Sydney's Original Market House

Download as PDF

A Consumer Revolt in August 1790

Having unloaded the convicts from the Neptune, many of whom were sick and dying, Captain Donald Trail opened a shop in Sydney Cove, selling an investment he had brought from England – foodstuffs such as butter and cheese, tea and sugar; tobacco; articles of clothing (shirts, trousers, jackets, hats and caps, shoes and stockings); tablecloths and a variety of other household goods, such as soap, candles and knives.

This enterprise was managed by the ship’s steward, Samuel Gates, assisted by members of the crew, and they faced a protest when some of their customers complained that they had been sold underweight goods. Suspicious about the butter she had bought, one convict woman took it to the public bakehouse (opposite the First Fleet hospital) where they confirmed that she had been cheated.

Gates refused to give them a refund and the disgruntled customers went to the Provost Marshal, Henry Brewer, whose duties included the regulation of trading. He accompanied them to the shop and instructed Gates that he was to use brass weights not iron, and after going on board and speaking to Trail, the steward returned with a brass set from the ship. Having verified them against his own weights, Brewer gave his approval, and Gates made up the difference to his unhappy customers.

This is the earliest known case of the New South Wales government being involved in consumer protection: we know of it because of depositions given two years later by some of the sailors from the Neptune for an unrelated court case in London. [2]

The Captains’ Shops

The Neptune was not the first ship to set up shop in Sydney Cove. The captains of the First Fleet transports were said to have had ‘ventures and liquor to dispose of’. We know little of this trade, although it is recorded that the captain of the Alexander sold two hogsheads of tobacco to Major Ross for the use of the marine detachment. And the contractor’s agent, Zachariah Clark, who remained behind in the colony, brought a substantial cache of foodstuffs and liquor, probably financed by his employer, William Richards, with the intention of selling to the settlers. [3]

The master of the Lady Juliana, which arrived several weeks before the Neptune, opened a shop, offering ‘a great quantity of goods’, grocery items (among other things, moist sugar), glass, millinery (ribbons and thread), perfumery and paper and other stationery. [4] And the Justinian and the other Second Fleet ships, the Scarborough and the Surprize, also brought a significant number of goods for sale, which were eagerly bought up, even at prices that were considered extortionate. [5] The Governor’s official secretary, David Collins, complained that most of the ships which arrived in the winter of 1790 had taken advantage of the colonists’ desperate need for ‘articles of comfort or convenience’.

Of the five Masters who had any Articles for Sale, two only, Captns Maitland & Marshall [of the Justinian and the Scarborough], dealt with us on liberal Terms. The others were Jews. [6] [Author’s apologies for the offensive language, not unusual at the time.]

This pattern was repeated with the Third Fleet (which arrived in the second half of 1791), although apparently on a smaller scale. In one of his letters home, Collins made the improbable claim that some of the masters had marked up their produce by three or four thousand percent, but several did try to take advantage of the colonists by setting an unfavourable exchange rate.

'The Spanish dollar was the current coin of the colony, which some of the masters taking at five shillings and others at four shillings and six-pence, the governor, in consideration of the officers having been obliged to receive the dollars at five shillings sterling when given for bills drawn in the settlement, issued a proclamation fixing the currency of the Spanish dollar at that sum.' [7]

On Norfolk Island, where the soil was extremely fertile and the convicts had established gardens and were successfully raising chickens and hogs, they responded to the high prices charged by the master of the Salamander (1791) by trebling the prices of the fowls they were selling to the ship. [8]

The Pitt came into Sydney Cove in February of the following year and Captain Manning offered a wide range of articles for sale.

'. . . notwithstanding a fleet of transports had but lately sailed hence, notwithstanding the different orders which had been sent to Bengal [in the Atlantic, a Third Fleet transport], and the high price at which every thing was sold, the avidity with which all descriptions of people grasped at what was to be purchased was extraordinary, and could only be accounted for by the distance of our situation from the mother country, the uncertainty of receiving supplies thence, and the length of time which we had heretofore the mortification to find elapse without our receiving any.' [9]

These scenes were repeated when the Pitt called at Norfolk Island, selling ‘Cloths, Fustians, Linnens, Haberdashery &c, Teas, Sugars, Hams, Cheese, Biscuit, Cutlery, Soap &c, and many other useful Articles’. Once again, these articles were eagerly bought up by the settlers. One of the officers complained that the prices were extravagant, so that ‘our pay would not afford us the common necessaries of life’, but the Lieutenant Governor, Philip Gidley King, wrote that it was ‘much to the credit of Captain Manning’ that these goods were sold at a very reasonable rate. [10]

