Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor: Volume 2

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Introduction.

In commencing a new volume I would devote a few pages to the consideration of the import of the facts already collected concerning the London Street-Folk, not only as regards the street-people themselves, but also in connection with the general society of which they form so large a proportion.

The precise extent of the proportion which the Street-Traders bear to the rest of the Metropolitan Population is the first point to be evolved; for the want, the ignorance, and the vice of a streetlife being in a direct ratio to the numbers, it becomes of capital importance that we should know how many are seeking to pick up a livelihood in the public thoroughfares. This is the more essential because the Government returns never have given us, and probably never will give us, any correct information respecting it. The Census of 1841 set down the “Hawkers, Hucksters, and Pedlars” of the Metropolis as numbering 2045; and from the inquiries I have made among the street-sellers as to the means taken to obtain a full account of their numbers for the next population return, the Census of 1851 appears likely to be about as correct in its statements concerning the Street-Traders and Performers as the one which preceded it.

According to the accounts which have been collected during the progress of this work, the number of the London Street-People, so far as the inquiry has gone, is up wards of 40,000. This sum is made up of 30,000 Costermongers; 2000 Street-Sellers of “Green-Stuff,” as Watercresses, Chickweed, and Groundsell, Turf, &c.; 4000 Street-Sellers of Eatables and Drinkables; 1000 selling Stationery, Books, Papers, and Engravings in the streets; and 4000 other street-sellers vending manufactured articles, either of metal, crockery, textile, chemical, or miscellaneous substances, making altogether 41,000, or in round numbers say 40,000 individuals. The 30,000 costermongers may be said to include 12,000 men, 6000 women, and 12,000 children.

The above numbers comprise the main body of people selling in the London streets; hence if we assert that, with the vendors of second-hand articles, as old metal, glass, linen, clothes, &c., and mineral productions, such as coke, salt, and sand, there are about 45,000 street-traders in the Metropolis, we shall not, I am satisfied, be very far from the truth.

The value of the Capital, or Stock in Trade, of these people, though individually trifling, amounts, collectively, to a considerable sum of money--indeed, to very nearly 40,000l., or at the rate of about 1l. per head. Under the term Capital are included the donkeys, barrows, baskets, stalls, trays, boards, and goods belonging to the several street-traders; and though the stock of the watercress, the small-ware, the lucifer, the flower, or the chickweed and groundsell seller may not exceed in value 1s., and the basket or tray upon which it is carried barely half that sum, that of the more prosperous costermonger, possessed of his barrow and donkey; or of the Cheap John, with his cart filled with hardware; or the Packman, with his bale of soft wares at his back, may be worth almost as many pounds as the others are pence.

The gross amount of trade done by the London Street-Sellers in the course of the year is so large that the mind is at first unable to comprehend how, without reckless extravagance, want can be in any way associated with the class. After the most cautious calculation, the results having been checked and re-checked in a variety of ways, so that the conclusion arrived at might be somewhat near and certainly not beyond the truth, it appears that the “takings” of the London Street-Sellers cannot be said to be less than 2,500,000l. per annum. But vast as this sum may seem, and especially when considered as only a portion of the annual expenditure of the Metropolitan Poor, still, when we come to spread the gross yearly receipts over 40,000 people, we find that the individual takings are but 62l. per annum, which (allowing the rate of profit to be in all cases even 50 per cent., though I am convinced it is often much less) gives to each streettrader an annual income of 20l. 13s. 4d., or within a fraction of 8s. a week, all the year round. And when we come to deduct from this the loss by perishable articles, the keep of donkeys, the wear and tear, or hire, of barrows--the cost of stalls and baskets, together with the interest on stock-money (generally at the rate of 4s. a week--and often 1s. a day--for 1l., or 1040l. per cent, per annum), we may with safety assert that the average gain or clear income of the Metropolitan Street-Sellers is rather under than over 7s. 6d. a week. Some of the more expert street-traders may clear 10s. or even 15s. weekly throughout the year, while the [p. 2] weekly profit of the less expert, the old people, and the children, may be said to be 3s. 6d. These incomes, however, are the average of the gross yearly profits rather than the regular weekly gains; the consequence is, that though they might be sufficient to keep the majority of the street-sellers in comparative comfort, were they constant and capable of being relied upon, from week to week --but being variable and uncertain, and rising sometimes from nothing in the winter to 1l. a week in the summer, when street commodities are plentiful and cheap, and the poorer classes have money wherewith to purchase them -- and fluctuating moreover, even at the best of times, according as the weather is wet or fine, and the traffic of the streets consequently diminished or augmented-- it is but natural that the people subject to such alternations should lack the prudence and tempe- rance of those whose incomes are more regular and uniform.

To place the above facts clearly before the reader the following table has been prepared. The first column states the titles of the several classes of street-sellers; the second, the number of individuals belonging to each of these classes; the third, the value of their respective capitals or stock in trade; the fourth, the gross amount of trade done by them respectively every year; the fifth, the average yearly takings of each class; and the sixth, their average weekly gains. This gives us, as it were, a bird‘s-eye view of the earnings and pecuniary condition of the various kinds of streetsellers already treated of. It is here cited, as indeed all the statistics in this work are, as an approximation to the truth rather than a definite and accurate result.

DESCRIPTION OF CLASS.	Number of Persons in each Class.	Gross amount of capital, or stock in trade belonging to each class.	Gross amount of trade annually done by each class.		Average yearly receipts per head.	Average weekly gains.
COSTERMONGERS1 .	30,0002	£ 25,000	£		£ 60	8s.
Street-Sellers of Wet Fish . .			1,177,200
” ” Dry fish . .			127,000
” ” Shell Fish .			156,600
			---------
				1,460,800
” ” Green Fruit .			332,400
” ” Dry Fruit . .			1,000
” ” Vegetables .			292,200
			---------
				625,600
” ” Game, Poultry,				80,000
Rabbits, &c.				14,800
” ” Flowers, Roots,				---------
&c. . . .				2,181,200
STREET-SELLERS OF GREEN STUFF.
Watercresses3 . . . . . .	1,000	87		13,900	13	3s. 6d.
Chickweed, Groundsell, and Plantain4 . . . . . .	1,000	42		14,000	14	5s.
Turf-Cutters and Sellers . . .	40	20		570	14	5s. 6d.
STREET-SELLERS OF EATABLES AND DRINKABLES . . . . .	4,000	9,000		203,100	50	10s.
STREET-SELLERS OF STATIONERY, LITERATURE, AND THE FINE ARTS . . . . . . . .	1,000	400		33,400	30	8s.
STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFAC- TURED ARTICLES of Metal, Crockery and Glass, Textile, Chemical, or Miscellaneous Substances . . . . . .	4,000	2,800		188,200	47	10s.
	41,040	£ 37,529		£ 2,634,370	£ 60	8s.

¹ The definition of a Costermonger strictly includes only such individuals as confine themselves to the sale of the produce of the Green and Fruit Markets: the term is here restricted to that signification.

² This number includes Men, Women, and Children.

³ The Watercress trade is carried on in the streets, principally by old people and children. The chief mart to which the street-sellers of cresses resort is Farringdon-market, a place which but few or none of the regular Costermongers attend.

⁴ The Chickweed and Groundsell Sellers and the Turf-Cutters’ traffic has but little expense connected with it, and their trade is therefore nearly all profit.

This text is based on the following book(s):
Henry Mayhew. London Labour and the London Poor Volume 2. London. Griffen, Bohn and Company, Stationer's Hall Court. 1851.

This text was converted to electronic form by professional data entry and has been proofread to a medium level of accuracy.