Middlemen in English Business 421 



to the city.^ The con\'enience of drawing all exchanges domestic and 

 foreign on London led merchants to establish reserves with their 

 agents there. It was the seat of the national bank. Through these 

 and other influences London became the financial center of Great 

 Britain and succeeded Amsterdam as that of the world.- 



The results of this concentration of people, commerce, trade, wealth 

 and finance in the city London showed chiefly in the degree to which 

 the economic organization was developed. A city by the mere fact 

 of its collected body of people renders particular assistance to trade. 

 But London — capital, metropoUs, port and entrepot, all in one — • 

 afforded unusual advantage to the commerce of the English people. 

 Its magnitude influenced the inland trade as a receiving and distribut- 

 ing point for the whole kingdom, as consumer of the produce of the 

 whole country, and as the general money center. It was said in 1745 

 that every shopkeeper in the remotest town of England, unless un- 

 usually mean, had correspondence with the London tradesmen.^ It 

 was the entrepot of the nation.'* 



An entrepot serves commerce by reducing the costs of carriage, 

 since it makes possible the carriage of large loads in one direction 

 instead of parcels in many directions. It is a convenient place to 

 procure sortable cargoes which are necessary in the trade to certain 

 parts. Special economies are developed by the rise of brokers and 

 agents who make it their business to promote mutual exchanges at 

 the entrepot.^ Besides it concentrates the commercial interests of the 

 nation, making a more effective and favorable public opinion with 

 respect to commerce. 



The influence of the London market on absolute prices throughout 

 England is shown in the accompanying Table. The Table consists 

 of data gathered and tabulated by Arthur Young in several journeys 

 in the third quarter of the eighteenth century; several of his tables are 

 here condensed into one. It will be observed that prices generally 

 decreased as the distance from London increased; that the more 

 transportable any ware was the less the variation in price (compare 

 butter and meat) ; that the price of bread and cheese was uniform over 



1 "Increase and Decline," 32-3. 



^ For complete treatment see Bisschop, Rise. 



3 Defoe, Com. Eng. Tr., II, 78. 



'' It was questioned at the time whether the kingdom was not "like a rickety 

 body, with a head too big for the other members." See discussion in Anderson, 

 Origin, II, 617. 



* See Savary, Par. Neg., II, 284-5, for discussion of such agents, and "Reflec- 

 tions and Considerations," 7-9, for the need of sortable cargoes. 



