this Fair; for not Cambridge only, but all the Towns round are full; nay, the very Barns and Stables are turned into Inns, to lodge the meaner Sort of People: As for the Fair-people, they all eat, drink, and sleep in their Booths, which are so intermingled with Taverns, Coffee-houses, Drinking-houses, Eating-houses, Cooks Shops, &c. and so many Butchers and Higglers from all the neighbouring Counties come in every Morning with Beef, Mutton, Fowls, Butter, Bread, Cheese, Eggs, and such Things, and go with them from Tent to Tent, from Door to Door, that there is no Want of Provisions of any Kind, either dressed, or undressed.

In a word, the Fair is like a well-governed City, and there is the least Disorder and Confusion (I believe) that can be seen any-where, with so great a Concourse of People.

Towards the latter End of the Fair, and when the great Hurry of Wholesale Business begins to be over, the Gentry come in, from all Parts of the County round; and tho' they come for their Diversion, yet it is not a little Money they lay out, which generally falls to the share of the Retalers; such as the Toy-shops, Goldsmiths, Brasiers, Ironmongers, Turners, Milaners, Mercers, &c. and some loose Coins they reserve for the Puppet-shews, Drolls, Rope-dancers, and such-like; of which there is no Want. The last Day of the Fair is the Horse-fair, where the Whole is closed both with Horse and Foot-races, to divert the meaner Sort of People only; for nothing considerable is offered of that Kind, and the late Act, I presume, must have put an End to the former. Thus ends the whole Fair, and in less than a Week more, scarce any Sign is left, that such a Thing has been there, except by the Heaps of Dung, Straw, and other Rubbish, which is left behind, trod into the Earth, and is as good as a Summer's Fallow for the Land; and, as I have said above, pays the Husbandman well for the Use of it.

I should have mentioned, that here is a Court of Justice always open, and held every Day in a Shed built on purpose in the Fair this is for keeping the Peace, and deciding Controversies in Matters arising from the Business of the Fair. The

:

Magistrates of the Town of Cambridge are Judges in this Court, as being in their Jurisdiction, or they holding it by special Privilege. Here they determine Matters in a summary Way, as is practised in those we call Pye-Powder Courts in other Places, or as a Court of Conscience; and they have a final Authority without Appeal.

2. An English Market Town of the Eighteenth Century 1

From Aberforth we turned West, and went to Leeds, which is a large, wealthy, and populous Town, standing on the North Side of the River Aire, with great Suburbs on the South Side, and both joined by a stately, strong Stone Bridge so large, and so wide, that formerly the Cloth-market was kept upon it; and therefore the Refreshment given the Clothiers by the Innkeepers (being a Pot of Ale, a Noggin of Pottage, and a Trencher of broil'd or roast Beef, for Two-pence), is called the Brigg-shot to this Day.

The Increase of the Manufactures, and of the Trade, soon made the Market too great to be confined to the Brigg; so that it is now kept in the High Street, beginning from the Bridge, and running up North almost up to the Market-house, where the ordinary Market for Provisions begins; which also is the greatest of its kind in all the North of England. You may judge of the Plenty of it, when 500 Load of Apples have been numbered by the Mayor's Officers in a Day.

But the Cloth Market is chiefly to be admired as a Prodigy of its Kind, and perhaps not to be equalled in the World. The Market for Serges at Exeter is indeed a wonderful Thing, and the Money returned very great; but it is there only once a Week, whereas here it is every Tuesday and Saturday.

Early in the Morning, Tressels are placed in two Rows in the Street, sometimes two Rows on a Side, cross which Boards are laid, which make a kind of temporary Counter on either Side, from one End of the Street to the other.

1 This description of the Town of Leeds was written by Daniel Defoe early in the eighteenth century. Tour of Great Britain, Vol. III, Letter II.

The Clothiers come early in the Morning with their Cloth; and as few bring more than one Piece, the Market-days being so frequent, they go into the Inns and Publick-houses with it, and there set it down.

At about Six o'Clock in the Summer, and about Seven in the Winter, the Clothiers being all come by that Time, the Market Bell at the old Chapel by the Bridge rings; upon which it would surprise a Stranger to see in how few Minutes, without Hurry, Noise, or the least Disorder, the whole Market is filled, and all the Boards upon the Tressels covered with Cloth, as close to one another as the Pieces can lie longways, each Proprietor standing behind his own Piece, who form a Mercantile Regiment, as it were, drawn up in a double Line, in as great Order as a Military one.

