METALLVRGY. 71 



(he sucress of the manufacture depends in a great degree. On these 

 and other accounts, till commerce puts on a more liberal appear- 

 ance than it has hitherto done in Kurope ; till different nations shall 

 be disposed to consider themselves, with respect to commercial 

 interests, as different provinces only of the same kingdom ; it may, 

 probably, be thought expedient to continue the acts prohibiting the 

 exportation of unwrought brass, though the reasons which induced 

 the legislature to pass them have long since ceased to exist. I do 

 not enter into the inquiry, when the custom-house officers began to 

 make a distinction between wrought and unwrought brass, so as to 

 admit the former to an entry for exportation and not the latter; 

 but I apprehend it was in the year 1721, when various goods and 

 merchandizes of the product or manufactures of Great Britain were 

 allowed, by act of parliament, to be exported free of duty ; lapis 

 calaminaris, lead, and several other articles are enumerated in the 

 act, on which the duty was to be continued ; but in this enumera- 

 tion there is no mention made of unwrought brass, though it may 

 properly be considered as a merchandize of the product of Great 

 Britain ; . but the quantity of brass which was then made in the 

 kingdom was so small, that it did not, probably, enter into the con. 

 temptation of the legislature to forbid an exportation, which did 

 not seem likely ever to take place. Brass is made in various parts 

 of Great Britain ; but the Bristol, Macclesfield, and Warrington 

 companies are the only ones, I believe, which go through all the 

 processes of smelting the copper from its ore, of preparing the cala- 

 mine, and of uniting it with copper for the making of brass. The 

 trade of brass making has within these few months been much de. 

 ranged throughout the nation, by an agreement which has been 

 entered into by some of the principal copper companies, to the 

 exclusion of others, to buy up all the copper of the mines now at 

 work in the kingdom. The effect of this plan is not yet generally 



either felt or foreseen. 



[Bishop Watson. 



