OUTLINE OF THE PLAN OF A CUT, FOR CHEAPENING THE

NECESSARIES OF LIFE, A GOOD deal has been said, of late, about the exorbitant prices charged by retailers in this mighty city for every article of necessaiy consumption. For it is not undeserving of notice, that it is our neces- saries, and not our luxuries, with the exception perhaps of liquors and wines, on which the heaviest tax is laid by unconscionable shopkeepers. We mentioned last week a fact touching fish. We stated that salmon purchased at Billingsgate for 9d. the pound, had been retailed in Bond Street for 3s. 6d., being a moderate profit of about 300 percent! Much of the inconvenience, doubtless, and much of the downright knavery Under which the public suffer through those who draw the elements of their trade from the rivers and channels of the deep, may arise from the fact of there being but one fish-market in London. It cannot be ex- pected that any family, much less a small one, should send a servant five

miles on a purchase, even with the certainty of a considerable saving. But there is a trick of the trade among fishmongers, which the com- petition of another market would not wholly remedy. These persons, we are credibly informed, fix their prices in the morning when at mar- ket, and to these they adhere so rigidly, that sooner than abate their enormous profits, every night during summer whole cart-loads of fish are cast into the Thames!

When from fish we come to flesh, the difference between the prices paid by the dealer and those charged to the consumer are not less ex- orbitant. It was stated but the other day, that carcases might be broug,ht from the grazier at 4s. Gd. a stone,* which were afterwards re- tailed in London at 8d. a pound! But 8d. is, among respectable butchers, the lowest price of beef; the .prime pieces are much. higher ; and were we to make an exact average of roasting with boiling pieces, we should find it approach nearer to 9d. a poraid, for that which cost 31d.! The laws which authorized an assize o:' bread were framed on the assumption that a quarter of wheat would furnish flour for ninety-six quartern loaves very nearly ; we.are sure it will for any ninety-six that are manufactured in these degenerate days. The allowance by the act, for grinding, forming, baking, &c., as well as profit on capital, was 12s. per quarter. Now the last weekly average of wheat was 2/. 15s. id.; add to this 12s., which, had it not been found over much, the act would still have remained unaltered, and we have 3/. is. id. for ninety-six loaves ; which gives a fraction less than 8-1 for each,-while the selling price is 10d. The ordinary price of good potatoes is a penny- a pound ; if you can procure nine pounds for sevenpence, as some cautious housewives contrive to do, then you effect great thins. The former unionists to 91. Gs. 8d., the latter to 71. 5s. 2d. per ton ; the market value of the best Scotch or Irish potatoes being on an aver:mre about 3/. !

These are all actual necessaries : they consul ute the psi icipal items in the expenditure of the middling and nearly the ona- items in the ea- penditure of the lower classes of the community.

Tea, which cannot be called a luxury, for it is in nearly as general use as bread, bears, notwithst ending I he number of our grocers. an enormous retail profit. The black teas, commonly sold as the best, at- 7s. hid. and es., may be purchased freely at the India sales at from 48. 10d. to 58. 2d. per lb., duty included. - To a certain extent, wine is a necessary in most families. Now, French wines of an exceedme good quality (greatly superior, with the exception of a few choice samples that may be met occasionally, " like angel visits, few and far between," to any I hat are purchaseable in London) may, as every one knows who has visited France, be had for three francs and a half or four francs a bottle. We have now before us the carte of one of the most respectable wine-merchants in France, and his charge for the best clarets-those winch principally suit the English market and climate-(including bottles, the intrinsic vulue of which will more than cover the bottle-duty of two shillings per dozen) is 1/. 188. 4d. Hence we have- -n 8. d.

4

hi

0

10

For wine of this kind, or rather for a liquor whose prime cost is by no means so high, your wine-merchant makes a merit of charging you you only 84s.

So much for a few of our edibles and one of our drinkables ; let us now attend to clothing. The price of the cloth of winch the best coats with the exception of scarlet are made, is about 18s. a yard ; we have seen princely blues, purchased from the manufacturer at 16s. The prime cost of the materiel of a coat is therefore about 32s. Now, in London, when the cloth is furnished, thousands of tailors may be found who will undertake the making and furnish every extra for 208. But all jobs of this description, performed for individuals, are of neces- sity charged a great deal dearer than when done for a master. It will be sufficient in his case to allow 16s. This gives- s. Cloth 1 12 0 Making, S.:c. 0 16 0

