University of Virginia Library

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF TINWARE.

The sellers of tins, who carry them under their
arms, or in any way on a round, apart from the
use of a vehicle, are known as hand-sellers. The
word hand-seller is construed by the street-traders
as meaning literally hand-seller, that is to say, a
seller of things held or carried in the hand; but
the term is clearly derived from the Scotch hand-
sell, as in "handsell penny." Handsell, according
to Jamieson, the Scotch etymologist, means, (1)
"The first money that a trader receives for goods;
also a gift conferred at a particular season. (2)
A piece of bread given before breakfast." Ihre,
the Gothic lexicographer, views the term handsell
as having sprung from the Mæso-Gothic hunsla (sacrifice or offering). This is the same as the
Anglo-Sax husl (the Eucharist), whence comes the
English housel and unhouseled; and he considers
the word to have originally meant a gift or offering
of any kind. Hence, the hand-sellers of tin and
other wares in the street, would mean simply those
who offered such tin or other wares for sale. The
goods they dispose of are dripping-pans (sometimes
called "square pans"), sold at from 3d. to 18d., the 3d. pans being "6 inch," and the 18d. "15
inch;" cullenders, 6d. to 9d.; hand-bowls, for
washerwomen, 1s. (now a very small portion of the
trade); roasting-jacks, with tin bodies, 6d. to
1s. 6d. (this used to be the best article for profit
and ready sale in the trade, but "they are going
out of date"); and the smaller articles of graters,
&c.

The hand-sellers also trade in other articles
which are less portable; the principal sale, how-
ever, is at "stands," and there chiefly on a Satur-
day night, the great business-time of street-com-
merce! These less portable articles are tea-kettles,
10d. to 18d.; saucepans of all sizes, the smallest
being the "open pints" at 2d. or 2½d. each (they
cost them 20d. a dozen; it's a bargain to get them
at 18d.), and the largest the "nine quart;" but
the kinds most in demand are the "three pints"
and "two quarts," sold at 6d. and 8d. There are
also fish-kettles in this street-traffic, though to a
very limited extent — "one fish-kettle," I was told,
"to four-and-twenty saucepans;" the selling price
for the fish-kettles is 5s. and 3s. 6d. each; candle-
sticks are sold at 4d. to 1s.; and shaving pots, 4d. A few tin things used to be sold at the mews, but
the trade is now almost entirely abandoned. These
were tins for singeing horses, 2s. 6d. each when
first introduced, ten or twelve years ago, but now
1s., and stable lanterns, of punched tin, which
cannot be sold now for more than 1s. each, though
they cost 10s. per dozen at a tin-shop.

There are other tin articles vended in the
streets, but they will be more properly detailed in
my account of street-artisans, as the maker and
the street-seller are the same individual. Among
these are Dutch ovens, which are rarely offered
now by those who purchase their goods at the
tin-shops, as the charge there is 6d. "Why," said
a working tinman to me, "I've had 10d. many a
week for making ovens, and the stuff found. It
takes two plates of tin to make an oven, that's
3d. at any tin-shop, before a minute's labour is
given to it, and yet the men who hawk their own
goods sell their ovens regularly enough at 4d. It's
the ruin of the trade." The tin-shops, I may ob-
serve, supply the artisans with the materials they
require, as well as the ready-made articles, to the
street-seller.

One of the largest street-stands "in tin" is in
St. John-street, Clerkenwell, on Saturday even-
ings, but the proprietor pertains to the artisan
class, though he buys some of his goods at the
tin-shops.

The hand-sellers of tin are about 100 in num-
ber, and 60 of that number may be said to be
wives and children of the remaining 40; as the
majority of the itinerant vendors of tinware are
married men with families. "Tins" are not a heavy
carriage, and can very well be borne from house to
house by women, while children sell such things
as nutmeg-graters, pepper-boxes, extinguishers,
and save-alls. Those who sell the larger tin
articles in the streets are generally the makers of
them. "A dozen years back or more, perhaps,
there was," I was informed, "some prime block-
tin tea-pots sold in the streets; there's none now.
Metal's druv out tin."

