C 0 M M E RC E. 
28? 
sons; the next year, should the crop fail, the price 
may be doubled or trebled, and the merchant who has 
a large stock in hand, makes a fortune. This, however, 
does not always occur, for in the case of a succession of 
good years, the article kept grows worse, and the 
holder is sometimes obliged to part with them at a 
loss, as well as he can. 
I have known good Worcestershire hops, many years 
ago, as low as 2l, 2s. per cwt. and I have known them 
as high as 15l. 15s. ; the last season, 1804, was a good 
one, and they were as low as from 4l. 4s. to 4l. 10s, 
per cwt. which, I was assured, gave little or no profit 
to the grower ; they are now, September, 1305, worth 
from 7l. to 8l. per cwt. the best sort. 
Fruit, in its raw state, being a perishable article, is 
Hot liable to much fluctuation, except from plentiful 
or scarce produce; but perry and cyder being kept 
from plentiful to scarce seasons, rises in price similar 
to hops, though not in so great a degree, as being ar¬ 
ticles (in the present taste of mankind) of less pressing 
necessity. 
Clover and grass seeds, corn, beans, flour, malt, sal¬ 
mon, fat cattle, sheep, lambs, hogs, hay, timber, and 
pole wood, are also commercial articles of this county. 
The navigation of the Severn, tends greatly to pro¬ 
mote the commerce of this county; a number of re¬ 
spectable individuals, under the name of owners, em¬ 
ploy barges and trows upon this river, between Bristol 
and Stourport, and upwards into Shropshire, to convey 
the various kinds of merchandize and manufactured 
goods up and down the river; many of them also keep 
canal boats, to continue such conveyance into the inte¬ 
rior and north of the kingdom. 
At Stourport is always a large stock of Staffordshire 
l coals. 
