during the sixteenth century for stowing the corn craned out of the barges and lighters, to the building of which Sir John Lion, who had filled the office of Lord Mayor, left the sum of 1007. in 1554. In 1565 this warehouse was enlarged at the cost of the City. It appears, however, that quite at the close of the century the corn-market at Queenhithe was nearly deserted, and the meters and porters no longer "lived well of their labours," as they had formerly done. Stow says, writing at this time, that "the bakers of London and other citizens travel into the countries, and buy their corn of the farmers after the farmers' prices."

The corn-market on Cornhill, which gives its name to one of the City wards, and that of St. Michael-le-Quern were the ancient corn-markets of the City. Stow speaks of the one on Cornhill as having been "time out of mind there holden." The proper name of the other was St. Michael-ad-Bladum, or at the Corn, "because," says Stow, "in place thereof was sometime a corn-market.” It was at the west-end of Cheapside; and the parish is now united to that of St. Vedast in Foster Lane.

Bread Street, which also gives its name to one of the wards of the City, was anciently the market for bread, though in Stow's time it was wholly inhabited by "rich merchants, and divers fair inns be there." Stow had read, but where he does not state, that in 1396 Basing Lane, a little to the castward of Bread Street, was once called the Bakehouse, " whether meant for the king's bakehouse, or of bakers dwelling there and baking bread to serve the market in Bread Street, where the bread was sold, I know not." To force traders of all kinds to vend their commodities as far as possible in the open market was the common policy of the middle ages, founded upon a considerate regard for the interests of the poorer classes of consumers; and the tolls were, no doubt, an object of some importance. In 1302, according to Stow, the bakers of London "were bounden to sell no bread in their shops or houses, but in the market.” An ordinance of the year 1318 states that they were bound to take the bread in a basket into the King's market, so that, if it were not "competent according to the market of corn, the baker's body should answer for it." The Fellowship of Bakers held four hall-motes during the year to determine respecting "enormities" of which the members of their craft had been guilty. In 1370 a Stratford baker, for making bread less than the assize, was drawn on a hurdle through the streets of the City, with a fool's-cap on his head, and about his neck were suspended his loaves of deficient weight. In the Assize of Bread, given in Arnold's 'Chronicle,' the penny wheat-loaf of Stratford-le-Bow was to weigh six ounces more than the penny wheat-loaf of London, and the penny loaf of Stratford was to be equal in weight to the three-halfpenny wheat-loaf of London. The object of the assize of bread was to compel the bakers to increase the size of their loaves in proportion to the fall in the price of wheat. Thus, according to the assize fixed at the commencement of the last century, when wheat was 30s. the quarter the penny loaf was to weigh rather more than sixteen ounces; and when wheat rose to 66s., the weight of the penny loaf was reduced to about seven ounces; a margin of 12s. the quarter being allowed for the cost of baking and other charges. The assize of bread for the City of London was regulated by statute in the reign of Queen Anne, and was finally abolished in 1815. It was an ancient

custom of the Bakers' Company to present a loaf of wastel and one of cocket out of the oven to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, in which state it was to be weighed. The materials were purchased by four "sworn and discreet men" in the sack, upon the pavement, in each of the three markets of Gross-church, St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, and Queenhithe,-a quarter of bread-corn or meal being purchased at each market. The bakers of London were forbidden by ancient ordinances to bake loaves of household bread to sell at more than twopence each, except at Christmas, under the penalty of forfeiting such larger loaves to the poor; and neither they nor others were to utter or sell by retail, except at funerals and at Easter and Christmas, either spice-cakes, buns, biscuits, or other spice-bread.

The bakers of Stratford, to whom allusion has been made, were for several centuries engaged in supplying the city with bread, but they had ceased to frequent it about thirty years before Stow wrote. They bought the corn which came by the river Lea. Stow gives the following account of them :-"Ye shall understand that of old time the bakers of bread at Stratford were allowed to bring daily (except the Sabbath and principal feasts) divers long carts laden with bread, the same being two ounces in the penny wheat-loaf heavier than the penny wheat-loaf baked in the city, the same to be sold in Cheap, three or four carts standing there, between Gutherans (Gutter) Lane and Foster Lane, and one cart on Cornhill, by the Conduit, and one other in Grass Street." The Cheap, or market (now Cheapside), presented scenes as varied and animated during the middle ages as the Toledo of Naples in the present day. The shops in the Cheap resembled sheds, and many of the dealers had simply stalls or standings, for which they paid a rent of from 11s. to 28s. a-ycar. Around the old cross of Cheap the mercers sold their spices, drugs, toys, and small wares generally. A number of other dealers had their shops or stalls in the street of Cheap, the appearance of which in the fourteenth century resembled a market or fair. In a time of scarcity the Stratford bread-carts would be surrounded by a clamorous throng, or there would be uproarious hilarity at the sight of the dishonest baker drawn on a hurdle through the busy thoroughfare.

