Middlemen in English Business 369 



A second result was to concentrate trade in the most convenient 

 ports and inland markets, and cause a decline In the local market town 

 and fair. London, Bristol, Liverpool and Leeds became wholesale 

 centers, discharging goods to provincial retailers. They also became 

 centers of a more general trade, places of mutual exchange of goods 

 from all parts of the kingdom. The mechanism of trade became most 

 complex at these points, and the larger volume of wares that came 

 thither furthered the complexity by enabhng the middlemen to dif- 

 ferentiate. Warehouses became a necessary complement to these 

 wholesaling centers; and the capitahstic, speculative middleman 

 played a larger role. Factors became a common class seated in the 

 Exchanges of these cities. 



A third result was to render commerce more sensitive and more 

 responsive to local or individual needs. Local dearths and surpluses 

 were more readily equalized. Differences in prices were reduced by 

 the fall in the price of carriage. Business arose where none heretofore 

 could exist. More rapid and reliable information about methods of 

 production, markets, changes in price and trade reduced distances 

 practically. Sectionalism and local jealousies and customary self- 

 sufiEiciency were supplanted by commercial unity. The nation became 

 metropolitan. The business men of the cities controlled the pulse of 

 a trade that flowed to and from all parts of the kingdom. 



{B) Capitalistic Function, and the Financial Facilities for its 

 Performance. 



This function has been explained to mean dealing in time-markets. 

 It consists in the use of capital and credit instruments as means by 

 which the supply of goods is made to fit the demand. Given a seasonal 

 or erratic supply and a steady demand, or given a steady demand and 

 a seasonal or erratic supply, the equalization of demand and supply 

 requires foresight, storage facihties, organized market, and business 

 capital. The equalization is effected by speculation, insurance, 

 credit, capital. Whether farmer or manufacturer or miner, whether 

 tradesman or merchant, that is, whether producer or middleman 

 essays to equalize supply and demand the possession or control of 

 capital is necessary. In the study of the middleman of the corn, 

 textile, mineral and animal industries in the earlier chapters it was 

 repeatedly shown that the producers did not turn out their products at 

 what times and in what cjuantities they were needed, and that this 

 adjustment of need and pro\dsion was performed by the middleman 



