Manchester Fruit and Vegetable Markets. 
485 
packed in small baskets by the foreigner, which arc charged 
one halfpenny each. 
It will be seen that I have spoken of but one Manchester 
Fruit and Vegetable Market, and for the simple reason that 
it has but one that need be referred to for the objects of this 
paper. 
There is still a market upon the ancient site opposite the 
Exchange, which gave the name to " Market Stead Lane," now 
Market Street. In the spring, and through the summer, the 
old " Stead " is full of flowers, plants, shrubs, and trees ; it is 
very picturesque, and strikes the eye like an oasis in the brick- 
and-mortar and sooty desert. There were formerly several 
retail markets scattered over the town ; but their usefulness 
having departed, they themselves no longer exist. 
The time is not far distant when retail markets will everywhere 
become things of the past — and why should it not be so ? The 
system so long in vogue in London of the housekeeper being 
supplied by the " coster " is rapidly spreading in the provincial 
towns, and shops are now opened in almost every street for the 
sale of fruit and vegetables. That this must be far more eco- 
nomical than the retail-market system can be easily shown. 
The market, for the sake of convenience, must occupy a central 
situation, and in such situations land in large towns has become 
valuable, and necessitates the payment of a heavy rent from the 
stall-keeper, and this, of course, falls upon the customer. And 
it does not require a large amount of perspicacity to see that it 
must be infinitely less costly for one dealer to convey goods to 
a hundred consumers than for a hundred consumers to resort to 
a distant market for the supply of their daily wants. But these 
arguments tell in the opposite direction as regards a wholesale 
market. There must be a great central depot to which the 
retailers of the surrounding districts can repair in full confidence 
of procuring all they may require to satisfy the demands of their 
customers, and such a place is that which I have herein 
attempted to describe: " The Fruit and Vegetable Market at 
Manchester." 
