GENERAL MARKETS. 383 



with each other. The producer of an inferior article is stimulated 

 by the success of his neighbor to produce a better ; agricultural 

 information becomes generally diffused: and thus agricultural 

 improvement is essentially advanced. Should such markets be 

 established, the most stringent rules should be adopted for their 

 management ; but, above all things, all trickery and fraud should 

 be eschewed and denounced. A man guilty of it should be so 

 branded with infamy, that he should never presume to show 

 himself there a second time. Men, under such circumstances, 

 would be sure to discover that &quot;honesty is the best policy.&quot; 



In London, there are markets for the exclusive sale of poultry 

 and game, and in Dublin, I found one wholly devoted to the sale 

 of eggs. The amounts here collected and disposed of almost 

 surpass belief. The statement of a respectable witness and cus 

 tom-house agent, recently, before a parliamentary committee, is 

 quite remarkable. He said that there were five vessels annually 

 engaged in that trade between Normandy, on the coast of France, 

 and London, which brought about 3700 tons of eggs in the year. 

 Ten cases went to a ton, and from 1000 to 1200 were in each 

 case. This trade was between Cherbourg, Harfleur, Caen, and 

 Portsmouth. Forty millions of eggs were annually imported 

 through this channel alone. Some one asks very emphatically, 

 &quot; Why should they not be produced at home ? &quot;* 



* &quot; The value in money of one seemingly unimportant article, eggs, taken, in 

 the course of the year, from Ireland to the ports of Liverpool and Bristol, amounts 

 to at least 100,000. The progress of this trade affords a curious illustration of 

 the advantages of commercial facilities in stimulating production and equalizing 

 prices. Before the establishment of steam-vessels, the market at Cork was most 

 irregularly supplied with eggs from the surrounding district ; at certain seasons 

 they were exceedingly abundant and cheap, but these seasons were sure to be 

 followed by seasons of scarcity and high prices ; and at times, it is said to have 

 been difficult to purchase eggs in the market at any price. At the first opening 

 of the improved channel for conveyance to England, the residents at Cork had to 

 complain of the constant high price of this and other articles of farm produce ; 

 but as a more extensive market was now permanently open to them, the farmers 

 gave their attention to the rearing and keeping of poultry ; and at the present 

 time, eggs are procurable at all seasons in the market at Cork ; not, it is true, 

 at the extremely low rate at which they could, formerly, be sometimes bought, 

 but still at much less than the average price of the year. A like result has fol 

 lowed the introduction of this great improvement in regard to the supply and cost 

 of various other articles of produce. In the apparently unimportant article feathers, 

 it may be stated, on the respectable authority above quoted, that the yearly impor 

 tation into England, from Ireland, reaches the amount of 500,000 sterling.&quot; 

 Porter s Progress of the Nation, vol. iii. 83. 



