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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What type of freedom did costers enjoy that other workers did not?
(a) Being able to work when they wanted to work.
(b) Being their own boss and not being stuck indoors.
(c) Being able to put money away for retirement.
(d) Not having to pay taxes.

2. How did wholesale suppliers cheat costers?
(a) Adding hidden interest rates.
(b) Selling rotten produce or shortchanging them.
(c) Making the terms of sell difficult to understand.
(d) Holding the stock until it was sold and selling to two different costers.

3. What is an example of a mutual aid society?
(a) Costermen.
(b) Old Relics.
(c) Foresters.
(d) Star Alliance.

4. What did few adult Jews seldom work as?
(a) Tailors.
(b) Costermongers.
(c) Butchers.
(d) Bankers.

5. What could the interest rate on stock reach?
(a) Two hundred percent per year.
(b) Twenty percent per day.
(c) 1040 percent per year.
(d) Forty percent per week.

6. Who often became chimney sweepers?
(a) The smallest member of a Costermonger family.
(b) The tallest member of a Costermonger family.
(c) Destitute orphans.
(d) Many young men since it paid very well.

7. How long had the crossing week Mayhew interviewed work as a crossing sweep at the time of the interview?
(a) More than a decade.
(b) 20 years.
(c) 30 years.
(d) A few months.

8. What had one crossing sweep worked at until he was injured at age 36?
(a) A painter.
(b) A carpenter.
(c) A ostler.
(d) A bricklayer.

9. What happened when Mike's father died?
(a) His mother was cheated out of her house.
(b) He was allowed to train as a policeman.
(c) His mother kicked him out of the house.
(d) He was given an apprenticeship as a footman.

10. What percentage of people earning their living on the streets were vendors?
(a) Fifty percent.
(b) Seventy-five percent.
(c) Eighty-five percent.
(d) Sixty percent.

11. Who looked down upon chimney sweepers?
(a) Costermongers.
(b) Everyone.
(c) The other chimney sweepers.
(d) The mudlarks.

12. What did one Jewish trader claim to have purchased?
(a) A knight's sword.
(b) A bishop's miter.
(c) An old cloak belonging to the Queen.
(d) An old cloak belonging to the King.

13. What did the city of London use several tons of per year?
(a) Coal.
(b) Tobacco.
(c) Corn.
(d) Flour.

14. How were vendors categorized by Mayhew?
(a) By how much money they made.
(b) By the class in which they were born.
(c) By their place of business.
(d) Type of merchandise sold.

15. What does Mayhew seem to believe about certain occupations?
(a) They are fit only for the most unworthy of men.
(b) They are hereditary rather than learned.
(c) They are noble occupations.
(d) They are a great shame to perform.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did one of the young thieves who belonged to a gang tell Mayhew?

2. What was another name for a patterer?

3. Who usually watched Jewish girls who peddled fruit?

4. To whom did some merchants loan stock at no cost?

5. Where did a coster sleep if sales were bad?

(see the answer keys)

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