Phillip had sent one of the Third Fleet transports, the Atlantic, to Bengal for provisions in October 1791. She returned to the cove in June of the following year, carrying a range of articles purchased by the officers and gentlemen for their own use, and investments by the captain and his chief mate, and the naval agent, Lieutenant Richard Bowen, for sale to the settlers. They also opened a shop at Parramatta, selling spirits among other things, and there seem to have been some 40 or 50 soldiers who purchased articles. The Atlantic’s shops accepted cash, bills of exchange (from the officers), and bills endorsed by the Commissary or the Adjutant of the NSW Corps (enabling the enlisted men to make purchases). Captain Armstrong discounted the Commissariat and Adjutant bills, and when the soldiers complained to the Provost Marshal, Brewer successfully prosecuted the master and his mate in the civil court. [11]

The Britannia arrived from England in August with stores and provisions on government account, but she was also carrying goods for sale. With only one or two exceptions, Captain Raven dealt with the officers and gentlemen, so it seems likely that he did not open a public shop. In this case we have detailed accounts, so we know precisely what he sold and to whom, and the prices they paid. Most of these men would have had an investment on the Atlantic, but Captain George Johnston, for example, recently transferred from the marines to the NSW Corps, spent almost £35 on tripe and hams, butter and sugar, soap and candles, printed linen and stockings, shoes and half boots. In all, Captain Raven made more than £600 from private trade. [12]

And when the Royal Admiral, an East Indiaman loaded with convicts and stores, arrived two months later, Captain Bond also opened shops at Sydney Cove and Parramatta. Collins wrote that a licence was given for the sale of porter, ‘but, under the cover of this, spirits found their way among the people, and much intoxication was the consequence. . .‘ When he sailed for China in November 1792, Bond left £750 worth of articles with one of the gentlemen to be sold over time on commission, the first occasion on which we know this happened. [13]

The Market House

From the arrival of the Lady Juliana in June 1790, Phillip regulated this trade, with a view to protecting his people from exploitation. A hut on the west side of the cove, previously used as the bakehouse for the crew of the Supply, was set aside as a ‘market house’ for the sale of articles from visiting ships.[14] John Hunter referred to it as a ‘public shop. . . for an indiscriminate retail sale’, meaning that anyone with cash or credit was free to shop there, including convicts still serving their time. Phillip thought this system offered ‘the fairest chance of supplying the little wants of the indigent’.[15] Robert Murray, the fourth mate of the Britannia, Raven, wrote that a house had been appointed ‘where every article which is to be sold is exhibited’.[16] We know that the Neptune and the Pitt traded from a hut on shore, and given that there was an order prohibiting convicts from going on board ships in the harbour, we can be reasonably confident that all of the vessels which had articles for general sale used the market house.

The earliest of Phillip’s market regulations were probably issued before Trail established his shop, but they would have added to over time. As Robert Murray described the system in late 1792:

'. . . a regular entry [is] made of the names of the settler & buyer with the article & price of it. This being regularly kept prevents the commission of many robberies, for the privilege of selling the property being cut off – the inducement of stealing becomes less – and less robberies are committed than would be, was not a custom and strictly look’d into.

'Added to this there are stated priced to the different articles for sale at this shop and on pain of punishment, it is, than any person dares sell any article at a greater price than that which is directed; thereby preventing extortion. . .' [17]

From Phillip’s departure in December 1792 until Hunter’s return as the second Governor in September 1795, only one ‘public shop’ was opened on shore, that of the Shah Hormuzear, an Indian trader, in March 1793. The intervening period, when military officers served as Acting Governors, was the hey-day of the so-called ‘Rum Corps’.

The Rum Corps

This term has long been used to describe the oligopoly established by the officers of the NSW Corps following Phillip’s departure. In fact, the term ‘rum-selling corps’ was not coined until 1888, and the membership of its trading ventures was never confined to the military officers. Most of these consortia included civil officers, and their first commercial enterprise, which involved sending the Britannia, Raven, to the Cape for a cargo of consumer goods, included an investment of several hundred pounds from Robert Sidaway, a convict who was still serving his time.

