122 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF 
ner, employed about 1,500 hands, all of whom 
are now idle, or, as the phrase is, off work. That 
previous to their being discharged, he and his 
partner had struggled on from one week to ano- 
ther, in hopes that the times would mend, and a 
demand, more or less, come for their goods. 
That, in this hope, they had gone on for the last 
three weeks, and not having a sufficient quantity 
of money to pay the people their full weekly 
wages, they had prevailed on them to accept about 
a third of the sum, as this, with economy, might 
suffice for subsistence. In procuring the money 
for this purpose, he told me, they had been redu- 
ced to extraordinary difficulties. Formerly they 
sold their goods in large quantity, but now they 
determined to supply the retailers themselves 
with a single piece, or even less; and, provided 
they paid them in specie, at almost any price. 
Accordingly, having goods in their warehouses 
that suited the home market, they fitted up a 
light cart and sent a young man with it, full of 
goods, to supply the retailers in every part of the 
country, and to bring home the specie every 
Saturday, whatever might be the loss. The 
expedient succeeded for about three weeks, but 
had now failed, and he was come to Liverpool to 
try if by any possible means he could raise a few 
