A. D. 1795. s^^ 



the public was attended with a very heavy lofs ; for, before the rice ar- 

 rived, the price of corn became fomewhat more moderate ; and the 

 company's rice, imported at an expenfe of freight far beyond the ufual 

 full price of it, was fold very much under the coft. 



The rice fhips, when they returned to India, carried cargoes confift- 

 ing chiefly of French wines ; cutlery ; ironmongery ; looking-glafles, 

 whidow glafs, wine glafles, and ornamental articles of glafs ; piated 

 goods ; Manchefter goods ; printed and flained linens* ; filk and cot- 

 ton hofiery ware ; gold and filver thread ; iron in bars ; lead in pigs ; 

 tin in blocks ; copper in (heets, and copper pans ; broad cloths ; long 

 and broad ells ; camlets, &c. f 



The quays in the port of London, authorized by a commiflion from 

 the court of exchequer under the authority of an acfl: of parliament in 

 the year 1588, extend only 141 9 feet on the north bank of ihe River 

 Thames between London bridge and the Tower : and to this day they 

 conftitute the whole of the legal accommodation for the prodigious fhip- 

 ping trade of London, though that part of the river is too fhallov/ to 

 admit the fhips now ufed in foreign trade. Thefe quays being utterly 

 inadequate to the vaftly increaled extent of the bufinefs, the commif- 

 fioners of the cuftoms have occafionally permitted the ufe of other land- 

 ing places, which have thence been called fufferance tvharfs. In May 

 1789 ihey fpecified five fuch wharfs on the north fide of the river be- 

 low the Tower, and eighteen on the fouth fide, which they decreed to 

 be public ijohnifs. Though thefe new-efl:abli(lied wharfs occupy twice 

 as much lineal fpace on the banks of the river as the old legal ones, the 

 whole are dill very far from being fufficient for the accommodation of 

 (he trade J, efpecially in time of war, when large fleets of merchant 

 fhips arrive at once : and their detached and remote fituations render 

 them exceedingly inconvenient for the difpatch of bufinefs. 



The want of a fufficient extent of ground for fhipping and landing 

 goods, and the evils arifing from the monopoly thrown into the hands 

 of the owners of the few legal wharfs, have long been fubjedls of com- 

 plaint. In the year 1 674 the merchants of London petitioned the houfe 

 of commons for redrel's againfl; a combination, which the whole body 

 of the wharfingers had entered into. In the year 1711, when the tun- 

 nage of the veilels belonging to London was not near one half of what 



* The reception of fuch goorls in India, whence houfcs were appropriated to the reception of the 



wc ufed, not very long ago, to bring chintzes and one article of fugzr, they would not be fufficitnt. 



other ligured cotton llnffs for gowns and fiuniture, Tiie legal quays can (lore only 32,000 hogfheads, 



confers great honour upon our Britilh manufatt- and the fufferance wharfs, 60,200. It has fonic- 



urers. times happened that 120,000 hogflieads have ar- 



•(• For this enumeration I am indebted to Mr. rived in the river in the courfe of tlnee niontlis ; 



Doininicus, keeper of the company's warehoufe and, as all the wharfs were much crowded with 



at Botolph wharf, who obligingly furnilhed me other goods, the fngars have been piled up to the 



with it at the requeft of Mr. Frafer, one of the height of fix or eight tires of hogflieads, expofcd 



(lireftors. to be melted by rain, and plundered by thoufands 



\ If all the wharfs on the river with their ware-- of eager, watchful, and experienced, thieves. 



Z Z 2 



