ENGLISH MARKETS AND FAIRS. 57 



the market tolls and stallages, the corporation is entitled 

 to what are known as " shire " and " gates " tolls leviable 

 upon all goods taken into or out of the city of Carlisle or 

 the county of Cumberland. The latter is now represented 

 by a lump sum of £615 paid by way of commutation by 

 the railway companies, and from the former a sum of 

 about £1,400 is obtained annually. At Newcastle, the 

 through toll is very similar, the main difference as 

 compared with Carlisle being that its proceeds are much 

 more valuable. The amount received at Newcastle for 

 through toll in the year 1887 was £6,784, and the cost of 

 its collection and other charges came to £1,243, leaving a 

 balance of £5,541, which went in aid of the general rate 

 of the city. 



But, apart from the burden, or assumed burden, of 

 the tolls and charges, there are other grievances of which 

 many complaints have been made more or less articulately 

 and vehemently. Injury done to the community by a 

 market monopoly could scarcely arise very grievously 

 out of London ; but, at any rate, one well-known case 

 has occurred in the metropolis where the owners of an 

 East-end market successfully resisted the right of any 

 other persons to open a new market for the sale of fruit 

 and vegetables within seven miles of the existing market. 

 In some cases the insufficiency of market accommodation 

 vexes the souls of sellers, if not of buyers. This, perhaps, 

 is also especially a metropolitan grievance. At Billings- 

 gate, for instance, the superintendent is pestered for 

 more space, and could let double the area if it were 

 available. There are some who think that the concentra- 

 tion of the food supply in a few great markets is not 

 advantageous either to producers or consumers, and that 

 its chief result has been the aggrandisement of a compara- 

 tively small number of middlemen. 



Without attempting to present anything like what 

 may be termed the "case" against the market owners, 

 we have touched upon a few of the points which had 



