University of Virginia Library

OF THE COSTERMONGERS' CAPITAL.

The costermongers, though living by buying
and selling, are seldom or never capitalists. It
is estimated that not more than one-fourth of the
entire body trade upon their own property.
Some borrow their stock money, others borrow
the stock itself, others again borrow the donkey-
carts, barrows, or baskets, in which their stock
is carried round, whilst others borrow even the
weights and measures by which it is meted out.

The reader, however uninformed he may be as
to the price the poor usually have to pay for any
loans they may require, doubtlessly need not be
told that the remuneration exacted for the use
of the above-named commodities is not merely
confined to the legal 5l. per centum per annum;
still many of even the most "knowing" will
hardly be able to credit the fact that the ordi-
nary rate of interest in the costermongers' money-
market amounts to 20 per cent. per week, or no
less than 1040l. a year, for every 100l. advanced.

But the iniquity of this usury in the present
instance is felt, not so much by the costermon-
gers themselves, as by the poor people whom
they serve; for, of course, the enormous rate of
interest must be paid out of the profits on the
goods they sell, and consequently added to the
price, so that coupling this overcharge with the
customary short allowance — in either weight or
measure, as the case may be — we can readily
perceive how cruelly the poor are defrauded, and
how they not only get often too little for what
they do, but have as often to pay too much for
what they buy.

Premising thus much, I shall now proceed to
describe the terms upon which the barrow, the
cart, the basket, the weights, the measures, the
stock-money, or the stock, is usually advanced
to the needy costermongers by their more
thrifty brethren.

The hire of a barrow is 3d. a day, or 1s. a
week, for the six winter months; and 4d. a day,
or 1s. 6d. a week, for the six summer months.
Some are to be had rather lower in the summer,
but never for less than 4d. — sometimes for not less
than 6d. on a Saturday, when not unfrequently
every barrow in London is hired. No security
and no deposit is required, but the lender satis-
fies himself that the borrower is really what he
represents himself to be. I am informed that
5,000 hired barrows are now in the hands of the
London costermongers, at an average rental of
3l. 5s. each, or 16,250l. a year. One man lets
out 120 yearly, at a return (dropping the 5s.) of
360l.; while the cost of a good barrow, new, is
2l. 12s., and in the autumn and winter they may
be bought new, or "as good as new," at 30s. each; so that reckoning each to cost this barrow-
letter 2l. each, he receives 360l. rent or interest
— exactly 150 per cent. per annum for pro-
perty which originally cost but 240l., and
property which is still as good for the ensuing
year's business as for the past. One man has
rented a barrow for eight years, during which pe-
riod he has paid 26l. for what in the first instance
did not cost more than twice as many shillings,
and which he must return if he discontinues its
use. "I know men well to do," said an intelligent
costermonger, "who have paid 1s. and 1s. 6d. a week for a barrow for three, four, and five
years; and they can't be made to understand
that it's rather high rent for what might cost
40s. at first. They can't see they are losers.
One barrow-lender sends his son out, mostly on
a Sunday, collecting his rents (for barrows), but
he's not a hard man." Some of the lenders
complain that their customers pay them irregu-
larly and cheat them often, and that in conse-
quence they must charge high; while the
"borrowers" declare that it is very seldom indeed
that a man "shirks" the rent for his barrow,
generally believing that he has made an advan-
tageous bargain, and feeling the want of his
vehicle, if he lose it temporarily. Let the
lenders, however, be deceived by many, still, it
is evident, that the rent charged for barrows is
most exorbitant, by the fact, that all who take
to the business become men of considerable
property in a few years.

Donkey-carts are rarely hired. "If there's
2,000 donkey and pony-carts in London, more
or less, not 200 of them's borrowed; but of
barrows five to two is borrowed." A donkey-
cart costs from 2l. to 10l.; 3l. 10s. being an
average price. The hire is 2s. or 2s. 6d. a week.
The harness costs 2l. 10s. new, but is bought,
nineteen times out of twenty, second-hand, at
from 2s. 6d. to 20s. The donkeys themselves
are not let out on hire, though a costermonger
may let out his donkey to another in the trade
when he does not require its services; the usual
sum paid for the hire of a donkey is 2s. 6d. or
3s. per week. The cost price of a pony varies
from 5l. to 13l.; that of a donkey from 1l. to 3l.
There may be six donkeys, or more, in coster-
monger use, to one pony. Some traffic almost
weekly in these animals, liking the excitement
of such business.

The repairs to barrows, carts, and harness are
almost always effected by the costermongers
themselves.

"Shallows" (baskets) which cost 1s. and 1s. 6d., are let out at 1d. a day; but not five in 100 of
those in use are borrowed, as their low price
places them at the costermonger's command.
A pewter quart-pot, for measuring onions, &c.,
is let out at 2d. a day, its cost being 2s. Scales
are 2d., and a set of weights 1d. a day.

