who walk its avenues rather than to the stallholders, as such, 
‘hat it owes its prestige throughout the meat-producing regions 
of the world. The head offices of the great meat firms and of 
the agents, and jobbers, are close to Smithfield which is the 
common meeting place for all concerned in the trade. The 
Market, itself, closes at one o’clock, when the stallholders who 
have been at work since the early hours of the morning go home. 
The extra-market merchants return, however, to their offices 
near at hand, where their work is continued by telephone and 
sable, their arena being the whole international field in which 
meat is bought and sold. 
Diagram B, on the opposite page, illustrates the general run 
of transactions in the trade, and shows the omnipresence of the 
sxtra-market jobber. It will be noted that so far as the extra- 
market trade is concerned, there is cross-selling between the 
importers and the jobbers; moreover, particularly when the 
market is rising, goods may pass into the possession of an 
importer or jobber more than once, and may pass through the 
hands of several jobbers before reaching the retail butcher, 
ria a market stall. In fact, it is important to realise that the 
merchants engaged in the extra-market trade may all, at times, 
job to a varying extent, and the four functions of importer, 
jobber, wholesaler and retailer may even be performed by one 
and the same firm, as in the case of big firms which own a group 
of retail shops and buy c.i.f. and ex-store in large quantities for 
re-sale to jobbers and wholesalers. Moreover, an extra-market 
jobber may also have one or several stalls, that is to say, his 
main function may be that of stallholding wholesaler, but, in 
addition, he may buy and sell from and to importers and other 
jobbers. 
Turning now to the influence of Smithfield on the imported- 
meat trade of the country generally, it may be observed that 
she gradual concentration of control in London is leading 
inevitably to considerable changes in provincial organisation. 
Instead of developing semi-autonomous branches, the leading 
rms are tending to have merely local offices, the managers of 
xhich are under the direct control of the general management 
in London, the branch accounts being based on London books. 
This is inevitably attracting to the centre the ambitious men 
in the trade, who desire to share in the direction of policy— 
“here being little scope away from the immediate environs of 
Smithfield. It has the effect, too, of attracting supplies; it is 
sustomary for provincial port-authorities, in their advertisements, 
to show the large populations which their ports immediately 
serve: their aim is to divert supplies from the port of London, 
since a portion would, in any event, be railed into their areas 
after being landed. Yet the proportion shipped to London 
seems to grow, and one of the reasons would appear to be that 
meat companies, operating from London, naturally prefer to 
Lave as large a proportion of their geods as possible at the point