Among the street tin-sellers I heard many com-
plaints of the smallness, and the constantly di-
minishing rate of their earnings. "Our people
has bad luck, too," said one man, "or they isn't
wide awake. You may remember, sir, that a few
weeks back, a new save-all came in, and was called
candle-wedges, and went off well. It was a tin
thing, and ought by rights to have been started by
the tin-shops for us. But it was first put out by the

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swag-men at 3s. the gross. The first and second days
the men were soon sold out. Them as could patter
tidy did the best — I tried, but you see, sir, I'm no
scholar. Well, they went at night to Mr. — 's,
in Houndsditch, I think it is, and he says, `I'm
out of them, but I'll have some in the morning.'
They goes in the morning, and the swag
says: `O, I can't afford 'em at three shillings, you
can have 'em at four.' He put 1s. exter on the
gross, cause they sold, nothing else, sir; and a re-
lation of mine heard the swag shopkeeper say,
`Why, they're cheap at four; Jim (the street-
seller) there made 3s. 3d. on 'em yesterday. I
ain't a going to slave, and pay rent, and rates, and
taxes, to make your fortens; it ain't likely.' You
see, sir, they was sold at ½d. each, and cost ¼d., which is 3d. a dozen, and so the swag got a
higher profit, while the poor fellows had to sell for
less profit."

From the most reliable information which I could
acquire, it appears that these tin-sellers, taken al-
together, do not earn above 6s. a week each, as
regards the adult men, and half that as regards
the children and women. To realize this amount,
the adults must take 13s., and the women and
children 7s., for the latter are less "priced down."
Thus, if we calculate an average receipt, per in-
dividual, of 10s. weekly, reckoning 100 sellers,
we find a yearly expenditure on tins, bought in
the street, of 2500l. The trade is greatest in the
suburbs, and some men, who have become "known
on their rounds," supply houses, by order, with
all the tins they require.

There is a branch of the tin-trade carried on in
a way which I have shown prevailed occasionally
among the costermongers, viz., the selling of goods
on commission. This system is now carried on
among all the parties who trade "from" swag-
barrows.

The word "swag" which has been so often
used in this work of late, is, like many other of
the street-terms, of Scotch origin (as handseller, and busker). The Scotch word is sweg or swack, and means, according to Jamieson, a quantity, a
considerable number, a large collection of any kind.
(The root appears to be an ancient German term,
sweig — a flock, a herd.) Hence a Swag Ware-
house is a warehouse containing a large collection
of miscellaneous goods; and a Swag Barrow, a
barrow laden with a considerable assortment of
articles. The slang term swag means booty, plun-
der — that is to say, the collection of goods — the
"lot," the "heap" stolen.

Of these swag-barrowmen, there are not less than
150, and the barrows are mostly the property of
three individuals, who are not street-sellers them-
selves. One of these men has 50 barrows of his
own, and employs 50 men to work them. The
barrow proprietor supplies not only the vehicle,
but the stock, and the men's remuneration is 3d. in the 1s. on the amount of sales. Each article
they sell is charged to the public 1d. The tin-
wares of the swag-barrows are nutmeg-graters,
bread-graters, beer-warmers, fish-slices, goblets,
mugs, save-alls, extinguishers, candle-shades, money-
boxes, children's plates, and rattles. In addition
to the tin-wares, the swag-barrows are stocked
with brooches, rings, pot-ornaments, plates, small
crockeryware, toys, &c., each article being also
vended at 1d. The trade is so far stationary, that
the men generally confine themselves to one neigh-
bourhood, if not to one street. The majority of
the swag-barrowmen have been costermongers,
and nearly the whole have been engaged in street
avocations all their lives. One man familiar with
the trade thought I might state that the whole
were of this description; for though there was
lately a swag barrowman who had been a trades-
man in an extensive way, there was, he believed,
no such exception at the present time. These
barrowmen are nearly all uneducated, and are
plodding and persevering men, though they make
few exertions to better their condition. As the
barrow and stock are supplied to them, without
any outlay on their part, their faculties are not
even sharpened, as among many of the coster-
mongers, by the necessity of providing stock-
money, and knowing how to bargain and buy to
advantage. They have merely to sell. Their
commission furnishes little or nothing more than
the means of a bare subsistence. The great sale
is on Saturday nights at the street-markets, and
to the working people, who then crowd those
places, and, as one said to me, "has a few pennies
to lay out." At such times as much as 3l. has
been taken by a swag-barrowman. During the
other days of the week their earnings are small.
It is considered a first-rate week, and there must
be all the facilities for street-trade afforded by fine
weather, to take 2s. a day (clearing 6d), and 3l. on a Saturday night. This gives the swag-bar-
rowman a commission of 18s.; but I am informed,
by competent persons, that the average of the
weekly profits of these street-traders does not
exceed 10s. a week. This shows a yearly receipt,
by the men working the barrows, of 3900l. as
their profit or payment, and a gross receipt of
11,700l. Of this large amount nearly two-thirds,
I am assured, is expended on tin-wares.

The prime cost, at the tin-shops, of these wares,
to the barrow proprietors, are 7s. and 7s. 6d. the
gross, leaving from 1½d. to 2d. profit on every
shilling, over the 3d. commission paid to the sales-
man. The tins are all made in London. The
jewellery, and other stock of the swag-barrows,
are bought at the general swag-shops, of which I
have before spoken.