Another common mode of usury is in the
lending of stock-money. This is lent by the
costermongers who have saved the means for
such use of their funds, and by beer-shop
keepers. The money-lending costermongers
are the most methodical in their usury —
1,040l. per cent. per annum, as was before
stated, being the rate of interest usually charged.
It is seldom that a lower sum than 10s. is bor-
rowed, and never a higher sum than 2l. When
a stranger applies for a loan, the money-lender
satisfies himself as I have described of the bar-
row-lender. He charges 2d. a day for a loan
of 2s. 6d.; 3d. a day for 5s.; 6d. a day for 10s.; and 1s. a day for 1l. If the daily payments are
rendered regularly, at a month's end the terms
are reduced to 6d. a week for 5s.; 1s. for 10s.; and 2s. for 1l. "That's reckoned an extraor-
dinary small interest," was said to me, "only
4d. a day for a pound." The average may be 3s. a week for the loan of 20s.; it being only to a
few that a larger sum than 20s. is lent. "I paid
2s. a week for 1l. for a whole year," said one
man, "or 5l. 4s. for the use of a pound, and then
I was liable to repay the 1l." The principal,
however, is seldom repaid; nor does the lender
seem to expect it, though he will occasionally
demand it. One money-lender is considered to
have a floating capital of 150l. invested in loans
to costermongers. If he receive 2s. per week per
1l. for but twenty-six weeks in the year (and he
often receives it for the fifty-two weeks) — his
150l. brings him in 390l. a year.

Sometimes a loan is effected only for a day,
generally a Saturday, as much as 2s. 6d. being
sometimes given for the use of 5s.; the 5s. being
of course repaid in the evening.

The money-lenders are subject to at least
twice the extent of loss to which the barrow-
lender is exposed, as it is far oftener that money
is squandered (on which of course no interest
can be paid) than that a barrow is disposed of.

The money-lenders, (from the following state-
ment, made to me by one who was in the habit
of borrowing,) pursue their business in a not
very dissimilar manner to that imputed to those
who advance larger sums: — "If I want to bor-
row in a hurry," said my informant, "as I may

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hear of a good bargam, I run to my neighbour
L — 's, and he first says he hasn't 20s. to lend,
and his wife's by, and she says she hasn't 2s. in
her pocket, and so I can't be accommodated.
Then he says if I must have the money he'll
have to pawn his watch, — or to borrow it of Mr.
— , (an innkeeper) who would charge a deal
of interest, for he wasn't paid all he lent two
months back, and 1s. would be expected to be
spent in drink — though L — don't drink — or he
must try if his sister would trust him, but she was
sick and wanted all her money — or perhaps his
barrow-merchant would lend him 10s., if he'd
undertake to return 15s. at night; and it ends by
my thinking I've done pretty well if I can get
1l. for 5s. interest, for a day's use of it."

The beer-shop keepers lend on far easier
terms, perhaps at half the interest exacted by
the others, and without any regular system of
charges; but they look sharp after the repay-
ment, and expect a considerable outlay in beer,
and will only lend to good customers; they how-
ever have even lent money without interest.

"In the depth of last winter," said a man of
good character to me, "I borrowed 5s. The
beer-shop keeper wouldn't lend; he'll rather
lend to men doing well and drinking. But I
borrowed it at 6d. a day interest, and that 6d. a day I paid exactly four weeks, Sundays and
all; and that was 15s. in thirty days for the use
of 5s. I was half starving all the time, and then
I had a slice of luck, and paid the 5s. back slap,
and got out of it."

Many shopkeepers lend money to the stall-
keepers, whom they know from standing near
their premises, and that without interest. They
generally lend, however, to the women, as they
think the men want to get drunk with it.
"Indeed, if it wasn't for the women," said a
costermonger to me, "half of us might go to
the Union."

Another mode of usurious lending or trading
is, as I said before, to provide the costermonger
— not with the stock-money — but with the stock
itself. This mode also is highly profitable to
the usurer, who is usually a costermonger, but
sometimes a greengrocer. A stock of fruit, fish,
or vegetables, with a barrow for its conveyance,
is entrusted to a street-seller, the usual way
being to "let him have a sovereign's worth."
The value of this, however, at the market cost,
rarely exceeds 14s., still the man entrusted with
it must carry 20s. to his creditor, or he will
hardly be trusted a second time. The man
who trades with the stock is not required
to pay the 20s. on the first day of the transac-
tion, as he may not have realised so much,
but he must pay some of it, generally 10s., and must pay the remainder the next day or
the money-lender will decline any subsequent
dealings.

