arrest later throughout England and in America. They had been able to prosecute violations of licensing and the city's trading regulations. In the 18th century, they were empowered to investigate and suppress gambling houses, corrupt dealings and connivance. The two marshals, an upper and an under employing six men paid a shilling a day, had to buy their office at a public auction, which raised the possibility of selling the office for a higher price. By the time Hitchen bought his titled job, the price had risen from £300 in 1696 to £700 in 1712. This induced some marshals to seek recovery of their investment by unlawful means, including blackmail and even murder. Their official income was not ungenerous—the upper marshal receiving £100 p.a. and the under-marshal £60, both also given allowance for clothes and horse, £5 annually for good service, about £30 for selling "a Freedom of the City", and a share from each prisoner's entrance fee to the prisons and watch-houses. The marshals were also allowed to collect and retain a tax of one penny per stall-keeper at Bartholomew Fair. In the office The former cabinet-maker did not restrict himself to the income from the Lord Mayor of London. In fact, his famous words: "What do you think I bought my place for, but to make the most of it?" used to justify his crimes, describe the readiness with which he embraced his "duties". Not being the first to use the position as a form of legal theft, he regularised the practice. He had probably acted as a middleman or receiver between thieves and victims several years before taking the post, otherwise it would be difficult to explain his familiarity with London's underworld. He made full use of his authority as a leverage to build or extend his thief-taking business and stayed as a middleman in it. Hitchen managed to regulate about 2000 thieves and organise for them to steal and fence the stolen merchandise through him, a practice pickpockets would find more profitable or less dangerous than going to a pawnbroker, since most desperate victims of the theft were ready to pay a fee negotiated by the "finder" (Hitchen) for the return of their stolen items. With the growth of paper money transfers, the early draught notices, and "notes of hand" (agreements to pay the bearer), pickpockets were causing larger and larger economic losses to traders and