Regency Economy: Cheesemongers

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CHEESEMONGER LIKE all other trades that consist of merely buying and selling the business of a Cheesemonger is only profitable to those who deal extensively particularly at the present period when every pursuit that is supposed to yield certain profit upon the employment of capital without requiring previous knowledge of the business is entered upon without due consideration and not only to the ruin of the speculators but also to those who are obliged to enter into com petition with them The Cheese factor or provision merchant purchases cheese butter and bacon from every part of the British Empire or indeed from any part of Europe where he can purchase with advantage and sells it to the retail dealers of the metropolis If a provision merchant is doing well that is pursuing a steady trade and realizing a profit without overcharging the retailers a number of persons that have money think it would be a good speculation as it is called to embark in the same trade and they rush into it money will procure goods but the difficulty is to find customers the regular steady shop keepers do not like to change factors without a motive goods are offered at a low price and the old factor finds his connexion is declining to retain which he too sells without profit this for a time makes the retailers successful and they soon begin to compete with each other when the profit is reduced in proportion to the prices It may be said that during this time the public are gainers though we doubt much if they are in the long run But this work is not intended to treat of the gain of the public but of the loss or gain of particular trades and there is no retail shopkeeper that has realized a little property by the steady pursuit of fair trade but must see that great competition in the wholesale trade invariably leads to ruinous competition among the retailers It therefore follows that they would be studying their own interests by adhering to a steady
regular course of trade rather than by the encouragement of greedy speculators who without slaking their own thirst pollute the fountain that others have to drink from There is no great deal of talent required in a retail Cheesemonger he should be a judge of the articles he deals in and be able to cal culate the market that is the probable increase or decrease of price at particular periods so that he may not overstock himself with a particular article at a season when he may reasonably suppose it will fall in price Many retail Cheesemongers import butter from Holland and some purchase the produce of whole dairies from the dairy men of the midland counties of England giving a certain price per pound from one half year to another by this arrangement the retailer can calculate upon the supply and the price to the public is regular Speculation and agricultural distress have in a great measure altered this mode of business the butter is now sent from the country in flats to Newgate market and sold to the retail shop keepers by the butter salesman who returns the money at stated periods deducting a commission for selling it thus neither the farmer retailer or the public can at all calculate upon the price as that entirely depends upon the demand from day to day A great quantity of salted butter and bacon comes from Ireland the latter is now so well cured that it is quite equal to the bacon from any part of England and as it is sold cheap the importation of Irish bacon is a great advantage to the labouring part of the population It is not usual to take apprentices in this business indeed there is so little to learn that a much less time than seven years would suffice to teach all that is required in this business the boys that are employed as errand boys as they grow up become shopmen Shopman to a Cheesemonger is a dirty laborious employment and the wages are not very good A small capital will enable a person to get into this business but as has been before observed the profits of the trade at the present time are so small that unless he does a considerable business it is scarcely worth following The Complete Book of Trades, Or the Parents’ Guide and Youths’ Instructor (1837)

Fascinating insight into one of the trades of the Regency.

For other posts about Regency era trades:

Regency Travel: Coachmen (Part 1)

Regency Economy: The Gardener

Regency Hot Spots: Chief Seats of Particular Trades

Regency Economy: The Straw Hat Maker

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