37 
their stalls on lease. Stalls are held on a weekly-tenancy basis, 
and therefore, in theory, any holder can be turned out on one 
week’s notice. In practice, holders are secure in their tenancy 
30 long as they observe the Market rules and regulations; indeed, 
when a stall-holder gives up his stall, he usually has a tangible 
“ goodwill ” to dispose of to the incoming tenant, and astonishing 
prices are sometimes paid, so keen is the demand for stalls as a 
rule. The system works somewhat as follows. When a tenant 
is retiring, he lets it be known that his stall will be to let; 
offers are then made to him by individuals or firms who desire 
possession. Having fixed the price with one of these aspirants, 
the retiring tenant hands in his notice to the Corporation officials 
and, at the same time, the buyer of the ““ goodwill” lodges an 
application. The Corporation need not, of course, grant the 
vacant stall to this applicant; but, in practice, it usually does 
so after careful enquiries have been made as to his standing and 
jsosition. Buying and selling goodwill is, however, entirely 
anofficial, though it has the force of custom. * 
Running a stall is an expensive business. It is true that 
she rent charged by the Corporation is low, but tolls are levied 
‘2s. 3d. per ton) on all meat sold. The stallholder’s staff includes 
salesmen, who stand on the front of the stall, scalesmen, cutters 
and also ‘ humpers,” who place the beef in the stall in the 
morning and hump it out to barrows when sold. As the business 
is done mainly in the early hours, this necessitates a larger staff 
than would be necessary if it were more evenly spread over the 
day. In addition, each stall has its own clerical staff. 
The stalls are held by various classes of salesmen, though 
ex-stall sales are always to the wholesale or retail butchering 
trade and to large-scale consumers such as restaurant and hotel 
proprietors. Some are held by salesmen who handle only home- 
zilled meat which they have bought on their own account, or 
which they have received for sale on commission. These stall- 
holders will be referred to in a subsequent report on the home- 
meat trade and need not, therefore, be discussed here. At 
Smithfield, where supplies of home-killed represent only about 
17 per cent. of the supplies handled (see Table IV, p. 61), they 
are of secondary importance. Some stall-holders sell both 
English and imported and, in the latter case, they may be selling 
on commission or they may be jobbers. Stall-holding jobbers 
are salesmen who normally buy on their own account for immediate 
resale. Other stalls are held by jobbers who handle imported 
meat only. They have no representative in the sources of supply, 
but buy their requirements from the various importing firms in 
*airly large quantities and sell in smaller lots to the ordinary 
clients of the market. At times, they may receive goods from 
the importing firms to be sold on commission. which is usually 
© «Report of Departmental Committee on Wholesale Food Markets 
»f London.” Cmd. 1341. 1921. See also ‘ Report of Linlithgow Com- 
mittee on Meat. Poultrv and Eggs.” Cmd. 1927. 1923