420 Tradesman and Merchant — Commercial Population 



introduction of bye-posts did not change this system, and cross-posts 

 were tardily develoved. The post was one of the agents effecting the 

 concentration of commercial interests in London.^ 



It early became the center of the circulation of the manufactures 

 and agricultural products of the several counties. A kind of emula- 

 tion arose among the cities in the amount of goods they sent up to 

 London." The city controlled the wool and woolens trade, the corn 

 trade, the coal trade, and the live-stock trade, and affected consider- 

 ably the trade in butter, cheese, fish, poultry, wine, horses, tin and 

 linen.^ It was the most complete entrepot that had yet graced the 

 train of commercial progress. 



In the period studied, London acquired an ascendancy in money, 

 wealth, and finance. In 1698 Davenant estimated that London 

 owned seven-ninths of the new coinage whereas its "usual and former 

 proportion" was less than one-third.'* He noticed that a concentra- 

 tion of wealth had been under foot since 1660; formerly it had been 

 more equally dispersed among the counties of the Kingdom. Many 

 causes operated to effect this concentration. The residence of land- 

 lords,^ members of ParUament, and officers of the government and 

 army in the metropolis caused a flow of money for rents and salaries 

 toward the metropoHs.^ It was claimed by Child that the payment 

 of interest on deposits by the goldsmith bankers drained the country 

 parts of ready money.'' The financial operations of the government 

 concentrated money upon the capital city. The public funds were 

 floated here, and interest on them paid out here; taxes were paid 

 directly or ultimately into the London coffers; the government's 

 mints were located here; bonds for customs duties were procured here; 

 and the financial men of London were in better favor with the govern- 

 ment.*^ In internal and foreign trade London was the "grand ware- 

 house," the "grand treasury of the nation." The commission and 

 brokerage business done by the London agents for the merchants and 

 tradesmen of the pro\incial towns and outports brought large sums 



' "Grand Concern," 30 shows that the stage-coach business had like effect. 



••' "Atlas Mar. et Com.,"' lOV. 



' See previous chapters. 



^ Davenant, Works, I, 158-9. 



^Macaulay, I, 315 comments that before the Revolution of 1688 the country 

 gentleman seldom went with his family up to London and that the county town was 

 his metropolis. 



^ Gent. Mag., 1735:355. 



' Child, New Discourse, 18. 



^ Cary, Essay on Nat. Cr., 187-9; "Increase and Decline," 35-7; Gent. JMag., 

 1735:355. 



