Mitchell 1984: comércio urbano de varejo na Inglaterra 1700-1815

MITCHELL Ian, “The development of urban retailing 1700-1815”. In CLARK P (Ed) The Transformation of English provincial towns, 1600-1800. London: Hutchinson 1984, pp.259-283.

Capa editada por Àbeiradourbanismo

(..) As the eighteenth century progressed two particular problems affecting markets became more acute. The first concerned the sitting of the market. Traditionally markets were held near the centre of the town and usually took up space in the streets obstructing traffic and, particularly if items like meet of livestock were sold, causing a considerable nuisance. As town populations grew the nuisance became worse and, at least in those places which had pretensions as shopping and cultural centres, the smell, filth and chaos were intolerable. Moves to tidy up the market and ease congestion were a major aspect of eighteenth-century town improvement.

For example, the Macclesfield authorities tried in the 1760s and 1770s to restrict the location of stalls and some property was pulled down in 1776 and 1778 to enlarge the market-place. [43] In the early nineteenth century the butchers were provided with eighty new stalls and in the 1820s a new Town Hall included space for sellers of flour, meal, cheese and butter. [44] Attempts to improve Stockport market-place in the 1770s and 1780s were less successful, although the problem of a cramped and inconvenient site was well recognized; it was not until the 1820s that the market-place was repaved and levelled and a new corn exchange and meal mart built. [45] Chester also obtained a new market-hall in the 1820s, following earlier attempts to relocate markets in order to avoid congestion and general nuisance in the increasingly well-appointed, main shopping streets. [46]

The second problem concerned attempts by traders to avoid operating through the market. The gradual abandonment of the public markets from the sixteenth century by wholesale grain and produce dealers wishing to escape market tolls and regulations is well known. But there were also similar developments on the retail side. For example, it was alleged in mid eighteenth-century Macclefield that

Several Inhabitants living in and near the Market Place have Annexed Sheds and Pentices to their houses and buildings and on Fair and Market Days Erect Stalls or Standings under them of which They make a profit by setting them to Huxters and others to the detriment of the Lessee of the Tolls. [47]

This all look rather like private enterprise competition for the profits to be derived from markets and in Chester there was even a short-lived attempt to set up a rival market at Gloverstone, a street near the Castle and technically outside the city. [48] It was also, however, a sign of growing demand for retailing facilities. 

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NOTAS
43 Macclesfield Town Hall, Council Minute book, 1769-1824.
44 The History and Directory of Macclesfield and its Vicinity (1825), pp. 11-12.
45 P. M. Giles, “The economic and social development of Stockport 1815-36’ (unpublished MA thesis, University of Manchester 1950), pp.454-5
46 Chester City RO, Assembly Committee Minute Book 1805-35, AC/1, fols. 28, 61 and 91-2.
47 Birkenhead Reference Library, MA/B/II/18.
48 Chester City RO, Corporate Lawsuits C/LP/118a.