180*7.] ( 617 ) 



MONTHLY C0M:MERCIAL REPORT. 



n^E woollen manufactures in tlie uorth and weft of EtiK'sfld are not confiderably injured 

 by t\n: recent events on ihe Continent. The fniall clothiers in Yort>niL'-e proceed witti 

 th^'r ufual activity. Tliofe of vVeftnioreiand are equally luify. In Somerfetlliire, Glon- 

 cefterftiire, and VViltftiire, the fame unabated induHry prevails There is a teuiporarf 

 interruption of the orders from fomc parts of the Continent ; there may have been foinc 

 deficiency in the remittances: but the homc-confumption incrcalcs; the conir.irreial dif- 

 triliution of Britilh woollen goods in the Eaft Indirs is every year extended; the Anglo- 

 Americans take off, every year, greater quantities than belore; the trade of the Medi- 

 terranean, the Levant, and the Black .Sea, opens ftill new marts for 15ritilh woollens. 

 As the population and culture of the Britilh provinces in North America increafe, their 

 confumption, of woollens elpecially, grows more conliderable : even tlie colonv of Boiany 

 Bay begins to make itfelf iforthy of notice as a feat of cuftomers for the lame couhuo- 

 dity. The demand from the countries on the Baltic is, from time to time, rather eiilaiged 

 than narrowed. Adi^i to this, the confideration of our fupplies to Portugal, and of our 

 becoming every day more exclulively niafters of the trade to Spanilh Ameri a Our ma- 

 nufacturers, tuo, making woollen (.ioths fur every diverfity of country, ciimatt, and man- 

 ners, have ttius learned to exec! their rivals in all diverlities of labric for kvhicli Italy, 

 Spain, France, &:c. have ever been riiftiuguilhed. There is not, then, the linalleft reafon 

 to fear any innnediale decllHc in the Aaple nianufafture of J^igland from t!ic raaliciou* 

 /endeavours of our enemies on the CoHtijient. 



Late repoits from wool-ftaplers and masufaihirers enable us to ftate, that in the art of 

 forting their wools the Englifli are noiv little, if at all, inferior to the Spaniards. Travellers 

 inform us, that at Segovia, and in other places in Spaiji, the operations of forting th« 

 wools, wafliing them, and putting them up for tranfport and fale, are |)erformcd with the 

 ingenuit}', the care, and the ikill of one of the niceft and moft complex of the mechanic 

 or chemical arts. Till of late there was nothing comparable to this in England : hut the 

 fliort wools are now forted into ten or twelve different fpecics ; ihc long wools are manuge(L 

 with the fame difcrimination and care. The pra6tice of plunging the living fheep in water 

 to walh the tleeces, begins to be difcontinued, or little regarded, ^ecaufe it does not 

 cleanfe them more than fuperficially. 



Diligent entpiiries by a committee of the lad Parliament have afcertained, that tlic 

 ancient mode of the diftribution of labour and property in the woollen manufafturcs, ia 

 both the north and the weft of England, is the myft favourable to morals, to induftry, 

 and to the general increafe of the wealth of the country. In it, liugle manufaiturinj 

 families are Icattered over the federal diftri£ts, in hamlets, villages, or even folitarj 

 dwellings. Each family, with the aid perhaps of finne very few additional hands, work 

 up materials which they have themfelves purchafed from the wool-ftaplers. Socdc bring 

 their webs immediately from the loom to falc in the woollen halh, at the weekly markets. 

 /Others carry ttieir undrefled webs to the mills for dsciiig and drcffing, and have tin; 

 cloth carried through every procefs requifite to fit it for nl'e, before they offer it to fale. Ia 

 the halls, on the n)arket days, the merchants make their purchafes, for immediate expor- 

 tation, to fupply the e.xporters, or to ferve the genera! country trad ^- and the home con- 

 ftiiuplion. This islhe ancient fy.lein of the woollen raanulactures of England. 'l"he com- 

 niltee of the laft Parliament wifely judged, that it would not be for the intereft of tlia 

 ftale that tins fyllcra fliould I>e fupcrfeded by one, throwing the uianufafiure chiefly into 

 the hands of great capitalifts, and aflembling the weaver?, dyers, and drtflcrs in vaft uia- 

 nufatturiHg eftabliflimcnts. 



The trade in Welili Hannels is thought to be, at this time, one of the moft prouiifing ia 

 which a mercaetilc man can hazard a fpeculation. It is, for London, principally in the 

 hands of one or two houfes which have gained exceedingly by it, even within a very few 

 vears. 



Such has been tlie general increafe of the woollen trade of tliis country in tlie fpacc of 

 fourteen years, that the Eafter returns to the iufticcs at Pontefraiil of the quantity of the 

 manufatlure in the riding of Yinktliirc in which ic ftands were, in 17i''J, ]90,3j'J pieces 

 of broad-cloth, and IM 666 pieces of narrow cloth ; but, in 1805, oOO,i;j7 pieces of 

 broad, and l(")5,847 pieces of narrow. 



Our infiirniation refpetting the Cotton nianufaftnres i* not flattering. Tlie home-con- 

 fumption is immenfe ; but the falcs for the frciich, Dutch, and German markets are 

 comparatively nothing. Confidcrable diftrefs is felt in Lancathire, and at Glal'gow and 

 Pailley in *»cotland. The bankrupt lills evince how much is now fufforcd in this branch of 

 bulinefs. But the prices of cotton wools are now low in the market ; and the manufac- 

 turer has in this a temporary advantage over the grower and the importer. 



Hemp is jult now fcarce and dear. The nianufafturers of fail-cloth and cordage im- 

 ported Lift ruiiimer as liltieas poffiljle of lliis material. They expeftcd peace iVoiu the nego- 

 ci.'tt»unf,aud Khcw that peace woiiid ri'ducc the prices and the dcraaud for the articles whicl; 



they 



