Middlemen in English Business 385 



particularly by the inland traders.^ And in 1745 it was estimated 

 that two-thirds of the total trade of England was done on credit, and 

 in some trades four-fifths or more.- On the basis of such testimonies 

 it appears that from 1690 onward the English tradesman did business 

 on a relatively smaller capital and larger credit. A long chain of 

 credit was introduced into the wool and woolens business by the Black- 

 well Hall factors. In other trades the same tendency appeared. 

 The recoinage of 1696 and the consequent stability in the value of the 

 currency, promoted the use of credit.^ A century later England suf- 

 fered a panic and depression of unwonted severity, and financial 

 writers agree that the occasion and cause was the rise of country banks 

 and their large banknote circulation.^ Manufacturers did most of 

 their business on borrowed capital."' 



Goods could be held for a rising market by means of credit. Trades- 

 men borrowed "to shun the precipice of selling."'' The goldsmiths 

 aided importers by advancing the customs duties, and taking into 

 their care and custody the imported goods until thev could be sold. 

 This function was not performed well by the Bank of England.^ 

 Goods for exportation were bought for credit and repaid by the im- 

 ports received in exchange; but this sort of trade was hazardous and 

 subject to forced sales abroad and at home.^ The foreign factors had 

 to trust the purchasers abroad and often bought on time. In the 

 northern trade the division of the year into the summer and winter 

 season forced the giving of six months' credit.^ The Merchant 

 Adventurers at the beginning of the seventeenth century had forbidden 

 their members to borrow on note or pawn from foreign merchants \^'^ and 

 to give credit on sales for longer than six months or offer more than 7 

 per cent discount for cash payments. ^^ By 1650 the merchants of 

 Ipswich allowed their Elbing customers ''15 or 18 moneths day of 

 payment for their Clothes," and those of Hull, York and Xewcastle 



' "Vindication," 83, 85. 



- Defoe, Com. Eng. Tr., I, 274. 



^ A. v., Regulating of the Coin, 5-7. Cf. " Currency in Leeward Islands," 58 



* Chalmers, Hist. View, 229; Macpherson, Annals, IV, 266. 



'" Craik, III, 136-9, using as authority the hearings by special committee inves- 

 tigating credit conditions 1793. 



^ Culpepper, Plain EngHsh, 8; "Vindication of the Bank," 78. 

 ^ Defoe, Projects, 51-2. 



* "Vindication of the Bank," 81-2; "Way for Enriching," 11. 

 5 Ricard, I, 388-9; J. B., Interest, of Gt. Br., 17. 



^" Lingelbach, Mer. Ad., 126. 

 '1 Ibid., XIX. 



