HIVE OF INDUSTRY
ANTIQUITY OF BEESWAX TRADE. The June number of “The P.L.A. Monthly" contains some interesting notes on one of the lesser known im ports of the Port of London—beeswax. “The trade in beeswax is of great antiquity for it was used in classical times for writing tablets, artistic purposes and medicine. When the Romans conquered Corsica in 181 B.C. they levied a tax of 100,0001 b of wax: it is probable that much of this was used in the manufacture of candles, for beeswax was the general domestic il luminant in those days. The mystical association of beeswax for candles was adopted by the early Christian Church, and has continued in the ritual of the Catholic Church.
“The commercial use of beeswax in this country probably dates from those early times. The London trade in this commodity is centred today at the London and St Katharine Docks. The cliche ‘hive of industry’ is so often an plied to this dock system that one may be forgiven for imagining the beeswax trade to have perpetrated a subtle pun when it established itself there.”
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1939, Page 4
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184HIVE OF INDUSTRY Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1939, Page 4
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