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Markets The History of Markets. https:// www.youtube.com / watch?v = fM6rsWQKK6M &feature= youtu.be. Early Markets. 1641 Natives and Country people sold goods Monday=weekly market day Set up a market 1656 First Public Market Saturday=weekly market day. 1658
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MarketsThe History of Markets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM6rsWQKK6M&feature=youtu.be
Early Markets 1641 • Natives and Country people sold goods • Monday=weekly market day • Set up a market 1656 • First Public Market • Saturday=weekly market day
1658 • First Meat Market created in response to corruption 1699 • Fly Market Opened 1795 • Fly Market became filthy and overcrowded • Closed in 1823
Corruption • Until 1841, sellers paid a tax for the right to sell in the public markets • 1841, butchers sold meat in shops illegally • Stationary peddlers • City ordinance limited peddlers to 30 minutes of peddling in one spot • Licenses expired • 1904, 5124 peddlers arrested, many paid off the police.
Peddlers • Important to immigrants • Rent for cart = 10 cents/day (1880) 20cents/day (1925) • Many poor people sold fruits, vegetables and candies for a living • 1/3 of the peddlers sold nonfood goods (clothing, hats, shoes, furnishings, pans, bedding, bags) • 1900, 25000 immigrants were peddlers • 1925, 31000 New Yorkers were peddlers • 77% Jewish, 22% Italian, 1% other
The fight to abolish Peddling • Store merchants saw peddlers as unfair competition and a nuisance • Merchants assumed pushcarts lowered property value • Mayor LaGuardia was also against peddlers • First Indoor Market • WPA
Impact on Peddlers • Indoor Market= $4/week, 4x on the street • New York Post- “they might starve faster indoors: pushcart dealers too depressed to care” • “Some days I don’t make 75 cents, Can you live on that?” • Venders had to be citizens
Aftermath • New Yorkers sad that pushcarts were closed down • Pushcarts were seen as an “adventure • “With these pushcarts left old Orchard St last January, high values went with them” • Stoop line stands • 1935= 15,000 peddlers • 1939= 2,700 peddlers left • Today Peddling gives immigrants a way to earn a living
Prices are on a rise! • February 19, 1917 Brownsville Brooklyn violence erupted amongst women and peddlers due to sudden rise in prices • Food Riots spreading through working class cities: NY, Boston, Philadelphia. • Onions selling for 15-18 cents (5 cent rise), Potatoes 5-7 cents and Chicken 32 cents (luxury)
Who’s to blame? • President Wilson blames middleman • George Perkins (NY Financer) Better methods of food distribution and government interventions • Federal Trade Commission blames the existence of unlawful combinations among dealers. • American Capitalism receiving high profits from WWI selling food to Europe at high prices increases cost of living
Fighting the high prices • Violence continued to outbreak in New York through Feb and March. • Waldrof Astoria Hotel: women and children banging on doors begging for food. Would fight back authorities. • Anti High Price League attempted to enforce boycotts of groceries and butcher shops. (East side and Bronx)
What are we suppose to do? • Peddlers carts were overturned and set on fire by women outraged by price increase • Public Meeting at New Plaza Hotel to explain that they bought these items (such as onions for $15 a bag and potatoes for $10 a bag) from Terminal of Long Island Rail Road • Henry Eiser his profits were only 75 cents a week
Horrors of Riots • Women would take their children to protest with them. Injuries amongst crowds over run by horses or motorist • Women would attack police officials , hunger and anger amounted for uncontrollable rage • Rise in infant mortality: Milk given to babies were diluted. “Loose milk” in order to be bought cheaper.
Possible solutions • Mayor Mitchel advised consumers to buy rice ( for no more than six cents) as a substitute for higher priced foods. • Public to subsidize $100,000 so white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions for new market source • Terminal markets introduce bill for state bond issue: Wick’s Food and Market bill bring relief to poor. • Congressmen London: Government intervention to prevent individual greed
Discussion Questions: Pushcarts/ Markets • Do pushcarts clog up the streets or do they contribute to the atmospheres of the city? • What are some positive and negative aspects of pushcarts in New York City? • Do you think pushcarts are still helpful for immigrants who are starting off?
Discussion Questions: Food Riots • If food prices were to suddenly increase suddenly today would low income workers react any differently than in 1917? Would women still make up a large portion of protestors? • What are methods the government should take to remediate the issue of raising produce prices? What are factors that contribute to raising prices? • Is it possible in our present society for food to skyrocket?