Peddler
From antiquity, peddlers filled the gaps in the formal market economy by providing consumers with the convenience of door-to-door service.
They operated alongside town markets and fairs where they often purchased surplus stocks which were subsequently resold to consumers.
A peddler, under English law, is defined as: "any hawker, pedlar, petty chapman, tinker, caster of metals, mender of chairs, or other person who, without any horse or other beast bearing or drawing burden, travels and trades on foot and goes from town to town or to other men's houses, carrying to sell or exposing for sale any goods, wares, or merchandise immediately to be delivered, or selling or offering for sale his skill in handicraft.
"[8] The political philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote that "even before the resources of society permitted the establishment of shops, the supply of [consumer] wants fell universally into the hands of itinerant dealers, the pedlars who might appear once a month, being preferred to the fair, which only returned once a year.
"[9] Typically, peddlers operated door-to-door, plied the streets or stationed themselves at the fringes of formal trade venues such as open air markets or fairs.
In some economies the work of itinerant selling was left to a greater or lesser extent to nomadic minorities, such as gypsies, travellers, or Yeniche who offered a varied assortment of goods and services, both evergreens and (notoriously suspicious) novelties.
[14] As market towns flourished in medieval Europe, peddlers found a role operating on the fringes of the formal economy.
[15] They called directly on homes, delivering produce to the door thereby saving customers time travelling to markets or fairs.
[19] In the United States, there was an upsurge in the number of peddlers in the late 18th century and this may have peaked in the decades just before the American Civil War.
Advances in industrial mass production and freight transportation as a result of the war laid the groundwork for the beginnings of modern retail and distribution networks, which gradually eroded much of the need for travelling salesmen.
The rise of popular mail order catalogues (e.g. Montgomery Ward began in 1872) offered another way for people in rural or other remote areas to obtain items not readily available in local stores or markets.
A relatively short-lived upsurge in the number of peddlers was witnessed in the period following the second World War, when the wartime manufacturing boom came to an abrupt end, and returning soldiers finding themselves unable to secure suitable work, turned to peddling which generally offered a decent income.
[27] After arriving in America in 1842, Abram Vossen Goodman also maintained a diary of his experiences, which has been published by the American Jewish Archives.
When, Goodman's initial attempts to find employment as a clerk were unsuccessful, he wrote on September 29, "I had to do as all the others; with a bundle on my back I had to go out into the country, peddling various articles."
[29] India has special laws enacted, by the efforts of planners which give mongers higher rights as compared to other businessmen.
Peddlers have been the subject of numerous paintings, sketches and watercolours in both Western art and in the Orient, where they depict familiar scenes of everyday life.
[34] In 1757, the first English publication in this genre was The Cries of London Calculated to Entertain the Minds of Old and Young; illustrated in variety of copper plates neatly engrav'd with an emblematical description of each subject, was published.
Bonnie Young has pointed out that the theme of the monkey and the peddler was relatively common in Medieval art across Europe.
Such images may have been popular in medieval society, because the peddler shared many of the same vices as a monkey; he was seen as "a showman, a bit of a trickster and not always acquiring his wares by honest means and plying them without too much regard for the quality of the merchandise.
Residing in a forest setting, the situation is idyllic for the travelling salesman, as the woman provides for all his needs and never asks for anything in return.
Robin Hood and the Peddler is a ballad that now forms part of the collection at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
[40] The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972) is a critically acclaimed film about a German fruit-peddler, directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
[41] The Tin Men (1987), a feature film directed by Barry Levinson and starring Richard Dreyfuss and Danny De Vito, is a comedy set in 1963, concerning two aluminium salesmen and the dirty tricks they use to make a sale as they try to out-compete each other.
