Middlemen in English Business 419 



the metropolitan waxed. London towered in the commerce of tne 

 Isles. ^ 



There were slight internal migrations of the population in England 

 in the early eighteenth century.- The poor law and the law of settle- 

 ment restricted the urbanization of the people. A tendency existed, 

 bowever, for the artisan, trading, and oflficial classes to drift toward 

 London. It was also the common opinion of the time that people 

 propagated faster in cities than in the country.^ These two causes 

 tended to perpetuate and accelerate the momentum of an early start 

 whereby London had its predominance in population. 



The ascendancy of London in foreign trade rested on a long-standing 

 record of actions and reactions. As the seat of the government, as the 

 best central port, as the largest city, etc., it attracted most trade; but 

 the increases of trade reacted on the size of the city, prosperity pros- 

 pered by prosperity. It owned the most shipping, had the mosL 

 merchants, could fit out the best cargoes, and secure the most con- 

 voys."* It had a prodigious home consumption, was a center of in- 

 ternal distribution, and had the largest market. More moneyed men 

 resided here, bills of exchange and insurance were more easily and 

 cheaply negotiated, and credit more readily procured. It was more 

 influential in Parhament, was the seat of the foreign trading com- 

 panies,^ and the center of the financial operations of the government. 

 Goods could be bought here for the best sorted cargoes, at lower 

 prices, more easily and expeditiously, than in any other port.^ So 

 that unless some very great advantage was found in a particular out- 

 port, London was resorted to, and its commerce accelerated accord- 

 ingly. By the force of these advantages London effected such an 

 economic dominance over the American colonies that it was used as 

 an argmnent that they never would or could rebel.'' 



It has been shown that the postal system was one radiating from 

 London by five or more great roads, and that rates were charged on 

 the theor}- that all letters went to, from, or through London. The 



1 See V. C. H., Suff., II, 249. 



- Chalmers, Estimate, 219. 



' "Advantages of Enlarging," 7; Chalmers, Estimate, 218-19. 



* In time of war more ships used London port than in time of peace relatively by 

 reason of convoy service. Houghton, Col'ection, II, 324. 



'" "Opening the Turkey Trade," 4r-10; "Essay on Causes of Decline," 41-5. 



"Many of these advantages were appreciated at the time: See "Increase and 

 Decline," 4-5. 



" "Atlas Mar. et Com.," 329-30, shows in detail the conduct of the New England 

 commerce and its relations to London. 



