Consort; and royal influence was not slow in enforcing such regulations as would bring the fish to that market which best suited the exchequer of the royal ladies. Hence there was often a struggle between the fish-dealers and the court party, between whom the Corporation held its way as best it could. Queenhithe never did and never could extinguish its rival; on the contrary, as freedom of commerce gradually arose, the fishdealers gradually brought into a regular system the location of the fish-market just below the bridge. When Queenhithe was the chief landing-place for fish, the fishmongers congregated in the neighbouring streets; and Old Fish Street, Fish Street Hill, &c., thus acquired their names. Old Fish Street first had mere fish-boards, then stalls, then sheds, then shops, and lastly houses, for the accommodation of the fishmongers. There was in the 15th century a considerable space occupied as a fishmarket, a little to the north-west of Old London Bridge, where now narrow streets abound. Fish were also sold at Stocks' Market, on the site of which the Mansion House now stands; and many of the principal fishmongers established themselves in the street directly in a line with the bridge, then called Bridge Street, but now New Fish Street and Fish Street Hill. The fishmongers and dealers in these places made strenuous efforts at different times to suppress the sale of fish by humbler dealers or by hawkers; but this they could not effect. The Fishmongers' Company was a powerful corporation from a very early period: at one time an offshoot from it existed, comprising the stock-fishmongers, or those who dealt only in dried and salted fish. The Company had halls in Old Fish Street, New Fish Street, and Thames Street. In 1699 an Act of Parliament was passed, which made Billingsgate a free market for fish, and established certain regulations which somewhat curtailed the monopolizing powers of the more wealthy fishmongers. Among the strangest statutes passed in bygone times are two or three having for their object to induce the people to eat more fish ; and at different times within the last century associations and projects were framed, having the same object in view. It was sometimes urged that fish would be cheaper to the people than meat; at others, that by eating the fatness of the sea instead of the fatness of the land, our national wealth would be husbanded; and at others, again, that by encouraging the fisheries we should raise up a goodly number of hardy fishermen, and at the same time form a nursery for seamen. Billingsgate, we need hardly say, occupies an open nook westward of the Custom House. It comprises a dock for the ships, and an open market for the fish dealers. The fishing vessels come from various stations-Feversham, Maldon, Rochester, Colchester, Dover, &c. The vessels arrive in the evening and during the night, and take up their moorings alongside of each other in regular order, the oyster-boats being placed by themselves. A floating-barge or platform lies withinside these tiers of boats, and to this platform flights of steps descend from the market. But fish is now received also by railway at Billingsgate from Liverpool, Bristol, Hartlepool, and from other quarters, which were precluded from profitable communication with it when the means of transit were not sufficiently rapid for so perishable an article. The railways from London to the southern coast, especially, have greatly increased the facility of supply. On the other hand, if a larger supply be received, the quantity taken off by the railways is quite as great. The very extraordinary change which has taken place in the supply of salmon for Billingsgate market, since it has been brought by steam-vessels from Scotland in fortyeight hours, may to some extent indicate the effect which the railways will have in extending the consumption of fish of all kinds in those parts of the country where hitherto it has been scarce and dear. Perhaps as many as ten salmon are now taken in a year in the Thames: and Sir Humphry Davy, in his 'Salmonia,' says that a skil ful angler may take about one in a week at Christchurch. If the supply from Scotland were stopped, salmon, instead of being three or four shillings the pound, as they were when three thousand were taken in a year in the Thames, would be as dear as turtle. A commission agent for the sale of salmon at Billingsgate, who was examined before a Parliamentary Committee in 1800, and who had been in the trade ever since 1750, said "There have been several changes in the mode of doing business in my time. We brought salmon on horseback about thirty years ago; since that, in light carts and other carriages; and now, by water, packed in ice." Previous to the last change the supply was inconsiderable, and a large proportion of it was derived from the rivers in England. The fish were then packed in straw. Pennant, in his 'British Zoology,' written seventy-five years ago, gives the following account of the salmontrade at Berwick: "Most of the salmon taken before April, or the setting in of the warm weather, is sent fresh to London in baskets, unless now and then the vessel is disappointed by contrary winds of sailing immediately. In that case the fish is brought ashore again to the cooper's offices, and boiled, pickled, and kitted, and sent to the London markets by the same ship, and fresh salmon put in the baskets in lieu of the stale ones. At the beginning of the season, when a ship is on the point of sailing, a fresh clean salmon will sell from 1s. to 1s. 6d. per lb. ; and most of the time that this part of the trade is carried on, the prices are from 5s. to 9s. per stone of 18lbs., the value rising and falling according to the plenty of fish, or the prospect of a fair or foul wind. The price of fresh fish in the month of July, when they are most plentiful, has been known to be as low as 8d. per stone; but last year (1768) never less than 1s. 4d., and from that to 2s. 6d." The trade in fresh salmon ceased by the end of April, as the increasing temperature