ew Exchange is an hotel,
in the upper room of which is an auction room for the sale of damaged
cargoes; and on the other side--that is, above the old Exchange--is a
subscription refreshment room, known as Jack's, where most of the Norfolk
flour is sold, a great deal of it being paid for in ready money, and then
resold again downstairs, on the usual credit, the profit on such a
transaction being the odd threepence or sixpence, which becomes a
respectable sum if you buy or sell a thousand quarters. Up here are the
millers or their agents in large quantities. "We are not," said one to
the writer, "the rogues the world takes us for. If we don't sell good
flour, the bakers can't sell their bread." Let us hope this is true; but
in these days of universal rascaldom, when gold, no matter how
dishonestly acquired, makes its possessor an object of respect, and not
of scorn, what wonder is it that we believe that there are rogues in
grain as well as in other trades? In the middle of the old Exchange you
will see an immense number of foreigners; these are Greeks, living all
together in the neighbourhood of Finsbury-square, who are gradually
getting all the foreign trade--what are our English merchants about?--of
the country into their hands. It is the Greeks, not the English, who buy
up the corn shipped from the ports of the Black Sea, and pour it into the
English market. Besides these Greeks, you will see captains of vessels
in great numbers waiting to hear if their cargoes are sold, and where
they are to be taken. A busy scene is Mark-lane, especially on a Monday.
The malt tax in 1857 was 6,470,010 pounds, which represents an enormous
amount of malt, of which a great part is sold in Mark-lane. In the year
1857 there were imported into the United Kingdom 3,473,957 quarters of
wheat, 1,701,470 of barley, 1,710,299 of oats, 76,048 of rye, 159,899 of
peas, 305,775 of beans, 1,150,783 of Indian corn, 188 of buck-wheat, and
2,763 of bere or bigg; and in the same year there were imported 2,184,176
cwts. of flour and meal. Then we must not forget the home produce, which
is principally brought into London by ships, though a great deal of it
comes up by rail. In London alone the consumption of wheat in the shape
of flour and otherwise may be estimated at upwards of 1,600,000 quarters
a year. But Mark-lane is not, like Smithfield, a market for London
alone. On the contrary, it is attended by buyers from all parts of the
country.