Of the other class whose avocation brings them to the corn-market-the millers-we have not much information. The monks of Rochester had a mill at Southwark before the Conquest, and the Templars had mills on the River Fleet, which, on the complaint of the citizens, were removed in 1199, after inspection by the Mayor and the Constable of the Tower, in consequence of their diverting the stream. In 1255 there were floating mills for grinding corn on the Thames, which were set in motion by the tide. In 1588 the Lord Mayor permitted four corn-mills to be erected on the river at the Bridge-house.

The other ancient corn-markets, besides those of Cornhill and St. Michael-leQuern, were those at Leadenhall, Newgate, Queenhithe, Graschurch, and Southwark. The situation of the City granaries has already been mentioned. First they were at Leadenhall and the Bridge-house; at the latter place in the first instance for the City only, and then for the twelve great companies, until they kept their stores of corn at their own halls. At one time the City had naries at Bridewell and at Christchurch.

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At the beginning of the last century the metropolitan corn-market was held

at Bear Quay, in Thames Street; Queenhithe was the great market for flour and meal; and the White Horse Inn meal-market, near Holborn Bridge, is mentioned, and is doubtless the one alluded to by Strype as appointed to be held near the river Fleet. The present system of factorage in the corn-trade is stated to have existed only about one hundred and fifty years. The traditional report of its origin ascribes it to the custom of a number of Essex farmers, who frequented an inn at Whitechapel, leaving with the landlord or waiter samples of the corn and grain, of which they had small parcels unsold, with a commission to sell for them, and thus they were not compelled to attend the next market. The predecessor of one of the oldest houses now in the trade, in beginning to sell by commission, had a stand on Tower Hill, and in the course of a few years the number who were profitably engaged in the same way had so much increased, that the old Corn Exchange in Mark Lane was projected and opened in 1747. Eighty years afterwards a second Corn Exchange was contemplated, and was opened in 1828. The two buildings adjoin each other, in Mark Lane.

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The lower part of the Old Corn Exchange consists of an open colonnade, with modern Doric pillars very singularly placed. There are windows in the two stories forming the upper part of the building. The interior forms a court in which the factors have their stands. In a critical work on the Edifices of London,' by W. H. Leeds, Esq., it is remarked of this building that it might pass for the model of the atrium, or place of audience, in a Pompeian house, with its impluvium (the space in the centre in which the rain fell). The New Corn Exchange is in the Grecian Doric style. It is favourably situated for so narrow a locality, being placed at a bend of the street, so that the stranger comes upon it unawares, and it presents several features of originality in design and other points of interest to the architectural student, which are elaborately criticised in the work of Mr. Leeds just alluded to. The interior is lighted by a lantern with vertical lights in the centre space within the columns, and the compartments on each side have skylights in their ceilings. The stands of the corn-factors, to the number of eighty and upwards, are along the sides of the building. On them are placed small bags and wooden bowls with samples of different kinds of grain, and behind is a desk for the factor or his clerk, with something of the convenience of a counting-house. Lightermen and granary-keepers have stands as well as corn-merchants, factors, and millers. The seed market is held in another part of the building. In the north wing is a tavern and coffee-room, and the opening in the south side of the other wing communicates with the Old Corn Exchange. The metropolitan market for corn, grain, and seeds is now entirely confined to Mark Lane. The market-days are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the first being by far the busiest day of the three; and the hours of business are from ten to three. A bargain does not become valid until an hour after the commencement of business on the next market-day. The general commercial reader will perhaps be interested in knowing that wheat is paid for in bills at one month, and all other descriptions of corn and grain in bills at two months. But the Kentish

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hoymen," who may be distinguished by their sailors' jackets, are privileged by the custom of the market to sell for ready money, though of course they sell only what they bring up themselves. They have stands free of expense, and pay less for metage and dues than others. The Essex dealers also enjoy some privileges.

Their origin, in both cases, is said to have been in consideration of the men of Kent and Essex having continued to supply the City at a time when it was ravaged by the plague.