Value ') 5 0 Master's charge 4 4 0

Profit .5.1 16 0 And this, be it observed, is the charge of a moderate tailor ; a fashion- able of the first water will charge you from five to six guineas. For stout walking-shoes we pay 12s. a pair, if London-made. The same shoes, country-macle, may be bought for is. 6d. ; which is about a shilling too much. Why should there be any difference between London shoes and country shoes, further than the difference of prices paid to workmen, which does not exceed sixpence a pins'? What shall we say of boots? We well recollect having purchased a pair in 1805 at 38s.; after a lapse of twenty-one years on revisiting the me- tropolis we had occasion for a pair, and found the price 38s. ! This one fact, as LISTON says, speaks libraries. The law of the vender is as the law of the Medes and Persians, it 'Mtereth not.

The people in Canada have a saying, that what costs a shilling in England, costs two at Quebec, four at Montreal, eight at Kingston, and sixteen at Antherstburg. We are not quite so badly off; but it is notorious that the stages, though not so distant between the original producer at the one end and the consumer at the other, are quite as numerous as between the Canadian at the head of Lake Superior and the shipper at Liverpool. And that a very large tollage is exacted at every halt along the line of transfer, the few examples we have given (it would be easy to multiply them) sufficiently show. What is the result ? The consumer is trodden in the dust, and the pettiest dealer

* Of Nabs, Cost per dozen

1 18

Duty on two gallons 0 14 Freight, and other charges (at the most) . . . 0 2

£2 14

acquires a fortune. Our shoemaker goes to Margate ; our tailor has his house at Chertsey ; as for our wine-merchant, we do not pretend to trace much less to limit his tours ; while we are content to scribble our fingers blue in December, and roast our livers to rags in the dog- days, in order to support their Itxuriating! It is of small use for one, or one dozen, to set themselves against abuses which necessity alone has put us and the public on investigating. A man who keeps his gig and has nothing to do, may, by threading the labyrinth of streets and alleys of the " great wen," contrive to find a cheap cheesemonger here, and a cheap butcher there ; but those whose time is occupied, and whose locomotive powers are such as nature bestows, must be content to be cheated as all their fathers have been. 13'itt what we are unequal to of our single selves, we may accomplish by combination. Like other feeble people, we may go forth against The enemy "in bands "—we may bear them down by numbers. We would, in plain language, have a Joint Stock Company, or Joint Stock Club, or call it by what name may appear most suitable, for the purpose of supplying ourselves with wherewithal for eating and drink- ing and being clothed. We have literary societies, scientific societies, clubs for good, clubs for evil, clubs for no purpose—why should we not have a society to spare our pockets ? and, we may add, to preserve our health also ? For without believing every word that is contained • in the tales of the horrible endited by Mr. Accusr, there can be little doubt that between the "wet 'uns" of the butcher, the horse beans of the baker, and the sloe juice of the wine-dealer, we run a daily risk of being poisoned in addition to the certainty of being plundered. To per- sons of fixed and moderate income, the plan we propose has singular advantages. The greater part of the income of a family that is in the receipt of three or four hundred a year is expended in such neces- saries as we have noticed above. To such a family, the saving from a combination which would insure to them the supply of good provisions (to say nothing of clothes) at a fair and moderately remunerating profit to the seller, could not be less than fifty or sixty pounds a year; which in fifteen or twenty years, would form a very pretty sum for the es- " tablishment of a son or the dower of a daughter. Indeed we feel, that in rating the saving that might be effected by the plan that we propose so low as fifty pounds on an income of three hundred, we are doing it injustice. The pay of the police constables, our readers know, is one guinea per week; by permitting them to purchase certain necessaries i at contract prices, this guinea s made worth about twenty-eight shil- lings. Now, at this rate, the saving on an income of 280/. would be 70/. And be it observed, that there are numerous articles (too tedious to mention, as the bills say) all of them grievously overpriced, for which Government makes no contract, and from the overcharges of which the police ,constables cannot be relieved by the permission alluded to. But reckoning the saving at 5ol. only, a society composed of one thou- sand heads of families, would be worth to its members no less a sum than 50,000/. per annum ! Societies such as we recommend are common in Scotland. We have seen the rules and accounts of several " bread societies," as they are called ; and it is astonishing with what slender means great savings are effected, even on an article that is exposed, we may say to uni- versal competition, in a country where, though moulding a loaf is seldom attempted, every house has its griddle cakes. In one case, that we have seen, the shares consisted of about 600, each entitling the holder to a loaf per week. The parties were mostly poor people ; the deposit only 5s. a share. With this little capital of 150/. the society began, and in ten years from its commencement it had accumulated a fund of nearly 8001.; and it had furnished bread on an average at something more than 2d. per loaf below the ordinary sale price. When it commenced, which was at a period of dearth, the difference was 4d. or about 33 per cent. of the price. This instance, which is one of many, shows what may be done, on a small scale, in a part of the country and on an ar- ticle very unfavourable to such a plan as we propose. Many persons may imagine that the mere operation of competition would effect all that we aim at. But here, fact is opposed to theory ; or rather, the local circumstances are such that the ordinary laws of competition do not apply to them. No trader in London, where hardly any man knows his next-door neighbour, can force sales by undersell- ing the rest. Were he to go on for twenty years, and advertise a for- tune away, he might,—but not otherwise. The large dealer charges high because he must make a fortune, the small because he must make a livelihood. Competition, in such cities as London, operates inversely; the more tradesmen multiply, the less chance there is of a fall of prices.

