Who Sold the Soldiers Their Coffee? A Licensed Civilian Following the Army
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Armies before modern supply systems fed and equipped themselves partly through licensed traders who travelled with the column, sold to the troops and were resented by everybody.
What the role was
The trader held a licence from the army to accompany a regiment and sell goods directly to soldiers, operating a tent or wagon that moved with the column and set up at each camp. The stock covered what the official ration did not, including tobacco, coffee, sugar, spirits, writing paper, needles, boots and patent medicines. The trader was a civilian running a private business, subject to military regulation and discipline while with the army, and paid nothing by it beyond the right to trade.
Why armies permitted it
The arrangement solved a genuine problem for commanders:
- •Official rations were monotonous and frequently inadequate
- •Soldiers with money and nothing to buy make trouble
- •Supplying comforts through military channels was expensive
- •A licensed trader could be regulated, an unlicensed one could not
- •The licence fee itself produced revenue
- •Local plunder could be reduced if goods were available to buy
Why they were hated
The reputation of these traders was consistently poor across armies and centuries and the reasons are structural rather than personal. A trader with an exclusive licence and a captive market at the end of a long supply line faced no competition and charged accordingly, with markups that soldiers considered outright robbery. Credit was extended against future pay, which put soldiers permanently in debt to the trader. Goods were frequently adulterated. The trader also stayed safe while the soldiers fought and made money from the war regardless of who won, which was not a combination that attracted sympathy.
Who else followed the army
The licensed trader was one figure among a substantial civilian population moving with a pre-modern army and separating them clarifies what the term means. Wives and children of soldiers travelled with the column in numbers, doing laundry, cooking and nursing, and were carried on strength in some armies. Drivers, drovers and labourers were hired locally for a campaign. Craftsmen including smiths, saddlers and shoemakers were essential and frequently civilian. Dealers bought plunder from soldiers and resold it. An army on the march could therefore be half civilian, which is a fact that most accounts of campaigns quietly omit.
What replaced them
Armies gradually took the function in house, and the reasons were as much about morale as about cost. Britain established a canteen system run under regimental control, with prices regulated and profits returned to the unit. The United States created an official exchange service in the late nineteenth century for the same purpose. Both grew into enormous retail organisations operating worldwide. The essential change was removing the private profit motive from a monopoly over captive customers, which is the lesson the earlier system taught repeatedly and expensively.
The takeaway
A licensed civilian trader travelled with a regiment selling what the ration did not cover, which kept soldiers supplied without the army paying for it and gave commanders somebody they could regulate. An exclusive licence over a captive market at the end of a supply line produced high prices, debt against future pay and a terrible reputation. Official canteens and exchanges eventually replaced them.