Harman Patil (Editor)

Peddler

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Peddler

A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a canvasser, chapman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, monger, or solicitor, is a traveling vendor of goods. In England, the term was mostly used for travellers hawking goods in the countryside to small towns and villages; they might also be called tinkers or gypsies. In London more specific terms were used, such as costermonger.

Contents

Peddlers have a long and colourful history. From antiquity, peddlers filled the gaps in the formal market economy by providing consumers with the convenience of door-to-door service. They operated alongside town markets and fairs where they often purchased surplus stocks which were subsequently resold to consumers. Peddlers were able to distribute goods to the more geographically isolated communities such as those who lived in mountainous regions of Europe and consumers who found it difficult to attend town markets. Thus, peddlers played an important role in linking these consumers and regions to wider trade routes. Some peddlers worked as agents or travelling salesmen for larger manufacturers, thus were the precursor to the modern travelling salesman.

In Europe, suspicions of dishonest or petty criminal activity was long associated with peddlers and travellers. Regulations to discourage small-scale retailing by hawkers and peddlers, promulgated by English authorities in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and reinforced by the Church, did much to encourage negative attitudes towards peddlers. From the 16th century, peddlers were often associated with negative connotations - attitudes which persisted until well into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Etymology

The origin of the word, known in English since 1225, is unknown, but is possibly an Anglicised version of the French pied, Latin pes, pedis "foot", referring to a petty trader travelling on foot.

History

Historically, peddlers travelled on foot, carrying their wares, or by means of a person- or animal-drawn cart or wagon. Peddlers were known by a variety of names throughout the ages, including Arabber, hawker), costermonger (English), chapman (medieval English), huckster, itinerant vendor or street vendor. Typically, peddlers operated door-to-door, plied the streets or stationed themselves at the fringes of formal trade venues such as open air markets or fairs.

In some economies the work of itinerant selling was often left to nomadic minorities, such as Gypsies, travellers, or Yeniche who offered a varied assortment of goods and services, both evergreens and (notoriously suspicious) novelties. Peddlers sometimes doubled as performers, healers, or fortune-tellers.

As market towns flourished in medieval Europe, peddlers found a role operating on the fringes of the formal economy. They called directly on homes, delivering produce to the door thereby saving customers time travelling to markets or fairs. However, customers paied a higher price for this convenience. Some peddlers operated out of inns or taverns, where they often acted as an agent rather than a reseller. Peddlers played an important role providing services to geographically isolated districts, such as in the mountainous regions of Europe, thereby linking these districs with wider trading routes.

A sixteenth century commentator wrote of the

By the eighteenth century, some peddlers worked for industrial producers, where they acted as a type of travelling sales representative. In England, these peddlers were known as “Manchester men.” Employed by a factory or entrepreneur, they sold goods from shop to shop rather than door to door and were thus operating as a type of wholesaler. They were the precursors to the modern sales representative.

In the United States, the era of the traveling peddler probably peaked in the decades just before the American Civil War. The large advances in industrial mass production and freight transportation as a result of the war laid the groundwork for the beginnings of modern retail and distribution networks. Further, the rise of popular mail order catalogues (e.g. Montgomery Ward began in 1872) offered another way for people in rural or other remote areas to obtain items not readily available in local stores.

In the United States, the travelling salesman became a stock character in countless jokes. Such jokes are typically bawdy, and usually feature small town rubes, farmers and other country folk, and frequently another stock character, the farmer's daughter.

India has special laws enacted, by the efforts of planners which give mongers higher rights as compared to other businessmen. For example, mongers have a right of way over motorized vehicles.

In the modern economy a new breed of peddler, generally encouraged to dress respectably to inspire confidence with the general public, has been sent into the field as an aggressive form of direct marketing by companies pushing their specific products, sometimes to help launch novelties, sometimes on a permanent basis. In a few cases this has even been used as the core of a business.

Modes of transport

Today, peddlers continue to travel by foot, but also use bicycle, hand-held carts, horse-drawn carts or drays and motorized vehicles such as motor-bikes as transport modes. To carry their wares, peddlers use purpose-built back-packs, barrows, hand-carts or improvised carrying baskets. Rickshaw peddlers are a relatively common sight across Asia.

Legislation and regulation

In Britain, peddling is still governed by the Pedlars Act of 1871, which provides for a "pedlar's certificate". Application is usually made to the police. In the late 20th century, the use of such certificates became rare as other civic legislation including the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 and the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 for England & Wales introduced a street trader's licence. As of 2008 the pedlar's certificates remain legal and in use, although several local councils have sought to rid their area of peddlers by way of local bylaw or enforcement mechanisms such as making them apply for a street trader's licence.

Types and names

Literal compounds formed from these synonyms are:

  • Cheesemonger (cheese)
  • Costermonger (apples)
  • Fishmonger (seafood)
  • Flesh monger, cfr. infra
  • Ironmonger (iron wares)
  • Upholsterer monger (a peddler of fabrics and stitching)
  • Metaphoric compounds, since the 16th century mostly pejorative, formed from these synonyms are:

  • Disease mongering
  • Flesh monger (fornicator)
  • Gossip monger (a quidnunc)
  • Merit-monger, in the 18th century a "do-gooder"
  • Power monger
  • Rumor monger
  • Scandal monger
  • Scare monger
  • Warmonger, recorded since 1590 (Spenser's "Faerie Queene"), likely more widespread than any of the literal uses
  • Names, most archaic, of product- or industry-specific types of peddlers include:

  • Chandler (ship's stores)
  • Collier (coal)
  • Milliner (hats)
  • Lanier (now only a surname, formerly a peddler of wool)
  • Cooper (barrels)
  • Names, some pejorative, of other sub- or supertypes or close relatives of peddlers include:

  • Arabber
  • Costermonger
  • Door-to-door salesman
  • Haberdasher
  • Hawker
  • Huckster
  • Pusher
  • Merchant
  • Peddler
  • Seller
  • Tout
  • Traveling salesman
  • Rag-and-bone man
  • Street vendor
  • Although there are basic similarities between the activities in the Old World and the New World there are also significant differences. In Britain the word was more specific to an individual selling small items of household goods from door to door. It was not usually applied to Gypsies.

  • Food traders were normally badgers
  • Sellers of chapbooks were chapmen; compare the term Stationer which described a bookseller (usually near a university) whose shop was fixed and permanent.
  • In Russia a Khodebshchik (Russian: ходебщик) was a person carrying a billboard advertising a product or service, a street hawker or peddler of wares, or house-to-house salesman in the 16th–19th centuries.
  • In literature

    The Cheap Jack type appears often in 19th century literature. The most famous example is probably Charles Dickens' ‟Doctor Marigold‟. A short story it was originally written for one of his Christmas editions of 'All the Year Round'. In collected editions of Dickens' works, it appears in the volume ‟Christmas Stories‟.

    References

    Peddler Wikipedia


    Similar Topics