themselves saw to the pitching of their meat and its sale through 
existing stall-holders, and subsequently through their own stalls ; 
on the other hand, some English meat traders, holding stalls, 
seeing the possibilities of this kind of trade, extended the other 
way, t.e., they established meat works in the producing areas. 
In other cases, the freezing works appointed independent agents 
in this country. In all cases, the disposal of meat from abroad 
came to depend on organisations which not only watched the 
arrival and storage of the goods, but also canvassed their sale 
among stall-holders in the Market, 
Further developments followed naturally. The new 
““ walking *’ merchant, searching for business in the course of 
the morning in every corner of the vast market, might meet 
enquiries for goods which he could not satisfy from his own 
stocks, but which other importing firms were in a position to 
supply; to hold his customers, if for no other reason, he would 
himself buy to meet the demand. Trading between importers, 
themselves, became, therefore, a feature of extra-market dealings. 
From buying to meet a known and immediate demand, is but 
a short step to buying to meet a roughly-estimated future demand. 
forward dealing became, therefore, a function of the merchant 
connected, directly or indirectly, with a meat-works, for ag 
supplies left the works weeks before they could be sold by stall- 
holders to the retail trade, he was mainly concerned with market 
bendencies and conducted his transactions on the basis of future 
prospects. These trading conditions led to the development of 
yet another type of merchant, namely, the jobber, who, in this 
extra-market trade, must be distinguished from the jobbing 
stall-holder already referred to. Ag a type, the ncn-stallholding 
jobbers arose out of the possibilities of the trade and the oppor- 
tunity for speculation which it afforded. Though lacking the 
capital and perhaps the desire to establish a meat-works, they 
saw that by buying from the meat-works, or their agents, and 
selling to stall-holders and others on their own account, a small 
capital could be used to good effect. 
This is, perhaps, an ideal picture of the evolution of the large 
and important class of traders who are now established around 
Smithfield Market; its purpose is to bring out the scope and 
methods of a somewhat complicated form of business. It may 
be added that the importers, the agents of meat works, and the 
jobbing firms engaged in this extra-market trade all have their 
salesmen continually passing to and fro in the Market itself 
endeavouring to sell both to the stallholders proper and to each 
other. Not only are the supplies for resale on Smithfield stalls 
the subject of continuous barter, in this way, but much of the 
meat consumed in Greater London and in other parts of the 
country also changes hands on Smithfield by the same process. 
The importance of Smithfield is, in a measure, due, of course, 
to its size and to the vast quantities of meat that each year pass 
n and out of its gates. but it is to the oresence of the merchante