of the season rendered it impossible to bring the fish to market in a proper state. In case the voyage from Berwick to London proved longer than usual, the vessel was run into the nearest port, and the cargo, which would have been spoiled had it been brought to London, was disposed of. The trade had nearly ceased at the time when it is now the most active, as the heat of the water spoiled the fish during a long voyage. In the Correspondence of the late Sir George Sinclair there is a letter from Mr. George Dempster, which relates the following history of the present mode of packing salmon in ice :-" One day, about the year 1784 or 1785, Mr. Alexander Dalrymple, a faithful servant to the East India Company, and I were shown into one of the waiting-rooms of the East India House. During our stay there, among other interesting matters respecting his voyages, Mr. Dalrymple told me the coasts of China abounded with snow-houses; that the fishers of China carried snow in their boats, and, by means thereof, were able in the heat of summer to convey fresh fish into the very interior parts of China. I took pen and ink, and on the spot wrote an account of this conversation to Mr. Richardson, who, as well as others, has been in the practice of conveying salmon in ice from the river Tay to London, and from Aberdeen, Montrose, and Inverness, places of five, six, and seven hundred miles. In Mr. Richardson I found a very grateful correspondent, for soon afterwards I received, on a New Year's Day, a letter from him, containing a draft on his banker for £200 to purchase a piece of plate for Mrs. Dempster." Packed in boxes as soon as caught, and covered with pounded ice which froze into a solid mass, salmon could be preserved in an excellent state for six days, and the smacks were exclusively freighted with them. There were previously two branches of salmon-traders in London, one depending upon land-carriage, and the other on the supplies by sea; but the former soon found their occupation gone after this discovery. Steam navigation has rendered the improvement perfect. The arrivals of salmon at Billingsgate average about 30 boxes per day in February and March, each box weighing about 1 cwt.; 50 boxes in April; from 80 to 100 in May; beginning of June from 200 to 300, and at the latter end of the month 500 boxes per day; which number gradually increases until it amounts during the end of July and the early part of August to 1000 boxes, and frequently more. The average price for the season is about 10d., and is occasionally as low as 5d. and 6d. : it is lowest when the fish is in the greatest perfection. The quantity brought to Billingsgate in a year is probably more than 2500 tons. It is sent on commission to agents, who charge 5 per cent. and take the risk of bad debts. This business is in few hands, and those engaged in it are the most wealthy of all the dealers in fish. Billingsgate Market is divided into avenues, lined with stalls, each of which is occupied by a fish salesman; and there are fish-porters, who form the means of communication between the vessels and the stalls. A visitor who wishes to see Billingsgate in all its life should rise betimes, and reach the market by five in the morning. At a few minutes before five the salesmen take their seats, each at his respective stall; but before this time the porters have all got their loads ready for instant transmission to the stalls; for there is a rapidity in the operations at Billingsgate not paralleled in any of the other markets. Fish is so precious when of fine quality, so worthless when stale, that fluctuations in its value may be almost measured by minutes; and as the west-end fishmongers are willing to pay a higher price for the privilege of first choice, both fishermen and salesmen are eager to have their fish displayed as early as possible. Hence, as impartiality is strictly enforced by the clerk of the market, each dealer is left to make the best of his time when the proper hour arrives. At the striking of the hour the porters, who have been standing in a row at the lower end of the market, with their laden fish-baskets on their heads, run forward, deposit their fish at the stalls of the respective salesmen to whom they are consigned, and run as nimbly back to bring fresh supplies. So uncertain is the supply at the hour of commencement, that there is no knowing what price the fish will command, until the salesmen have fairly displayed their stores and the dealers have assembled. The salesman names a price, high or low, according to his judgment of the relation between supply and demand at the moment. In most cases the dealer offers a lower price, and an actual purchase price soon establishes itself between them. Oysters are sold in a different way; the dealers go on board the oyster-boats, and there make their purchases. During the first hour the market is wholly in the hands of the higher class of fishmongers, those who select the best fish and pay the highest price; then come the fishmongers of humbler rank, and afterwards the street hawkers, who buy up everything that is left. Fish, unlike corn, cannot be kept back until the price rises it must go for whatever it will fetch; hence, towards the close of the market, hawkers can sometimes buy fish at remarkably low prices. The wholesale market is over at nine o'clock. There are in addition a few miscellaneous branches of import, which, though small in reference to the general trade of London, would appear large almost anywhere else. The import of Potatoes, for instance, which is chiefly carried on along the Southwark shore, employs many coasting vessels, and numerous men as porters, &c. Hay and Straw are brought both up and down the river, and a great portion of the import is landed at the lower part of Hungerford Market; to this spot also are brought great quantities of Fresh Vegetables in small wherries, from the market-gardens higher up the river, but only for transit thence to Covent Garden Market. The Custom House system has been already noticed in No. 6. |