![]() In the Greco-Roman world, open-air markets served urban customers, while peddlers filled in the gaps in distribution by selling to rural or geographically distant customers. 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. According to marketing historian, Eric Shaw, the peddler is "perhaps the only substantiated type of retail marketing practice that evolved from Neolithic times to the present." The political philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote that "even before the resources of society permitted the establishment of shops, the supply of 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." They were known by a variety of names throughout the ages, including Arabber, hawker, costermonger (English), chapman (medieval English), huckster, itinerant vendor or street vendor. Peddlers have been known since antiquity. Ribbon seller at the entrance to the Butter Market, engraving by J.J. Although peddlers normally travel by foot, there is no reason why they cannot use some means of assistance, such as a cart or a trolley, to assist in the transportation of goods. Although peddlers may stop to make a sale, they are precluded from setting up a pitch or remaining in the same place for lengthy periods. When not actually engaged in selling, peddlers are required to keep moving. Peddlers travel around and approach potential customers directly whereas street traders set up a pitch or a stall and wait for customers to approach them. The origin of the word, known in English since 1225, is uncertain, but is possibly an Anglicised version of the French pied, Latin pes, pedis "foot", referring to a petty trader travelling on foot.Ī 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." The main distinction between peddlers and other types of street vendor is that peddlers travel as they trade, rather than travel to a fixed place of trade. Three East Karelian " laukkuryssä" peddlers from Kestenga, Russia in Lohja, Finland in the late 19th century. Some imagery depicts peddlers in a pejorative manner, and others portray idealised romantic visions of peddlers at work. Such images were very popular with the genre and Orientalist painters and photographers of the 18th and the 19th centuries. Images of peddlers feature in literature and art from as early as the 12th century. ![]() Some peddlers worked as agents or travelling salesmen for larger manufacturers and so were the precursor to the modern travelling salesman. Thus, peddlers played an important role in linking these consumers and regions to wider trade routes. They also called on consumers who, for whatever reason, found it difficult to attend town markets. Peddlers were able to distribute goods to the more geographically-isolated communities such as those who lived in mountainous regions of Europe. ![]() ![]() They operated alongside town markets and fairs where they often purchased surplus stocks which were subsequently resold to consumers. In London, more specific terms were used, such as costermonger.įrom antiquity, peddlers filled the gaps in the formal market economy by providing consumers with the convenience of door-to-door service. In England, the term was mostly used for travellers hawking goods in the countryside to small towns and villages. A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a chapman, packman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, (coster)monger, colporteur or solicitor (not in Britain), is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of goods. ![]()
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