There are three objections to Joint Stock Companies, that we are prepared to hear urged,— First, the impossibility of procuring honest and conscientious ser- vants; Second, the heavy responsibility of the shareholders, in case of malversation ; Third, the argument from precedent---the almost universal failure of such schemes.

To the first objection we answer, that allowing all that has been said of human nature, the utrnast of tilt evil, in a society such as we propose, would be, that we ba avid 9:nrre to deal with rogues whose roguery we had the pOwer of watching and checking; whereas at pre- sent we have to deal with rogues whom we can neitl*avatch nor check. To the second, we say, that by our plan no responsibility needs be incurred; for in fact, a simple engagement to purchase would alone be necessary. But no responsibility can be dangerous where there is no possibility of loss. On the argument of precedent, we have to observe, that the prin- cipal cause of failure in other companies does not affect ours. They failed because they inverted the process by which individual specula- tions are rendered profitable. The cautious trader begins with "s stall ; he takes a shop when his business increases ; and when a shop will not hold his goods he hires a warehouse. The demand regularly precedes, and produces the supply. But the companies opened their warehouses before they had a solitary customer, and were ruined, not so much because they had purchased idly or inconsiderately, but be. cause they had no one to whom to sell. Now our warehouse would not open until the buyers were at the door. We secure the purchasers before we go to market. We know their numbers and their wants, and regulate our own purchases thereby. We sell only to ourselves. Half-a-dozen of families that buy a chest of tea and then divide it, might as well anticipate failure as the fruit of their speculation, as the shareholders of our company from theirs. We give to the plan the title of our plan, in order to save circumlo. cution. It is, as we noticed last week, furnished us by a friend, who has in reserve many regulations of detail. We do not submit the plan to our readers as complete, much less as not admitting of modi. fication. In fact, there is one important item—truly a housekeeping item, we mean the house itself—that our friend omits, but to which the attention of a society might be quite as profitably directed as to any other. In the following rules, the gentleman who furnished them very pro- perly makes a distinction between credit and cash payments. And here we cannot help observing, that, of all the elements of price, credit is the most capricious. The prices are enormously raised to all, in order to enable the merchants to speculate on the chances of ultimate payment from a wider circle of customers. The tax which is laid on the honest and the punctual, in order to meet the shortcomings of the dishonest and the dilatory, is greater than all that is levied by Govern. ment and the parish to hoot. We conclude, for the present, with AN OUTLINE OF THE SCHEME.

Let a society be formed of one, two, or three thousand persons, the immediate object of which shall be to provide the necessaries of life at the cheapest possible rate. Let every member of this club subscribe 10/. a year to the under- taking ; and let the fund so raised be applied in the first instance to pay the rent of premises and other necessary expenses, and the over- plus to the reduction of prices. Let the club have proper officers for its management. Let a committee of subscribers audit the accounts of the officers, and regulate their operations. Let the managers communicate directly with the farmer and the manufacturer, and contract for periodical supplies of the commodities which shall fall within the .design : and let proposals for contracts be made by tender, according to the plan adopted by the Government offices.

Let each subscriberbe entitled to purchase provisions at contract price. Let no credit be given for any longer period than three months, and even for that short period let a proportionate increase in price be charged. Let every subscriber be at liberty, on the payment of two guineas annually, to give to his own servants, workmen, and dependants, tickets entitling them to be supplied by the club at the same rate as himself.

Let the plan of the society include, in the first instance, the sale of the following articles only,—viz. butcher's meat, poultry, fish, vege- tables, fruit, bread, cheese, butter, eggs, milk, groceries, coals, candles, soap, and wine.