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Title: The Norwich, Corn Mart
Author: James Parkerson [
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At one o’clock the busy seen begin,
Quick to the hall they all are posting in;
The cautious merchant takes his stand,
The farmer shows the product of his land:
If wheat the merchant says it’s damp or cold,
If Dawling Market, that’s the case I’m told.
If it is barley he’ll your mind unhinge,
And say good Sir it has a gloomy dinge;
Reduce three shillings of the currant price,
And with the farmer he’ll be very nice;
If oats you offer he’ll bid very low,
Say they are light the moment you them show;
If beans then say this sample’s very soft,
And in his purchase he will keep aloft;
Show him a sample of good Brank or Rye,
He’ll bid you low and look extremely shy:
This is the case if Mark Lane’s very dull,
And all his granaries are very full.
Yet if the market keep upon the rise,
Tho’ bad your sample that he’ll not despise,
Purchase as much as he can gain that day,
Or from his net proceeds afford to pay;
’Tant always markets make a merchant dull,
It is the banker on him has a pull;
That often gives despair or cause a gloom,
He fears an order to the sweating room.
I’ve known that happen on a market day,
Then from the mart he’s forc’d to keep away,
Sometimes G. R. locks up the malt house door,
From an extent and makes him sad and poor;
A country house and a new fashioned gig,
He keeps to make him look at markets big;
Soon as demands upon him loudly call,
He say to day I shant attend the hall:
The clerk announce his master is unwell,
Yet purchase all you are inclined to sell;
And when for payment you may on him call,
Leaves Norwich mart and can’t be found at all;
And when a stoppage happens farmers quake,
Then cry who’d thought that such a man would break;
To take off merchants I am quite unwilling,
At first set off, some are not worth a shilling;
A loss at sea they cannot long withstand,
Can’t call their own an acre of good land;
Yet I protest, pace all our city round,
I don’t know one that is not just and sound;
They deal with honour and are men of trade,
Keep up their payments and disdain parade;
At times a farmer often do complain,
If now and then they do refuse his grain;
Sometimes he sells a sample of hard beans,
On market days and after sends his teams;
The merchant do the article refuse,
For in the sacks much softer grain he views;
The reason’s plain he can’t the bulk admire,
The sample was improved from a large fire;
Soon as he comes to where he do set up,
Of London Porter oft he takes a sup;
The sample in his pocket, there he’ll stay
By a good fire and chat two hours away;
Of altering samples he pays no regard,
But such a conduct makes the sample hard;
Then he complains if a reduction’s made,
That he’s in fault you cannot him persuade;
Friction will much improve most sorts of grain,
You on this subject no longer i’ll detain.
[The end]
James Parkerson's poem: Norwich, Corn Mart
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