Gross Value of the Fruit and Vegetables Sold Annually in the London Streets.
To complete the present account of the costermonger’s trade, we must now estimate the money value of the fruit and vegetables disposed of by them throughout the year. The money annually spent in fish by the humbler portion of the metropolitan population comes to, as we have seen, very nearly one million five hundred thousand pounds sterling—the sum laid out in fruit and vegetables we shall find is but little more than a third of this amount.
| Green Fruit. | ||
|---|---|---|
| 377,500 | bushels of apples, at six a penny or 4s. per bush. (288 to the bushel) | £75,500 |
| 193,700 | bushels of pears, at 5s. per bushel | 48,400 |
| 1,215,360 | lbs. of cherries, at 2d. per lb. | 10,000 |
| 11,700 | bushels of plums, at 1d. per half pint | 6,240 |
| 100 | bushels of greengages, at 1½d. per half pint | 80 |
| 548 | bushels of damsons, at 1½d. per half pint | 430 |
| 2,450 | bushels of bullace, at 1½d. per half pint | 1,950 |
| 207,500 | bushels of gooseberries, at 3d. per quart | 83,000 |
| 85,500 | sieves of red currants, at 1d. per pint (three half-sieves to the bushel) | 15,200 |
| 13,500 | sieves of black currants, at 1d. per pint (three half-sieves to the bushel) | 2,400 |
| 3,000 | sieves of white currants, at 1d. per pint (three half-sieves to the bushel) | 530 |
| 763,750 | pottles of strawberries, at 2d. per pottle | 6,360 |
| 1,760 | pottles of raspberries, at 6d. per pottle | 40 |
| 30,485 | pottles of mulberries, at 6d. per pottle | 760 |
| 6,000 | bushels of hazel nuts, at ¾d. per half pint | 2,400 |
| 17,280 | lbs. of filberts, at 3d. per lb. | 200 |
| 26,563 | lbs. of grapes, at 4d. per lb. | 440 |
| 20,000 | pine apples, at 6d. each | 500 |
| 15,400,000 | oranges, at two for 1d. | 32,000 |
| 154,000 | lemons, at two for 1d. | 320 |
| 24,000 | bushels of Spanish and Barcelona nuts, at 6d. per quart | 19,200 |
| 3,000 | bushels of Brazil nuts (1500 to the bushel), at fifteen for 1d. | £1,250 |
| 6,500 | bushels of chestnuts (1500 to the bushel), at fifteen for 1d. | 2,700 |
| 24,000 | bushels of walnuts (1750 to the bushel), at ten for 1d. | 17,500 |
| 400,000 | coker-nuts, at 3d. each | 5,000 |
| Total expended yearly in green fruit | £332,400 | |
| Dry Fruit. | ||
| 7,000 | lbs. of shell almonds, at 20 a penny (320 to the lb.) | £460 |
| 37,800 | lbs. of raisins, at 2d. per lb. | 300 |
| 24,300 | lbs. of figs, at 2d. per lb. | 200 |
| 4,800 | lbs. of prunes, at 2d. per lb. | 40 |
| Total expended yearly on dry fruit | £1,000 | |
| Vegetables. | ||
| 60,500,000 | lbs. of potatoes, at 5lbs. for 2d. | £100,800 |
| 23,760,000 | cabbages, at ½d. each | 49,500 |
| 3,264,800 | turnips, at 1½d. per doz. | 1,700 |
| 601,000 | carrots, at 2½d. per doz. | 520 |
| 567,300 | brocoli and cauliflowers, at 1d. per head | 2,360 |
| 616,666 | junks of turnip tops, at 4d. per junk | 10,270 |
| 219,000 | bushels of peas, at 1s. 6d. per bushel | 16,420 |
| 8,890 | bushels of beans, at 1s. 6d. per bushel | 660 |
| 22,110 | bushels of French beans, at 6d. per peck, or 2s. per bushel | 2,210 |
| 25,608 | vegetable marrows, at ½d. each | 50 |
| 489 | dozen bundles of asparagus, at 2s. 6d. per bundle (4d. or 6d. a doz. heads) | 730 |
| 9,120 | dozen bundles of rhubarb, at 2s. 6d. per doz. | 1,140 |
| 4,350 | dozen bundles of celery, at 3d. per bundle | 650 |
| 561,602 | lettuces, at 3 a penny | 780 |
| 13,291 | dozen hands of radishes, at 3 bunches for 1d., and 6 bunches to the hand | 1,330 |
| 499,530 | bushels of onions, at 4s. per bushel | 99,900 |
| 10,920 | bushels of cucumbers, at 1d. each (60 to the bush.) | 2,730 |
| 3,290 | dozen bundles of herbs, at 3d. a bundle | 490 |
| Total expended yearly in vegetables | £292,240 | |
Putting the above sums together we have the following aggregate result:—
| Expended yearly in green fruit | £332,400 |
| Expended yearly in dry fruit | 1,000 |
| Expended yearly in vegetables | 292,240 |
| Gross sum taken annually by the London costermongers for fruit and vegetables | £625,640 |
Then adding the above to the gross amount received by the street-sellers of fish, which we have before seen comes to as much as £1,460,850, we have for the annual income of the London costermongers no less a sum than £2,086,490.
OF THE STATIONARY STREET-SELLERS OF FISH, FRUIT, AND VEGETABLES.
Of the Number of Street Stalls.
Thus far we have dealt only with the itinerant dealers in fish, fruit, or vegetables; but there are still a large class of street-sellers, who obtain a living by the sale of the same articles at some fixed locality in the public thoroughfares; and as these differ from the others in certain points, they demand a short special notice here. First, as to the number of stalls in the streets of London, I caused personal observations to be made; and in a walk of 46 miles, 632 stalls were counted, which is at the rate of very nearly 14 to the mile. This, too, was in bad weather,—was not on a Saturday night,—and at a season when the fruit-sellers all declare that “things is dull.” The routes taken in this inquiry were:—No. 1, from Vauxhall to Hatton-garden; No. 2, from Baker-street to Bermondsey; No. 3, from Blackwall to Brompton; No. 4, from the Hackney-road to the Edgeware-road. I give the results.