Donkey-carts are rarely hired. “If there’s 2,000 donkey and pony-carts in London, more or less, not 200 of them’s borrowed; but of barrows five to two is borrowed.” A donkey-cart costs from 2_l._ to 10_l._; 3_l._ 10_s._ being an average price. The hire is 2_s._ or 2_s._ 6_d._ a week. The harness costs 2_l._ 10_s._ new, but is bought, nineteen times out of twenty, second-hand, at from 2_s._ 6_d._ to 20_s._ The donkeys themselves are not let out on hire, though a costermonger may let out his donkey to another in the trade when he does not require its services; the usual sum paid for the hire of a donkey is 2_s._ 6_d._ or 3_s._ per week. The cost price of a pony varies from 5_l._ to 13_l._; that of a donkey from 1_l._ to 3_l._ There may be six donkeys, or more, in costermonger use, to one pony. Some traffic almost weekly in these animals, liking the excitement of such business.
The repairs to barrows, carts, and harness are almost always effected by the costermongers themselves.
“Shallows” (baskets) which cost 1_s._ and 1_s._ 6_d._, are let out at 1_d._ a day; but not five in 100 of those in use are borrowed, as their low price places them at the costermonger’s command. A pewter quart-pot, for measuring onions, &c., is let out at 2_d._ a day, its cost being 2_s._ Scales are 2_d._, and a set of weights 1_d._ a day.
Another common mode of usury is in the lending of stock-money. This is lent by the costermongers who have saved the means for such use of their funds, and by beer-shop keepers. The money-lending costermongers are the most methodical in their usury--1,040_l._ per cent. per annum, as was before stated, being the rate of interest usually charged. It is seldom that a lower sum than 10_s._ is borrowed, and never a higher sum than 2_l._ When a stranger applies for a loan, the money-lender satisfies himself as I have described of the barrow-lender. He charges 2_d._ a day for a loan of 2_s._ 6_d._; 3_d._ a day for 5_s._; 6_d._ a day for 10_s._; and 1_s._ a day for 1_l._ If the daily payments are rendered regularly, at a month’s end the terms are reduced to 6_d._ a week for 5_s._; 1_s._ for 10_s._; and 2_s._ for 1_l._ “That’s reckoned an extraordinary small interest,” was said to me, “only 4_d._ a day for a pound.” The average may be 3_s._ a week for the loan of 20_s._; it being only to a few that a larger sum than 20_s._ is lent. “I paid 2_s._ a week for 1_l._ for a whole year,” said one man, “or 5_l._ 4_s._ for the use of a pound, and then I was liable to repay the 1_l._” The principal, however, is seldom repaid; nor does the lender seem to expect it, though he will occasionally demand it. One money-lender is considered to have a floating capital of 150_l._ invested in loans to costermongers. If he receive 2_s._ per week per 1_l._ for but twenty-six weeks in the year (and he often receives it for the fifty-two weeks)--his 150_l._ brings him in 390_l._ a year.