MARKET TRADER, NOVEMBER 9 - 22, 2018 A night out at the market?
Why not? Remember these punters were experiencing pleasure palaces of the new industrial world, away from their back-to-back terraces. ‘P olychromatic brick decorations, soaring roofs of iron and glass, groups of polished varnished oak and read deal stalls, painted and gilded girders and grand interior clocks’ as the authors put it were all an attraction to spend. Leeds Kirkgate market looks like a cathedral. High Victorian civic pride personified. The authors remind us that 1832 -1890 was a grand age of which we inherited all too often a neglected shell. Yes in many ways this is
an angry book – surprisingly so as it’s the work of two American academics – but also offers mitigation in the rise of the supermarket, the de-population of town centres and the need for post blitz reconstruction, all covered in some detail. They answer other everlasting questions too. Why the North South divide? Why no large market halls in London? Why pannier markets in the south-west? Why the late 19th century boom. Why market halls became surrounded by open markets too. Reading from cover to
cover – for a pretty detailed scholarly work it’s surprisingly easy going – British retail development is painted
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vividly and realistically. From individuals selling their surplus produce, through the growth of wholesaling and retailing, to today’s vertically integrated combines like Tesco the whole sweep is played out, like a film, in front of your eyes. And it’s fascinating, really incredibly fascinating, to discover the way that the history of markets is inter- woven with the fabric of every day working and lower-middle- class experience over the last 500 years. How we enabled the working man to enjoy a diet of unprecedented quality. Why the tram was inextricably linked to the increasing range of lines on offer. Reminders that markets have before helped to regenerate retailing in town centres. On nearly every page there is a picture which makes you stop and wonder at a flash, a building or a moment captured. The trader who asked me
what is Sociology would find some of the answers here. My ex student would savour a model of desk research. Copies are frequently available from the usual online second hand book dealers and anybody in the history of market game will never need to buy another book.
Improving corporate governance
I write this as shareholders are reportedly looking for a clearout of the board of Patisserie Valerie following
the high end cake chain’s admission that their accounts were not, shall we say, a true picture of the state of the business. On that subject it would be unfair and certainly unethical to name the senior fund manager who told me a few years ago not to place too much reliance of company balance sheets. He didn’t say they weren’t worth the paper they were written on, at least not on the record. At the same time he intimated that their stock selection wasn’t based too heavily on the annually published figures. OK it was a mischievous question from yours truly granted but you see I have a well-developed suspicion of annual accounts myself. This is largely based on the feeling that anybody who counts something you are owed as an asset must be completely deranged. Anybody who thinks for one minute that what they gaily refer to as ‘intangible assets’ like that chimera ‘goodwill’ can be valued and put to the credit of a company is similarly unfit to be in charge of the proverbial whelk stall. You can’t buy a Mars Bar with intangible assets – and you certainly can’t sell ‘em. Such corporate types
may reply in injured tones of reproach to one so unversed in the intricacies of company book-keeping with the argument that the figures balance. It is all accounted
for everything in its place. Fine. I admit I can think of one group of companies I have researched recently where all the figures balance. Mind you the main source of finance is loans between subsidiary companies. No-one seems to have asked where the cash would come from if each company demanded payment from the other on the same day. It’s so different for the one
man market trader band. You can’t fool yourself. Even if you did value that fifteen year old
Mercedes van (which only starts on the fiftieth pull and rattles worryingly at over 35mph) at £25,000 common sense tells that the scrapper might give you £30 for it if it had three good tyres. As for good will well; yes Market A might be worth £450 a week to you but whether anybody would lend you twenty grand on that collateral I suspect is a, what the spell checker often corrects to a mute, point. In our game there is no hiding place no way you can really pay an accountant
to make it all look rosy – the money bag tells the story every day. My suggestion to Patisserie
Valerie or to any company for that matter the improvement of corporate governance is very simple. Put a successful market trader – preferably one working perishables – on the board of directors. Their job? Simply to ask 1) how much are we making, 2) how much cash do we actually have and more important 3) could we pay our debts on demand?
... or replete with civic pride like the portico over Cardiff Central market
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