In cataloguing the overseers’ vouchers for Staffordshire it has become evident that in individual parishes many suppliers were providing the same goods at the same price. This has led us to speculate whether some business owners were agreeing prices amongst themselves and then telling the overseers what their terms were, or whether overseers might be telling businesses that they will only pay up to a certain amount for specific goods. The goods where prices seem to be standard across all suppliers include beef and grocery items.

It was also common for institutions such as prisons, hospitals and workhouses to ask businesses to submit tenders for goods and services. Although we have not yet come across a tender in Staffordshire before the introduction of the New Poor Law in 1834, we have come across one for 1837 published in the Derby Mercury, on 4 October. This was for the provision of ‘good seconds bread’ to the Uttoxeter Union Workhouse for three months and for the supply of the following items:

Best seconds wheaten flour per sack of 16 stones

Best oatmeal per load of 240lbs

Beef, consisting of shoulder and sticking pieces, rounds &c per stone

Beef suet per lb

Yellow and brown soap per cwt

Black and green tea per lb

Brown sugar per lb

Salt per cwt

Soda per cwt

Rice per lb

Soft soap per firkin

Pepper per lb

Candles per dozen

Treacle per lb

Cheese per cwt

Peas, grey and white per bushel

Samples of the above articles were to be sent in with the tenders.

Also out for tender were coffins for persons above 14 years old made of elm one inch thick, well-pitched and lined. The same for persons under 14 years old and the same for infants.

Source

Derby Mercury, 4 October 1837