by Daniel Defoe
distressed; for not in thestreets only, but in private houses and families, great quantities ofcoal were then burnt, even all the summer long, and when the weather washottest, which was done by the advice of the physicians. Some, indeed,opposed it, and insisted that to keep the houses and rooms hot was ameans to propagate the distemper, which was a fermentation and heatalready in the blood; that it was known to spread and increase in hotweather, and abate in cold; and therefore they alleged that allcontagious distempers are the worst for heat, because the contagion wasnourished, and gained strength, in hot weather, and was, as it were,propagated in heat.
Others said they granted that heat in the climate might propagateinfection, as sultry hot weather fills the air with vermin, andnourishes innumerable numbers and kinds of venomous creatures, whichbreed in our food, in the plants, and even in our bodies, by the verystench of which infection may be propagated; also that heat in the air,or heat of weather, as we ordinarily call it, makes bodies relax andfaint, exhausts the spirits, opens the pores, and makes us more apt toreceive infection or any evil influence, be it from noxious,pestilential vapors, or any other thing in the air; but that the heat offire, and especially of coal fires, kept in our houses or near us, hadquite a different operation, the heat being not of the same kind, butquick and fierce, tending not to nourish, but to consume and dissipate,all those noxious fumes which the other kind of heat rather exhaled, andstagnated than separated, and burnt up. Besides, it was alleged that thesulphureous and nitrous particles that are often found to be in thecoal, with that bituminous substance which burns, are all assisting toclear and purge the air, and render it wholesome and safe to breathein, after the noxious particles (as above) are dispersed and burnt up.
The latter opinion prevailed at that time, and, as I must confess, Ithink with good reason; and the experience of the citizens confirmed it,many houses which had constant fires kept in the rooms having never beeninfected at all; and I must join my experience to it, for I found thekeeping of good fires kept our rooms sweet and wholesome, and I doverily believe made our whole family so, more than would otherwise havebeen.
But I return to the coals as a trade. It was with no little difficultythat this trade was kept open, and particularly because, as we were inan open war with the Dutch at that time, the Dutch capers[301] at firsttook a great many of our collier ships, which made the rest cautious,and made them to stay to come in fleets together. But after some timethe capers were either afraid to take them, or their masters, theStates, were afraid they should, and forbade them, lest the plagueshould be among them, which made them fare the better.
For the security of those northern traders, the coal ships were orderedby my lord mayor not to come up into the Pool above a certain number ata time; and[302] ordered lighters and other vessels, such as thewoodmongers (that is, the wharf keepers) or coal sellers furnished, togo down and take out the coals as low as Deptford and Greenwich, andsome farther down.
Others delivered great quantities of coals in particular places wherethe ships could come to the shore, as at Greenwich, Blackwall, and otherplaces, in vast heaps, as if to be kept for sale; but[303] were thenfetched away after the ships which brought them were gone; so that theseamen had no communication with the river men, nor so much as came nearone another.[304]
Yet all this caution could not effectually prevent the distempergetting among the colliery, that is to say, among the ships, by which agreat many seamen died of it; and that which was still worse was, thatthey carried it down to Ipswich and Yarmouth, to Newcastle-upon-Tyne,and other places on the coast, where, especially at Newcastle and atSunderland, it carried off a great number of people.
The making so many fires as above did indeed consume an unusual quantityof coals; and that upon one or two stops of the ships coming up (whetherby contrary weather or by the interruption of enemies, I do notremember); but the price of coals was exceedingly dear, even as high asfour pounds a chaldron;[305] but it soon abated when the ships came in,and, as afterwards they had a freer passage, the price was veryreasonable all the rest of that year.
