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Food hawkers filled the streets of early modern London and Naples but had an ambiguous relationship with urban governors. By comparing how hawkers were regulated in the two capitals between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, this article extends our knowledge of irregular work to two of the period's largest cities and argues that historians should consider informality as a social process, rather than a fixed economic category. It examines, in turn, how food hawkers were hard to distinguish from other rule-breaking retailers, how governors issued food-selling licences, and how hawker regulation also involved managing public space and related to gender and social status. Instead of clamping down completely, London aldermen and Neapolitan eletti gave licence to food hawking when it was useful and stayed within standards of behaviour. Deciding who was allowed to sell food and how were finely balanced questions of governance in the expanding early modern metropolis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green mould (Penicillium digitatum) and sour rot (Geotrichum citri-aurantii) in early season, thin-skinned navel oranges (Citrus sinensis) are of serious concern to the Australian citrus export industry. The pathogen causing the disease sour rot is particularly problematic because the control method for the Australian domestic market is to use fungicides containing guazatine, a chemical that is restricted for important export markets. In this study, we have examined possible alternative treatments to combinations of the two pathogens including the use of non-restricted fungicides in combination with gibberellic acid (GA3), generally regarded as safe (GRAS) compounds, and/or elevated temperature. When inoculated fruit were dipped in solutions containing the fungicide imazalil alone and in combination with GA3, thiabendazole, or carbendazim, the infection rate was reduced. GRAS compounds, sodium carbonate, and mineral oil, were also effective in reducing infection rates when mixed with imazalil, as was sodium carbonate alone and when mixed with GA3. GA3 was not effective at the rate tested (50 mg litre-1). Elevated temperature in most instances did not reduce disease incidence in fruit, although in experiments with control levels of inoculation below 80%, temperature was a factor in some treatments. Further experiments are necessary to demonstrate the potential of alternative treatments to limit sour rot and mould development on export fruit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]