The term "huckster" was used in different ways across Europe and later ended up taking on different meanings at different times.
In Scotland In
Scotland, the term "huckster" referred to a person, usually a woman, who bought goods, watered them down, and resold them in tiny quantity to others who were too poor to buy quality products available at market value. These items tended to be in the poorer quality range, since economy was paramount. Scots
burghs often felt the need to control hucksters because they operated without a stall, on the economic fringes. In particular, they were subject to accusations of forestalling, in this case, the practice of buying goods wholesale, "before the stall" and therefore before tax was paid.
In England and Continental Europe In England and Continental Europe during the medieval period, the term "huckster" was synonymous with "peddler." Hucksters and peddlers belonged to a broad group of
resellers who purchased surplus stocks from weekly provincial markets and
fairs and then resold them at larger daily markets or engaged in door-to-door selling. As time passed, the distinction between hucksters and peddlers became more pronounced. During the medieval period, the term "huckster" came to refer to market-based food vendors, while peddlers referred to itinerant vendors of a wide range of merchandise. Hucksters were often women who dealt in low-priced goods such as meat, poultry, dairy, bread and baked goods, including pies and pastries. They sourced raw materials from their own holdings or purchased goods from other sellers and carried their products to the market place in baskets or
on their heads. These women either lived in the
market town or travelled into the market place from the surrounding area. Hucksters were at the bottom of the market
hierarchy, both in terms of wealth and status, since they made only small returns.
Luca Clerici has made a detailed analysis of
Vicenza’s food market during the sixteenth century. He found that there were many different types of reseller operating out of the markets. For example, in the dairy trade, cheese and butter was sold by the members of two craft guilds (i.e.,
cheesemongers who were shopkeepers) and that of the so-called "resellers" (hucksters selling a wide range of foodstuffs), and by other sellers who were not enrolled in any guild. Cheesemongers’ shops were situated at the town hall and were notably lucrative. Resellers and peddlers increased the number of sellers, thus increasing competition, to the benefit of consumers. Direct sellers, who brought produce from the surrounding countryside, sold their wares through the central market place and priced their goods at considerably lower rates than cheesemongers.
In 20th-century Philadelphia ,
107th United States Congress. First Session. Washington, D.C. Serial No. 107-14. In
Philadelphia, in the early 1900s, hucksters were seen as primarily men who came around with carts, horse or hand-drawn, of fresh produce. They made their presence known by crying out loud what they had to offer. In earlier Philadelphia dialect, to say "like a huckster" meant to be too loud in one's speech. ==In literature and popular culture ==