Middlemen in English Business 423 



The capital that converged upon London was devoted more to the 

 operations of commerce and financial institutions than to manufac- 

 tures. The tradesman or merchant of the country town could not 

 compete with the one of the metropolis. The concentration of com- 

 mercial capital in London established more fully the merchants of 

 that city in their superior position with respect to the country mer- 

 chants. The capital of the country parts, therefore, tended to become 

 industrial capital, devoted to manufactures rather than commerce; 

 and became dependent to a considerable degree upon the commercial 

 capital of the metropolis. The great manufactures sprang up far 

 from London. Only when and where it became more convenient to 

 market these manufactures elsewhere than at London did commercial 

 capital and commercial interests evolve from or converge upon the 

 outports. Fish, coal, and corn gave employment to some commercial 

 capital in the North Sea ports. Bristol traded to the American 

 colonies and plantations. But the rise of manufactures in the north 

 checked London's supremacy in commerce. After 1720 the rise of 

 the outports into commercial activity and into competition with 

 London was very evident.^ 



There were very obvious changes in the local distributing of indus- 

 try and population in England. Observers Uke Harrison, Leland 

 Fuller, Defoe, Richardson, Fiennes, Pococke, and Young noted them. 

 The drift was northward. The causes were fundamentally economic: 

 water power was more plentiful, the rainy cHmate was more apt for 

 textile manufactures; coal and iron fields were nearer. The popula- 

 tion of Devon and the "cider counties" seemed to migrate to York. - 

 The migration became quite general during the latter part of the 

 eighteenth century from the south, east and west toward the north 

 and northwest.^ 



Meanwhile a shift or variation in the character of London's business 

 was noticeable.'* London became more a financial center, and less 

 a mercantile center. It was a transition from merchandizing proper 

 to agency, factorage, brokerage, speculation, insurance, banking, etc. 

 The merchant lost his preeminence in the commercial activities of 

 the city:'^ stock-jobbers and bankers acquired greater fortunes with 



^ This phenomenon was observed contemporaneously. See Gent. Mag., 1739: 

 478; Smith Mem., II, 314; Atlas Mar. et Com., 109. 



- Massie, New Cider Tax, No. 4. 



5 Toynbee, Ind. Rev., 32-8; Gibbins, Ind. in Eng., 332-3, 349-50. 



* "Increase and Decline," 34-5. 



° ^Iimicipal honors and duties devolved upon others than the heads of princel\' 

 commercial houses. ^lacaulay, I, 327-8. 