As soon as the Bell has done Ringing, the Factors and Buyers of all Sorts enter the Market, and walk up and down between the Rows, as their Occasions direct. Some of them have their foreign Letters of Orders, with Patterns sealed on them, in their Hands; the Colours of which they match, by holding them to the Cloths they think they agree to. When they have pitched upon their Cloth, they lean over to the Clothier, and by a Whisper, in the fewest Words imaginable, the Price is stated; one asks, the other bids; and they agree or disagree in a Moment.

The Reason of this prudent Silence is owing to the Clothiers standing so near to one another; for 't is not reasonable, that one Trader should know another's Traffick.

If a Merchant has bidden a Clothier a Price, and he will not take it, he may go after him to his House, and tell him he has considered of it, and is willing to let him have it; but they are not to make any new Agreement for it, so as to remove the Market from the Street to the Merchant's House.

The Buyers generally walk up and down twice on each Side of the Rows, and in little more than an Hour all the Business is done. In less than half an Hour you will perceive the Cloth begin to move off, the Clothier taking it up upon his Shoulder to carry it to the Merchant's House. At about half an Hour

after Eight the Market Bell rings again, upon which the Buyers immediately disappear, the Cloth is all sold; or if any remains, it is carried back into the Inn. By Nine o'Clock the Boards and Tressels are removed, and the Street left at Liberty for the Market-people of other Professions, the Linendrapers, Shoemakers, Hard-waremen, and the like.

Thus you see 10 or 20,000 1. worth of Cloth, and sometimes much more, bought and sold in little more than an Hour, the Laws of the Market being the most strictly observed that I ever saw in any Market in England.

3. The Organization of the Grain Trade in the United States 1

I. The Grain Elevator

The terminal elevator system in the handling of grain begins with the prominence of Chicago as a primary grain market. This point has always been the principal terminus in the receipt of western grain and in its distribution eastward. The terminal warehouses grew, out of the necessity of storing the grain from the time it was harvested, or shortly thereafter, to the time when it was required for consumption. The producing districts being generally without adequate storing facilities, the central markets accumulated vast supplies, provision for which was made in the warehouses known as elevators. From 1871 up to 1887 these elevators were handled in such a manner as to be more or less satisfactory to all concerned. They were then regarded as terminal freight stations, and were under independent management. That is, they were operated by persons engaged in no other business.

A new factor in the situation began to appear about 1885, when the warehousemen of Chicago commenced to deal in grain, thereby entering into competition with buyers throughout the grain territory. This practice grew so rapidly that within fifteen years grain-buying warehousemen absorbed three fourths of the business of both buying and selling grain at the Chicago market.

1 Reprinted from the Report of the Industrial Commission, XIX, 177-184.

During the first three or four years following the enactment of the interstate-commerce law the elevators ceased to be opened on equal terms to the public, and passed into the hands of people who did a combined grain-buying and warehousing business.

This combination of pursuits made its representatives much more important in the control of the grain movement than any grain buyer could be who was not in control of warehousing facilities. The railroads in their competition for grain traffic. found the warehousing grain buyer to be most helpful, particularly because of his having established a line of country elevators throughout the territory traversed by the railroad, and because he was in a position to receive the grain at terminal stations and store it promptly or forward it eastward. This had the effect of reducing the cost of transferring grain at Chicago for eastern destinations.

Through rates for shipment to the East and to Europe enabled the large grain dealers in control of warehouses to take advantage of a lower rate than was open to those who were simply receiving merchants at Chicago. This difference between the through and the local rate is in normal times from two to three cents a bushel on corn in favor of the through shipment. The line-elevator buyer can afford to pay the farmer so much more.

Under such conditions as these the terminal-elevator system of warehousing grain has become a central feature of the primary grain markets, which are in more or less complete control of about half a dozen grain firms. This outcome has been mainly due to competition among primary markets, to the necessity of reducing the cost of distribution per unit at Chicago, and to the difficulty of railroads getting what they regarded as their share of the grain traffic without coöperating with the leading representatives of the grain trade.

It is frequently alleged that the prices at which farmers have to part with their crops is determined by the combination of buyers in terminal markets; for example, that the card prices paid for wheat in South Dakota are fixed by three or four men on the Minneapolis Board of Trade. If this is the case, there