"Middleman" is a broad generic term used to describe a man through whose hands goods pass on their way to the consuming public, but who does not appear to add any value to the goods he handles.

At any stage in the production of these goods, previous to their final distribution, the middleman may come in and take his profit for no visible work done.

He may be a speculator, buying up grain or timber, and holding or manipulating it in the large markets; or he may be a wholesale merchant, who, buying directly from the fisherman, and selling to the retail fishmonger, is supposed to be responsible for the high price of fish; he may be the retailer who in East London is supposed to cause the high price of vegetables.
With these species of middlemen we are not now concerned, except to say that their work, which is that of distribution, i.e.the more convenient disposal of forms of material wealth, may be equally important with the work of the farmer, the fisherman, or the market-gardener, though the latter produce changes in the shape and appearance of the goods, while the former do not.

The middleman who stands between the employing firm and the worker is of three forms.

He may undertake a piece of work for a wholesale house, and taking the material home, execute it with the aid of his family or outside assistants.