On the arrival of a cargo of corn or grain in the river it is subject to a variety of regulations which are but little known out of the trade. Whether it be from our own ports or from a foreign country, a number of dues are collected by the City authorities, under the several heads of water-bailliage, groundage, Lord Mayor's and cocket dues. The city claims by prescription the right of measuring corn, as well as several other articles which enter the port of London, and the crew are not permitted to undertake this duty, but it is performed by the sworn corn-meters and the fellowship porters. In 1833 the total charge upon the public for metage of corn was 23,6261., out of which the City derived a net profit of 5819%. The number of corn-meters is one hundred and fifty. They are appointed by a committee of the corporation of London, called the Coal and Corn Committee, and attend daily at their office in Tower Street and Brook's Wharf, to be at all times ready for whoever requires their services. The senior meters have the choice of work, and the junior is obliged to undertake whatever is offered, though he may sometimes be a loser by the job, as he may be required to measure a small quantity of corn in any part of the river between Staines and Yantlet Creek. The fellowship porters are three thousand in number, and are appointed by the Alderman of Billingsgate Ward, who is ex-officio Governor of the Fellowship. They have a prescriptive right to the porterage of all corn, fruit, salt, potatoes, &c., coming into the port of London; and the number always at work is about fifteen hundred. The seniors have the choice of work in the same manner as the coal-meters. These two bodies show what the ancient state of industry was in England when nearly each sort of employment was surrounded by certain privileges and monopolies. A provision is made for the corn-meters when they become old and infirm, and this is done out of the metage charges. All the corn and grain from Kent, most part of that from Essex, and part of that from Suffolk, is brought to London in sacks. Foreign and Irish corn, English oats and barley, and peas and beans, are brought in loose bulk. The quantity brought in each ship varies from 200 to as many as 2500 quarters, and even 3000 quarters. The vessels from Kent and Essex bring from 300 to 500 quarters at a time; those from Norfolk and Suffolk average 500 or 600 quarters; and from Ireland

the quantity varies from 700 to 1100 or 1200 quarters. The largest cargoes are brought from the Baltic and Odessa. About 37 bushels of wheat, or 4 quarters 5 bushels, weigh a ton-about 45 bushels of barley, and 55 or 56 bushels of oats, while beans and peas are rather heavier than wheat. The cargo of a Kentish hoy sometimes belongs to as many as twenty different farmers.

When the ship is ready for delivery, the meter, and seven or sometimes eight of the fellowship porters, go on board. Two of the latter dip into the bulk with their concave wooden shovels, and the meter completes the filling up of the bushel, when one of the two porters passes the strike over the surface, and a third holds the sack into which the other two pour the contents of the bushel, which is hoisted up by the three porters on the deck, one of whom bears it over the ship's side. It is shot into the lighter in loose bulk, and, on arriving at the granary, it is again measured, and carried in sacks to the floor where it is intended to be stored, when it is again shot loose. When sold, the buyer sends sacks for it to the granary, and another measuring takes place. The meter and his attendants are able to measure 600 or 700 quarters of oats a-day, and even 800 quarters a-day are occasionally measured; but it is a good day's work to measure 450 quarters of barley or 400 quarters of wheat. When wheat arrives in sacks it is measured at the rate of 70 an hour, containing 35 quarters. To accomplish this the meter and his seven or eight men are required to be very active. Four men are employed in the hold, and three men and the meter are on deck. Two of the former raise the sack, and at the same instant the other two place the slings under it, and immediately those on deck hoist it up, the contents are poured into the bushel, and the meter passes the strike over the surface. Two of the three men hold the bushel, the third holds the sack, which, as soon as filled, is hoisted over the side of the vessel.

The granaries are lofty and spacious buildings of six or seven floors or stories, those of the largest kind being capable of holding from six to seven thousand quarters of corn on each floor; but the granaries, of course, vary in size, some only being able to contain two or three thousand quarters. They are numerous about Bermondsey and Shad Thames, where the largest are; but there are granaries on each side of the river from Greenwich to Vauxhall. Those in which foreign corn is bonded are places of greater security, and admit of the regulations of the Custom House being strictly followed. The granaries adjacent to the Commercial Docks are chiefly used for foreign corn, and some, though not any large quantity, is stored in the warehouses at each of the docks. The peculiar restrictions relating to the importation of foreign corn sometimes render it expedient to keep it in the granary for several years, the fluctuating duty ranging so high that, with all the charges upon it, it cannot be liberated at a profit. Four or five years ago above 2000 quarters of wheat were thrown into the river rather than the owners would submit to pay the high duty or keep it for a longer period subject to granary rent and other charges. In the last four years the duty has sunk to the lowest point during one week in each year, and this event being foreseen, or perhaps being designedly brought about by the merchants and importers withholding supplies in anticipation of the rise of prices and the fall of duty, an immense quantity of corn is suddenly taken out of bond the moment the duty sinks. Above two million quarters of wheat were