The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-09-20 00:00:00

THE MEAT SUPPLY OF LONDON.

The City Press glees the fellowiag suggestive particulars
of the most supply of Loudon
Of meat the supply is limited; it is never excessive.
There are too many useless and unnecessary persons
obtaining livelihoods between the producer end the
consumer. An animal fattened in Norfolk frequently
passes through three and four markets, and sales be-
fore it gets to the Cattle Market in London, and
there is often sold twice or thrice, then slaughtered,
and sent to the Meat Market in Smithfield, where
the carcase is sold and resold by the jobbers, and at
last finds its way into the shope of the retail butcher;
half-a-dozen profits, where, in the true interest of the
consumer, three or four of them could and should be
dispensed with.
The salesmen compete most keenly in obtaining the
best price they can in the interest of the consigner,
and, of course, he who is enabled to return the beat
price has the largest quantity of meat for sale. This
I. done by various promises. The first necessity i
capital; large credits are given. Frequently money is
foul:A for pereons in the eauntry to purchase the meat
and animals and send them to London. It is com-
monly understood in the markets that the retail men
who can pay ready money for their articles can pur-
chase Id. or lid. in the stone of 81b. cheaper than those
who take credit. Where one pays cash, five are credit
purchasers. This does not arise bee suss, the butcher
has not a fair amount of capital to carry on his busi-
ness, but because in some districts the retail tradesmen
take all ready money, while in others hardly any
person pays his tradesmen oftener than onoe • month,
and in some instances the butcher would lose his
customer if he asked for money more frequently than
once a year.
The dna thing necessary to bring about a more
healthy state of things is that the public should
pay cash on delivery for their food; less capital
would be requires' to carry on the trade, and a more
direct control over housekeeping expenses would arise,
a matter very necessary in these days of high prices.
The butcher then world be enabled to pay cash.
The Corporation, or whoever the market authority
may be, ought not to let the shops to persons who
are mere jobbers. The term "jobber" is not meant
to include that useful and necessary man, the cutting
salesman—viz • the man who purchases whole car-
CASSON takes them to his shop, outs them into quarters
or joints, and disposed of them to the butchers and
others from all parts of the metropolis. In the pork
trade, for instance, comparatively few of the pigs leave
the market whole. The retail pork butcher wants
some pigs in the carcass, but he also requires legs,
hands, and heads for sausage-making and brawn. The
chereemonger and poulterer require • few small legs
and loins of crackling pork, and the 000kshop and
eatinghonee keepers take various joints, but could not
dispose f the whole pig. The same may be said of
every description of animal that comes to market.
Prime joints, such as rumps and loins and fore-ribs of
beef and the best boiling parts find their way into, as
they are called, "swell neighbourhoods," while thin
and thick flanks, shins and legs, and clods and stick-
ings are taken for consumption to Golden-lane, Rat-
cliff-highway, and such-like localities, where the poor
most do congregate. These cutting salesmen are a
necessity, but not so the man who simply purchase.
the caroms, canned it to be taken to his shop in the
market, perhaps sells it to another of his own clams, or
to a cutting salesman, or to a retail butcher, lives out
of the business he does, and does no good to any one
but himself, for the consigner only gets what he gave
the salesman for it, and the consumer hail to pay more,
In consequence of the existence of this drone in the hive
as an unhealthy and unnecessary competitor with the
proper purchaser and the purveyor, the retail butcher.