A PICTURE OF THE IRON TRADE. 4 1 



twelve dozen more (seven long and five ordinary) were despatched, 

 and had not arrived by the 14th of March. In June, 1663, 

 sixteen dozen were sent of large, ordinary, and block, all marked 

 F. F., and in August thirteen dozen of the same kinds. In 

 December twenty-nine dozen, and in June of the next year twenty- 

 two dozen, besides three dozen of short saws, marked T. C. In 

 the next month, twenty-eight dozen and nine dozen more " bound 

 up with hay ropes and sallow twigs in the topp of them." In 

 October, 1664, three dozen, and in December thirty-seven dozen. 

 In the following year a smaller quantity was sold. Long saws 

 were at least six feet long, perhaps longer, and I find that they 

 sold at £2 1 8s. or ^3 per dozen. Ordinary ones fetched £2 7s. 

 or £2 8s. 



It is of more interest to follow the saws that emigrated to 

 Barbadoes. In 1660, George, the son of our merchant, despatched 

 twenty-seven dozen of 6-foot whip saws, consigned to Mr. John 

 Searle, a merchant there, and paid for freight of them ^5 10s., 

 and for " porcidge and wharfidge " 7s. In May, 1663, nothing 

 had been heard of them, and exactly a year later the father writes 

 to Mr. Searle and Mr. Newton (who were merchants, and had 

 furnaces for boiling sugar) hoping that they have arrived safely, 

 and that the saws are disposed of. In November, 1664, fourteen 

 dozen and four saws came back from Barbadoes, and as they 

 would no doubt be very rusty, a smith was to be got to black 

 them. Fourteen hundred weight of sugar came at the same 

 time in payment for those that were sold ; for at this time, in the 

 absence of exchanges and foreign investments, imports and 

 exports really balanced each other. In Juh', 1665, nine dozen of 

 " those old wandering saws " were disposed of, and in August the 

 remainder. 



I suppose the sale of the sugar was profitable, as in September, 

 1665, 7,232 pounds weight (that is, three punches) of Muscavados 

 sugar arrived, and six bags of cotton wool. This was a fresh 

 deal, and I do not know with what article of commerce it was 

 eventually paid for. One hundred weight of the sugar was to 

 have been sent down to Renishaw, but it proved too coarse, and 