It may be thought, as no security is given,
and as the costermongering barrow, stock, or
money-lender never goes to law for the recovery
of any debt or goods, that the per centage is
not so very exorbitant after all. But I ascer-
tained that not once in twenty times was the
money lender exposed to any loss by the non-
payment of his usurious interest, while his
profits are enormous. The borrower knows
that if he fail in his payment, the lender will
acquaint the other members of his fraternity,
so that no future loan will be attainable, and
the costermonger's business may be at an end.
One borrower told me that the re-payment of
his loan of 2l., borrowed two years ago at 4s. a
week, had this autumn been reduced to 2s. 6d. a week: "He's a decent man I pay now," he
said; "he has twice forgiven me a month at a
time when the weather was very bad and the
times as bad as the weather. Before I borrowed
of him I had dealings with — . He was a
scurf. If I missed a week, and told him I
would make it up next week, `That won't do,'
he'd say, `I'll turn you up. I'll take d — d
good care to stop you. I'll have you to rights.'
If I hadn't satisfied him, as I did at last, I
could never have got credit again; never." I
am informed that most of the money-lenders,
if a man has paid for a year or so, will now
"drop it for a month or so in a very hard-up
time, and go on again." There is no I.O.U.
or any memorandum given to the usurer.
"There's never a slip of paper about it, sir,"
I was told.

I may add that a very intelligent man from
whom I derived information, said to me con-
cerning costermongers never going to law to
recover money owing to them, nor indeed for
any purpose: "If any one steals anything from
me — and that, as far as I know, never happened
but once in ten years — and I catch him, I take
it out of him on the spot. I give him a jolly
good hiding and there's an end of it. I know
very well, sir, that costers are ignorant men, but
in my opinion" (laughing) "our never going
to law shows that in that point we are in
advance of the aristocrats. I never heard of a
coster in a law court, unless he was in trouble
(charged with some offence) — for assaulting a
crusher, or anybody he had quarrelled with, or
something of that kind."

The barrow-lender, when not regularly paid,
sends some one, or goes himself, and carries
away the barrow.

My personal experience with this peculiar
class justifies me in saying that they are far
less dishonest than they are usually believed to
be, and much more honest than their wandering
habits, their want of education and "principle"
would lead even the most charitable to suppose.
Since I have exhibited an interest in the suffer-
ings and privations of these neglected people,
I have, as the reader may readily imagine, had
many applications for assistance, and without
vanity, I believe I may say, that as far as
my limited resources would permit, I have
striven to extricate the street-sellers from the
grasp of the usurer. Some to whom I have
lent small sums (for gifts only degrade strug-
gling honest men into the apathy of beggars)
have taken the money with many a protesta-

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tion that they would repay it in certain weekly
instalments, which they themselves proposed, but
still have never made their appearance before
me a second time — it may be from dishonesty
and it may be from inability and shame —
others, however, and they are not a few, have
religiously kept faith with me, calling punctu-
ally to pay back a sixpence or a shilling as the
precariousness of their calling would permit,
and doing this, though they knew that I abjured
all claims upon them but through their honour,
and was, indeed, in most cases, ignorant where
to find them, even if my inclination led me to
seek or enforce a return of the loan. One case
of this kind shows so high a sense of honour
among a class, generally considered to rank
among the most dishonourable, that, even at the
risk of being thought egotistical, I will mention
it here: — "Two young men, street-sellers,
called upon me and begged hard for the loan of
a little stock-money. They made needle-cases
and hawked them from door to door at the east
end of the town, and had not the means of buy-
ing the wood. I agreed to let them have ten
shillings between them; this they promised to
repay at a shilling a week. They were utter
strangers to me; nevertheless, at the end of the
first week one shilling of the sum was duly
returned. The second week, however, brought
no shilling, nor did the third, nor the fourth, by
which time I got to look upon the money as
lost; but at the end of the fifth week one of the
men called with his sixpence, and told me how
he should have been with me before but his
mate had promised each week to meet him with
his sixpence, and each week disappointed him;
so he had come on alone. I thanked him, and
the next week he came again; so he did the
next, and the next after that. On the latter
occasion he told me that in five more weeks he
should have paid off his half of the amount
advanced, and that then, as he had come with
the other man, he would begin paying off his share as well!"

Those who are unacquainted with the charac-
ter of the people may feel inclined to doubt the
trustworthiness of the class, but it is an extraor-
dinary fact that but few of the costermongers
fail to repay the money advanced to them, even
at the present ruinous rate of interest. The
poor, it is my belief, have not yet been suffi-
ciently tried in this respect; — pawnbrokers, loan-
offices, tally-shops, dolly-shops, are the only
parties who will trust them — but, as a startling
proof of the good faith of the humbler classes
generally, it may be stated that Mrs. Chisholm
(the lady who has exerted herself so benevolently
in the cause of emigration) has lent out, at diffe-
rent times, as much as 160,000l. that has been
entrusted to her for the use of the "lower
orders," and that the whole of this large amount
has been returned — with the exception of 12l.!

I myself have often given a sovereign
to professed thieves to get "changed," and
never knew one to make off with the money.
Depend upon it, if we would really improve,
we must begin by elevating instead of de-
grading.