A Dangerous Class: The Street Sellers of Nineteenth-Century London

While the social research of Henry Mayhew drew attention to the street sellers of London in the nineteenth century, Mayhew only hinted at the full scope of the threat these sellers posed to Victorian capitalism and bourgeois society. Street selling was taken up by many different types of workers who had become unemployed or frustrated with their previous employment. Distinguished by the performative qualities of their work as well as by the sale of inexpensive commodities to the poor, street sellers provide a distinctive example of class conflict in London. Such sellers were frequently associated with Chartism and other radical agitation, and they often took on roles as orators or social commentators at public meetings. Many elements of their subversive potential were virtually inherent to their class. Whether in their links to a precarious commons, their commitment to socialization amidst economic transactions, or their struggle for space on the streets, these sellers posed a continual threat to the discipline, values, and rhythms of the larger capitalist economy. They provided an alternative model of social and economic life that was, in many ways, immediately visible to the public and which took on, over the course of the century, a more respected status. Street sellers harnessed public sympathy, established an important presence amid the working class, and expressed a unique vision of freedom and solidarity.