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1. ajb · 1790250196 · focus · HN ↗

   In the UK, the state has a conflicted relationship with mobile vending. On the one hand it is controversial to restrict commerce in a free society; on the other, there is an increasing aversion to being called to the door, or offered goods in the street. Technically you are would be required to have a "Pedlar's certificate", but there is a right to obtain one unless you are known to be of "bad character". "pedlar" is a very old word today hardly used except in the phrase 'drug pedlar'; and you cannot obtain such a certificate except by application at a police station, a rule unchanged since 1870. There are only a few thousand people with this licence and most street sellers probably don't have one (this does not include sellers at a fixed "pitch", who need a different (and more expensive and scarce) licence from the local council).

   1. stronglikedan · 1790265589 · focus · HN ↗

      > On the one hand it is controversial to restrict commerce in a free society

      The UK is far from a free society, so, problem solved!

   2. segmondy · 1790346441 · focus · HN ↗

      It's just a function of the times. Prior to the internet, and growing up in a place were mass media was strong. Peddlers were welcomed, it was how most people got introduced to new products/goods. They would travel, instead of door to door, it was mostly block to block. Announce their presence and everyone would come out and listen and watch them demonstrate the product. They were entertainment in mass transit. Often they were not just salesmen, but comics, they really good one who could sell would not just sell, but elicit enough laughter from the crowd to close the deal.
2. jdw64 · 1790252208 · focus · HN ↗

   >if she were his sister, he would murder her rather than allow her to canvass.

   Looking at this, I really feel that social norms have changed a lot. In each era, women's rights have shifted back and forth—sometimes equal to men's, sometimes lower. These things keep changing from generation to generation, and I'm curious how they'll change in future generations.

   1. paulryanrogers · 1790252773 · focus · HN ↗

      That must be exaggeration, even of the era. Controlling women has been a pretty consistent theme. But that's just so extreme a reaction for something so routine.

      1. bell-cot · 1790256810 · focus · HN ↗

         > That must be exaggeration...

         Maybe, maybe not. There certainly are current-day cultures in which things are that extreme.

         1. paulryanrogers · 1790291832 · focus · HN ↗

            Really? Which cultures would honor kill a woman just for trying to sell things?
      2. mattmcal · 1790259434 · focus · HN ↗

         It sounds like a believable line from a spouse abuser, actually. Surely even male door-to-door sellers put up with their share of rank abuse, in any era; it would only have been worse for a woman.
3. fhdkweig · 1790253926 · focus · HN ↗

   Encyclopedias were sold that way in the 1980s. Someone would just randomly knock on doors selling them. My parents had a few "A" volumes of various encyclopedias because they would sell the first book cheap (or free) and ask you to subscribe to a mailing for the rest.

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