River Improvement 147 



where they go, they send their Horses back for as much more, 

 and this very often in the Summer, for they chuse to travel 

 in the summer, and perhaps towards the Winter time, tho' 

 as little in Winter as they can, because of the badness of 

 the Roads." 



Other of the buyers on the Leeds market sent their pur- 

 chases to London, either carrying out commissions from 

 London traders or forwarding on consignment to factors 

 and warehousemen who themselves supplied wholesale and 

 retail dealers in London, besides despatching great quantities 

 of coarse goods abroad, especially to New England, New 

 York, Virginia, etc. The Russian merchants in London also 

 sent " an exceeding quantity " to St Petersburg, Riga, 

 Sweden, Dantzic and Pomerania. 



Still another group of buyers was represented by those 

 who had commissions direct from traders in Holland, Ger- 

 many and Austria, the business done by the members of this 

 group being " not less considerable " than that done by the 

 others. 



It was mainly on account of this London and foreign trade 

 that the Act for making the rivers Aire and Calder navigable 

 was obtained, there being secured a waterway communication 

 by means of which the cloth could be sent direct from Leeds, 

 Wakefield and other industrial centres to Hull, there to be 

 shipped to London or to Continental ports, as desired. 



The facilities for navigation thus afforded subsequently 

 had a still greater influence on the development of the York- 

 shire coal trade, coal being taken from Wakefield or Leeds 

 to the Humber, and thence conveyed up the Ouse to York, 

 or to the numerous towns situate on the Trent or other rivers. 

 By the same navigation the Yorkshire towns received most 

 of their supplies, either as imported into Hull from abroad, 

 or as received there from London or the eastern counties, 

 these supplies including butter, cheese, salt, sugar, tobacco, 

 fruit, spices, oil, wine, brandy, hops, lead, and all kinds of 

 heavy or bulky goods. For the merchants of Hull this meant 

 a business to be compared only with that of the merchants 

 of Lynn and Bristol. 



Some of the many river improvement Acts passed in the 

 period here under review were not secured without a certain 

 amount of opposition, and the case of the Don, more especially, 



