[Illustration: DELIVERING MEAT AT SMITHFIELD TODAY
There is an inclined road by the tree in the center of the picture,
leading to the special railroad freight depot. Cars are also run
directly under the market and their cargoes are delivered by hydraulic
lifts to the stands above.]
The inspection is very strict, every precaution is taken to ensure
cleanliness, and breaches of the regulations are punished by fines or
imprisonment. All condemned carcases are sent to a patent Podewill
destructor to be reduced by steam pressure and rolling to a powder,
which is disposed of as an agricultural fertilizer.
On these central meat markets there is a _profit of about $100,000_.
The Corporation also controls a great live cattle market at Islington,
covering seventy-five acres. Over $2,500,000 have been spent on this
market and the modern slaughterhouses attached thereto. These
slaughterhouses are not regarded as a remunerative concern, but are
provided because they afford hygienic methods, and private
slaughterhouses in London are decreasing rapidly. Last year 37,670
cattle, 101,646 sheep, 11,722 calves and 34,981 swine were slaughtered
there, the charges being 36 cents a head for cattle, 4 cents for sheep,
8 cents for calves, and 12 cents for hogs. Mainly on account of the
extensions and improvements, this market is not being run at a profit
at present, but its public utility is held to justify the outlay. Nor
does the Deptford Cattle market, of thirty acres, maintained on the
banks of the Thames to deal with live cattle imported from abroad, pay
its way. But there has been a serious decline in imported stock in late
years, especially from America. At this market extreme precautions are
taken to prevent the entry of cattle disease that might spread
infection to British flocks and herds. All animals landed there must be
slaughtered within ten days and submitted to rigid inspection. All
hides and offal are immediately disinfected. Five hundred cattle can be
unloaded from vessels at Deptford in twenty minutes. Last year 104,351
animals were killed, the meat being sent for sale to Smithfield and
Whitechapel.
Billingsgate, the famous fish market of London, is also administered by
the Corporation. Its records cover over six hundred years. It is
hampered by narrow street approaches, but a very expeditious system of
direct delivery of fish from the Thames side of the market building
enables the licensed auctioneers to dispose of supplies very quickly.
Steam carriers collect the fish from the fleets around the coast and
deliver them packed in ice at Billingsgate every night. Billingsgate
market has cost the city $1,600,000. Stand prices are high, but there
is keen competition whenever a vacancy occurs. Last year the receipts
amounted to $182,455. The auctioneers dealt with 194,477 tons of fish,
of which 120,905 were water-borne and 73,572 land-borne. _The City
profited to the extent of over $40,000_ on this fish trade.
[Illustration: INSIDE SMITHFIELD MARKET
The City of London Corporation's $1,940,000 Terminal--one of the Aisles
with Wholesale Stands on each side.]
On the wholesale and retail meat, fruit, vegetable and fish market at
Leadenhall there is also a profit of over $5,000.
_On the entire municipal market enterprises of the city there is a
profit of $156,000._ The markets are regarded with especial interest by
the Corporation and the Committee which regulates them is considered
one of the most important in the whole administration of the city. In
order to keep abreast of the times most of the profit is expended on
improvements and extensions.
Covent Garden, London's great fruit, flower and vegetable market, is
owned by the Duke of Bedford, whose family have held it for hundreds of
years. In the past century they have spent $730,000 on extensions and
improvements. Of the present modern buildings, the fruit hall cost
$170,000 and the flower building $243,000. Formerly the producers were
chiefly concerned in the market, holding their stands at a yearly
rental. But with the expansion of London the growers have gradually
given place to dealers and commission men, who pay twenty-five cents a
day per square foot of space, and on the produce, at a regular scale,
according to its nature. On flowers there is no toll, but each stand
holder pays a fixed rental. Though this market has direct access
neither to river nor railroad, it still retains its premier position
among the wholesale markets of England. As the approaches are extremely
narrow, most of the produce has to be carried on the heads of hundreds
of porters from the wagons outside into the market buildings. As it is
under private ownership, no figures are issued, but there is known to
be a huge profit on the market. For outer London there are fruit and
vegetable markets at Stratford, in the east, Kew in the west, the
Borough in the south and two railroad markets in the north.
BIRMINGHAM, England's chief midland city, has owned its markets since
1824, administering them through a markets and fairs committee. Since
1908 the profits have been somewhat reduced, owing to outlay on
improvements and extensions; but although the city has expended
$2,156,362 on the markets, the profits have paid off more than half of
that indebtedness, besides relieving taxation in other directions.
Not far away is the small city of KIDDERMINSTER, that may be mentioned
as affording a demonstration of provincial municipal enterprise, under
more restricted conditions. On its vegetable market it makes a _profit
of $1,000_, and on its butter market _a profit of $1,500_. The
population of the city is only 25,000. Another midland city,
WOLVERHAMPTON, makes a _profit of nearly $20,000_.
[Illustration: BILLINGSGATE FISH MARKET, LONDON
The Thames Side of the Market, Showing the Steam Carriers Unloading
their Cargoes Direct into the Sale Room.]
LIVERPOOL, the great northern port on the Mersey, has spent $1,242,534
on six municipal markets. The only market to lose money is the cattle
market, which shows a deficit of $8,000. Liverpool has a cold storage
capacity for 2,176,000 carcases. On the whole municipal market
enterprise, in this city of 700,000 people, there is an average annual
_profit of $80,000_.
MANCHESTER serves not only its own area but surrounding industrial
centers, with a total population of nearly 8,000,000. There are twelve
markets and four slaughterhouses. Since 1868 the city has benefited by
their administration to the extent of _$3,250,000 profit_.
Next to that of London, the fish market here is the largest in England.
Its annual profit is well over $10,000, in addition to heavy extension
payments in late years.
DUBLIN, the capital of what is often called 'the distressful isle,'
makes _a profit of $14,000_ on the food market and _$12,000 more_ on
the cattle market, while EDINBURGH, Scotland's chief city, makes about
_$15,000 a year on municipal markets_.
Statistics are available of something like 150 other British towns and
cities, ranging from a population of 5,000 upwards, where there is the
conviction born of experience that municipal markets pay not merely in
profits, but in convenience to the community, and they have a powerful
influence in keeping prices down.