From 1793, the officers and gentlemen also exercised a virtual oligopoly over articles imported into the colony by visiting ships. For the most part, this was because only they were able to issue bills of exchange drawn on agents in London, but on several occasions, the Acting Governor directed that the commissariat was to purchase all of the spirits from these ships, which were then sold to the gentlemen at favourable prices. And on at least one occasion, the military guard on board the ship physically prevented settlers from purchasing articles and forcibly sent them back on shore.

While the gentlemen would continue to enjoy a commercial advantage because of their access to credit, the oligopoly came to an end in September 1795, when John Hunter arrived. He did not re-establish the public market house, but he did encourage the masters to open shops ‘for the accommodation of the public’:

'He likewise abolished the prohibition against the middling sort of inhabitants from going on board to purchase: the unfair pretence heretofore confined to the officers being done away, respectable persons of good character (whether free or bond) received, on application to the Judge Advocate, Governor’s aid de camp, or officiating magistrate for the week, a written permission to go on board any vessel that might come to an anchor in Port Jackson. . .'  [18]

__________________________

Endnotes

[1] Thomas Watling (formerly att.), ‘A View of the West Side of Sydney Cove taken from Too-bay-ulee, or Bannellongs Point’, 1792-94, UK National History Museum, Watling Collection, L.S.8.

[2] Statements of Benedict Anagrius, George Churchill, William Sabuston and Joshua Sharpe, ‘Examinations and Depositions of the several Sailors. . . of the Ship Neptune’, UK National Archives (TNA) T11/381, pp. 18, 36, 57, 61.

[3] John C. Dann (ed.), The Nagle Journal: A Diary of the Life of Jacob Nagle, Sailor, from the Year 1775 to 1841, New York: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988, p.103. On the sale of tobacco by the master of the Alexander – Bill of Exchange, 9 July 1788, and Ross to Stephens, 10 July 1788, ADM1/3824. On Zachariah Clark’s store – David Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales [1798], Sydney: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1975, Vol.1, pp. 71-72.

[4] James Scott, Remarks on a Passage to Botany Bay, 1787-1792, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1963, p.52; David Collins, An Account of the English Colony, Vol. 1, p. 98.

[5] Watkin Tench, A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, London: G. Nicol, 1793, p. 51.

[6] David Collins to his father, 23 March 1791, State Library of New South Wales (hereafter SLNSW), Collins Family Papers, ML MSS 700/1

[7] David Collins, An Account of the English Colony, Vol. 1, p. 150; David Collins to his father, 17 October 1791, SLNSW, Collins Family Letters, ML MSS 700/1.

[8] Ralph Clark to James Callam, 29 September 1791, Paul G. Fidlon, et al (eds.), The Journals and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark, 1787-1792, Sydney: Australian Documents Library, 1981, p. 303.

[9] David Collins, An Account of the English Colony, Vol. 1, p. 168.

[10] Evening Mail, 4-6 February 1793; Philip Gidley King, ‘Journal of the Lieutenant Governor of Norfolk Island, 1791-96’, National Library of Australia, MS 70, p. 25.

[11] Goodall v Armstrong, Hall v Probart, Probart v Grose, 3 July 1792, Court of Civil Jurisdiction, Rough Minutes of Proceedings and Related Case Papers, 1 July 1788 to 11 August 1801, NSW State Archives, 2/8147.

[12] ‘Cashbook of Convict Ship Britannia, 1792-97 and Accounts to 1807’, NSW State Archives, 5/1125.

[13] David Collins, An Account of the English Colony, Vol. 1, pp. 202, 205

[14] David Collins, An Account of the English Colony, Vol. 1, p. 98.

[15] John Hunter, Remarks on the Causes of the Colonial Expense of the Establishment of New South Wales, &c, London, 1802, pp. 28-29.

[16] Robert Murray, ‘Journal of a Voyage from England to Port Jackson, New So Wales. . .in the Ship Britannia, Mr W. Raven Commr, by Rt Murray, 16 February 1792 to 3 March 1795’, Peabody Essex Museum, M 656 1792 B, July 1792.

[17] Ibid.

[18] John Hunter, ‘Remarks on the Causes of the Colonial Expense. . .’, p. 29.

Detail from a drawing of the west side of the cove in around 1792, showing the house of Lieutenant Ball, commander of the Supply, along the western side of the cove, and a small building down by the water, which was probably the Supply’s bakehouse. [1]