MANUFACTURERS, CHAP. XXVf. 



It would have been impossible to have obtained 

 from so many and such various quarters, whatever 

 pains may have been taken, exact returns. It was 

 therefore thought proper to limit the personal 

 examination to the three principal places, London, 

 Birmingham, and Sheffield. In the author's in- 

 quiries among the persons -connected with the 

 several branches of the trades that use gold and 

 silver in those three places, he has found so 

 much readiness to communicate information, so 

 much accuracy generally in the accounts rendered 

 by some, verified by similar accounts supplied 

 by other individuals, and so much desire to point 

 out other sources of information, that he looks 

 back to the time spent among those persons with 

 much satisfaction. 



In each branch of the trade a certain number of 

 persons were so kind as to furnish exact accounts 

 of their own consumption of both gold and silver, 

 and their opinions as to the quantities consumed 

 by others in the same branch. By this a clue was 

 furnished, when these several accounts were com- 

 pared with each other, which led to calculations 

 that approximated as near to accuracy as could be 

 expected in such an inquiry. 



In some cases the trade of a refiner of gold and 

 silver is combined with another technically distin- 

 guished by the name of Sweep-washers. The 

 persons employed in this branch purchase whatever 

 refuse is obtained from the floors of the various 



