Stalls are rented from four to ten cents a day, according to the accommodation. Supplies come by boat, rail and wagon, and when there is pressure on the interior market space sales are allowed from the boats and wagons at a toll of ten cents a day. Otherwise only merchandise is allowed to be sold outside the market halls. Not only must no fish, game, meat or poultry be sold without first being passed by the veterinary inspectors, but none of these articles of diet must be brought to market packed in straw, cloth or paper. Unripe fruit must not be sold to children.
Every day a bulletin issued by the market commission sets out the wholesale prices, while a weekly list gives the retail prices, but in the latter case the note is added that the market commission will not be responsible for any controversy that may arise. All the stocks held by the market traders are insured by the municipality, though not to their full value.
Not only have these markets proved beneficial to the consumers generally, but the market men are unanimous as to their advantage, for they afford a ready and inexpensive means of doing a large business.
Holland
Amsterdam, with a population of 510,000, has all the local markets under the control of the municipality. They are divided into five districts, each managed by a director or market master, responsible to the city council.
Two of the markets are covered, but the remainder are open and are situated by the side of the canals, along which the produce is brought in boats from the farms around. On the administration of the markets in an average year there is a profit of $36,000, but there is a law against making a profit on municipal enterprises, so the surplus is spent on local improvements.
Rotterdam, another great Dutch seaport, operates its markets under similar conditions and makes a profit of $34,000, of which $23,000 comes from the cattle and meat markets.