The public fires which were made on these occasions, as I havecalculated it, must necessarily have cost the city about two hundredchaldron of coals a week, if they had continued, which was indeed a verygreat quantity; but as it was thought necessary, nothing was spared.However, as some of the physicians cried them down, they were not keptalight above four or five days. The fires were ordered thus:--
One at the Custom House; one at Billingsgate; one at Queenhithe, and oneat the Three Cranes; one in Blackfriars, and one at the gate ofBridewell; one at the corner of Leadenhall Street and Gracechurch; oneat the north and one at the south gate of the Royal Exchange; one atGuildhall, and one at Blackwell Hall gate; one at the lord mayor's doorin St. Helen's; one at the west entrance into St. Paul's; and one at theentrance into Bow Church. I do not remember whether there was any at thecity gates, but one at the bridge foot there was, just by St. MagnusChurch.
I know some have quarreled since that at the experiment, and said thatthere died the more people because of those fires; but I am persuadedthose that say so offer no evidence to prove it, neither can I believeit on any account whatever.
It remains to give some account of the state of trade at home in Englandduring this dreadful time, and particularly as it relates to themanufactures and the trade in the city. At the first breaking out of theinfection there was, as it is easy to suppose, a very great fright amongthe people, and consequently a general stop of trade, except inprovisions and necessaries of life; and even in those things, as therewas a vast number of people fled and a very great number always sick,besides the number which died, so there could not be above two thirds,if above one half, of the consumption of provisions in the city as usedto be.
It pleased God to send a very plentiful year of corn and fruit, and notof hay or grass, by which means bread was cheap by reason of the plentyof corn, flesh was cheap by reason of the scarcity of grass, but butterand cheese were dear for the same reason; and hay in the market, justbeyond Whitechapel Bars, was sold at four pounds per load; but thataffected not the poor. There was a most excessive plenty of all sorts offruit, such as apples, pears, plums, cherries, grapes; and they were thecheaper because of the wants of the people; but this made the poor eatthem to excess, and this brought them into surfeits and the like, whichoften precipitated them into the plague.
But to come to matters of trade. First, foreign exportation beingstopped, or at least very much interrupted and rendered difficult, ageneral stop of all those manufactures followed of course, which wereusually brought for exportation; and, though sometimes merchants abroadwere importunate for goods, yet little was sent, the passages being sogenerally stopped that the English ships would not be admitted, as issaid already, into their port.
This put a stop to the manufactures that were for exportation in mostparts of England, except in some outports; and even that was soonstopped, for they all had the plague in their turn. But though this wasfelt all over England, yet, what was still worse, all intercourse oftrade for home consumption of manufactures, especially those whichusually circulated through the Londoners' hands, was stopped at once,the trade of the city being stopped.
All kinds of handicrafts in the city, etc., tradesmen and mechanics,were, as I have said before, out of employ; and this occasioned theputting off and dismissing an innumerable number of journeymen andworkmen of all sorts, seeing nothing was done relating to such tradesbut what might be said to be absolutely necessary.
This caused the multitude of single people in London to be unprovidedfor, as also of families whose living depended upon the labor of theheads of those families. I say, this reduced them to extreme misery; andI must confess it is for the honor of the city of London, and will befor many ages, as long as this is to be spoken of, that they were ableto supply with charitable provision the wants of so many thousands ofthose as afterwards fell sick and were distressed; so that it may besafely averred that nobody perished for want, at least tha
t themagistrates had any notice given them of.
This stagnation of our manufacturing trade in the country would have putthe people there to much greater difficulties, but that the masterworkmen, clothiers, and others, to the uttermost of their stocks andstrength, kept on making their goods to keep the poor at work, believingthat, as soon as the sickness should abate, they would have a quickdemand in proportion to the decay of their trade at that time; but asnone but those masters that were rich could do thus, and that many werepoor and not able, the manufacturing trade in England suffered greatly,and the poor were pinched all over England by the calamity of the cityof London only.
It is true that the next year made them full amends by another terriblecalamity upon the city; so that the city by one calamity impoverishedand weakened the country, and by another calamity (even terrible, too,of its kind) enriched the country, and made them again amends: for aninfinite quantity of household stuff, wearing apparel, and otherthings, besides
