Risky Business at Rag Fair. On Interreligious Relations in the Mean Streets of Early Victorian London

ABSTRACT In early Victorian times there was a notorious street market for old clothes located in the heart of East London’s Jewish quarter. Each day, the most disparate ensemble of rag traders came together here, including migrants from different origins and of different religions. What kind of contact did they establish with each other? To answer this question, it is important to note that the rag trade resembled more a bazaar economy than a market economy. The Old Clothes Market, or Rag Fair as it was popularly known, was a risky environment for business. Under these circumstances, the merchants preferred to trade with parties whom they knew by reputation or from personal experience. They built client relationships which regularly cut across ethnic and religious divides. These relations, in turn, tended to transcend a merely economic rationale. In other words, the risks and uncertainties of trading at the Old Clothes Market turned out to be an incentive for forming interreligious relationships.