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COTTON TEXTILES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 

 WEIGHT PER YARD. 



The weight per yard is said to vary somewhat even in what are classed 

 as the same grades of goods, and hence it is not possible to give a fixed 

 standard of weight for each class. The following tables, however, will 

 show the weight and wholesale price of, and the duty charged on, eight 

 of the leading white and gray staples : 



* The value of the Manila dollar will average 80 cents, United States gold. 



Colored goods, prints, ginghams, etc., usually come in pieces of 24 

 yards each, weighing 3J to 5 pounds ; the wholesale price to jobbers 

 is from $2.25 to $5 per piece, Manila currency. Prints of the ordinary 

 grades sell to jobbers at from $1.62J to$ 2.25 per piece. 



HOW PURCHASED. 



Nearly all the large importing houses in Manila that handle cotton 

 goods are branches of establishments in England or Scotland, which 

 purchase their goods in Europe on private terms and send them here 

 for sale. The managers of the Manila houses are, therefore, principally 

 interested in the actual cost of the goods and their selling price here, 

 and, as a rule, are not authorized to purchase new lines of goods with- 

 out consulting the heads of the firm in Europe. This applies to the 

 wholesale importing houses only ; the larger retail houses of course are 

 at liberty to buy wherever they can make the best terms, although 

 nearly all of them have agents or representatives in Europe through 

 whom most of their goods are bought. When goods of a particular 

 class are needed by the wholesale houses a cablegram or letter is sent 

 to Europe and the goods are sent on by steamer as soon as possible. 

 Goods are usually bought, I am told, on thirty days, or longer time if 

 special arrangements are made between seller and buyer. 



Agents or traveling salesmen for cotton goods manufactories very 

 rarely, if ever, come here ; a gentleman who represented an English 

 woolen house and who made a business trip to Manila more than a year 

 ago, told me that he could sell no goods here as the retail houses had 

 representatives in Europe, and besides were not willing to accede to 



