London Labour and the London Poor, Volume 1
Mayhew, Henry
1861
Of the Capital and Income of the Street-Sellers of Eatables and Drinkables.
I now give a summary of the Capital and Income of the street-sellers of eatables and drinkables. But, , I will endeavour to arrive at an estimate of the total number of people belonging to the class. | |
The street-sellers engaged in the sale of eatables and drinkables, are, summing the several items before given, altogether : of whom sell pea-soup and hot eels; , pickled whelks; , fried fish; , sheeps trotters; , ham-sandwiches; , baked 'tatoes; , hot green peas; , meat; , bread; , cat and dogs' meat; , coffee and tea; , ginger-beer, lemonade, sherbet, &c.; , elderwine; , peppermint-water; , milk; , curds and whey and rice-milk; , water; , pies; , boiled pudding; , plum "duff"; , cakes and tarts; , plum-cakes; , other cheaper cakes; , gingerbread-nuts; , cross-buns; , muffins and crumpets; , sweet stuff; , cough-drops; , ice-creams. But many of the above are only temporary trades. The streetsale of hot cross-buns, for instance, lasts only for a day; that of muffins and crumpets, baked potatoes, plum-"duff," cough-drops, elder-wine, and rice-milk, are all purely winter trades, while the sale of ginger-beer, lemonade, ice-creams, and curds and whey, is carried on solely in the summer. By this means the number of the street-sellers of eatables and drinkables, never at any time reaches the amount before stated. In summer there are, in addition to the costers before mentioned, about people, and in winter between and , engaged in the eatable and drinkable branch of the street-traffic. | |
As regards the Capital and Income, many minute accounts have been prepared. | |
To show the care, as well as the fulness with which these returns have been made, I give of the Tables in its integrity, merely remarking, that similar tables relative to all the other articles have been made; but I condense the details, lest a repetition, however curious in its statistics, should prove wearisome. | |