GRAIN MARKETS OUT OF LONDON. 329 



be practicable, at considerable trouble and expense. In large 

 markets, however, where the sellers are numerous, and compe 

 tition-is in proportion, the prices become soon settled by common 

 consent ; and the seller may calculate, if he does not, through 

 timidity or greediness, overstay his time, upon getting the current 

 price, if the quality of his grain justifies it. &quot; The tide, if taken 

 at the flood,&quot; to borrow the simile of a great authority, &quot;leads 

 on to fortune ; &quot; but with those who neglect the opportunity, 

 the ebbing tide often leaves the vessel stranded, high and dry 

 upon the shore. 



4. MULTIPLICATION OF MARKETS IN ENGLAND. There are 

 circumstances of difference, in the condition of things here, and 

 in the United States, which it may not be uninteresting to 

 remark upon, as a special reason why the grain markets prevail 

 all over the country. Here there is an immense population to 

 be fed, scattered every where ; and there are many more, in pro 

 portion to the whole number, who are buyers of bread than with 

 us. The manufacturing villages are crowded with a population 

 who are to be fed by other hands than their own. The villages 

 and small towns are full of tradespeople, mechanics, and profes 

 sional men, who are to be supplied with bread. The laboring 

 agricultural population, too, are buyers of bread. With us, every 

 farmer raises his own bread, and feeds his laborers in his own 

 house. With us, there are comparatively few married laborers 

 employed at all, and of those, there are scarcely any who have 

 not small farms of their own, on which they raise their own 

 bread, and commonly much more. Here the laboring popula 

 tion, excepting in the case of some small allotments, grow no 

 bread for themselves ; and the expense of fuel is so great, like 

 wise, that they depend upon public bakers, rather than bake 

 their own bread. In consequence of this, markets are held at all 

 the principal towns, where the millers and bakers supply them 

 selves. Purchases are made, likewise, in these markets, for the 

 supply of London, where the facility of carriage allows its 

 being sent. 



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