SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



back as much as 4,000 horse-loads (the load being reckoned at five 

 Winchester bushels) ^^ it served their turn to raise the price in the City. 

 This monopoly was at the expense of the baker, the brewer and the 

 consumer. But the whole trade was disturbed. The improved navigation 

 of the Lea under the Act of 1571 *' had transferred the freights from the 

 road to the river, and the carrying branch of the trade had taken a fresh 

 form. The trade was so profitable that millers and speculative buyers were 

 drawn in. Finally the rich brewers and bakers of London were invading 

 country markets and leaving off dealing with country agents. 



In 1573 the council charged the justices to see that corn was brought 

 to market, that no deceit was used to raise prices and that no farmers or 

 unlicensed badgers bought '* ; they were even to call in and revise the 

 licences of those badgers who bought up corn to sell it dearer in other 

 markets." In 1580 they forestalled the market of Hertford by buying 

 up all the corn.^' The badgers infected others with their habit of buying 

 outside the market. At Hoddesdon in 1581 the people were forbidden to 

 sell corn out of their shops or in any place but the market, and a licence 

 was required of every purchaser for resale. Anyone offering more than 

 the usual rate was to be brought before the justices." 



There was a second type of grain merchant, the loader or carrier. 

 His real business was to carry the corn from the market to London, but he 

 often bought and dealt as well.*' But most were poor and used old horses 

 and carried for other men.'' The special area of the carrier was from Ware 

 southward ; those of Enfield and Cheshunt had the whole carrying trade to 

 London for the counties of Essex, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire."" 

 Cheshunt was the entrepot for the grain of those counties." 



When the Lea was practically reopened for navigation the corn traffic 

 deserted the road between Cheshunt and London. The water-way was 

 quicker."^ The water carriage was in the hands of twenty-two owners — 

 three of Hertford, three of Waltham, one of Braughing, two of Stanstead, 

 two of Broxbourne, six of Ware, two of Enfield and three of London — and 

 they maintained over one hundred men," ' strong and skilled to do the 

 Queen good service by land or sea ' ; a little later the bargemen had 

 increased to 150.°* The barge-owner superseded the carrier. The badgers' 

 control was broken. 



The road carriers tried to prove that the traffic on the Lea did not 

 improve the London corn supply. They said that a few men at London '* — 

 four or five brewers — monopolized the increase. '" The other side answered 

 not only could all the London brewers buy malt much more reasonably, 

 but the reverse traffic from London cheapened coal and iron in Hertford- 

 shire." The final advantage told against the badgers. ' The trade on the 

 Lea is the only and safest means of keeping the price of meal and malt 

 reasonable in London.' '' 



*^ Duchy of Lane. Dep. 6 Jas. I, no. 60. '' Stat. 13 Eliz. cap. 11. 



8* Acts ofP.C. i57i-5> PP- 108, III. 8' Ibid. 197. 86 ibid. 1580-1, p. 301. 



Si'Lansdowne MS. 3i,no. 28. 88 jbid. 32, fol. 104. 89 jbid. 38, no. 32. 



8° Ibid. 32, fol. 104. SI Ibid. »2 Ibid. 



»3 Ibid. fol. 105. 



»* Ibid. 38, no. 32. 86 Ibid. 32, fol. 104. 96 Ibid. fol. 107. 



" Ibid. fol. 105. 98 Ibid. fol. 107. 



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