry back coal, gro- 

 ceries, wine, salt, iron, cheese, and other heavy goods for the shop- 

 keepers and tradesmen of the country.^ It was said that there were 

 in London in 1770 a hundred and fifty inns at least for the reception 

 of such commodities and provisions as were brought thither by land 

 in wagons out of the country, and that these returned at stated times 

 with London commodities.^ 



A kind of stage-coach was introduced into London in 1608. This 

 hackney-coach soon acciuired a "general and promiscuous use'"' in 

 Ihe city and spread into the country. By 1685 there had become 

 established a system of stage-coach serxice between London and 

 important termini scattered over England, and even Edinburgh. 

 Schedules of times and rates were jniblished."^ Many private parties 

 took up the occupation of common carrier; they owned stage-coaches 

 of their own, had regular places and times of departure and arrixal, 



' Siirtees, ->.S: 100. The "cudgers" who cirrit-d (orn for the millers are treated 

 under that caption in Chai)ter II. 



- Meteyard, Wedgewood, I, 267. 



^ Defoe, Tour, I, 04; Com. Eng. Tr., I, 200; Atlas Mar. eL Com., 108. for a 

 recent authority see Bourne, Eng. Mer., ,vS4. Ilie Manchester Men are discussed 

 in Chap. V. 



^ See descriptions in Chap. V. 



^ An .\ct in 1662 prohiinted the carriage of wool e.\ce[)t by day. 13-14 Ciias. 

 II, Cap. 18, Sec. Q. 



« Haynes, View of the Present, 87, 90-1. 



' Defoe, Com. Eng. Tr., II, 176. 



^ "New Present State of G. B.," 17-^. 



^ Rymer, Foedera, XIX, 721. "A Proclamation for the restraint of the muhi- 

 tude and promiscuous uses of coaches about London and Westminster," 16.^5. 

 '" See an extensive adxertisement c|uoted in Samjison, 71. 



