1800. ] og ae : 
MONTHLY COMMERCIAL REPORT. 
AS confiderable apprehenfions are entertained that a fhare of the Woollex-manufuStory, which 
has long been confidered of fo muchimporfance to this country, may be transterred to Ireland, 
it may be proper to oblerve that its prefent ftate is by no means fuch as to admit of this lefs with- 
out the effects thereof being feverely felt here. The profperity which Exeter and other places 
in the weft have heretofore derived trom this manufacture is fo far from being reftored, that it is 
thought by many it will never regain its former extent: itis truly melancholy to witnefs the 
complaints and diftrefles of hundreds in Exeter, who are out of employ, in confequence of the.im- 
poverifhed {tate of trade, and the ferge-makers in its vicinity are themfelves equally full of com- 
plaints with their labourers, to whom they can but occafionally give employment. The chief 
articles which have aiforded work thefe three or four years paft, are the exportation goods for the 
Faft India Company, which however is confined to oifly one branch of the trade; though it has 
cettainly become an extenfive one, as their demand from thefe parts laft year was between 2 and 
200,000 pieces; but as their goods undergo only a trifling procets after they come from the loom, 
but few hands are required to fend them off in a marketable ftate, in comparifon with the other 
oa branches of the trade, where the pieces pals the various procefles of dying, ‘prefling, 
poting, &c. which of courfe gives employ to a number of perfons who are not. benefited in the | 
leaft by the demands of the company, though the numbers who now depend almott wholly thereon 
for employ, is certainly very confiderable. It is well known that the woollen goods exported by 
the company are by no means a profitable article to them, though it muft be acknowledged they 
have not been wanting in their endeavours to facilitate and extend the fale thereof in India; it is- 
however to be hoped that the company will think it prudent and commendabie to continue this 
trade, although attended with fome lofs to them, as it is certain that by fo doing they give lup- 
port toa numerous clafs of the poor. 
Since the year 1796, when Spain no longer remained in amity with this country, the experts 
from Exeter have been fo very much reduced, that many of the merchants have net for 
months together had employment for a fourth part of their labourers, and thofe who have hired 
‘them have been aCtuated more by motives of charity, than by’ that of pecuniary benefit, as the, 
woollen goods which were made jfor the Spanifh markets are of fuch a peeuliar fabric that no 
other country orders them ; the ftagnation which was the confequence of this branch of the trade 
being {ulpended, caufed the warehoutes of the merchants toremain filled with a dead ftock, and 
the [éalian ports having been fo long {hut up has occafioned a fimilar lofs; but the latter market 
is now reviving, though it is at prefent very circumfcribed, as the various revolutions in the com- 
mercial connections in that country render it {till rather unfafe for the merchants to avail them- 
felves of the late changes which promife a re-eftablifhment of that trade.  Litbon and Oporto, 
with Germany, by way of Hamburgh, are the only places that*have affiited the manufacturers by 
taking off a part of their old fabrics, but thefe parts require but a very inconfiderable quantity 
of fuch goods, in comparifon with the Spanifh and Meditevranean trade, and the little that is done 
with them fearcely deierves the name ot trading, fince a fingle fhip has not been properly freighted 
out from Exeter thefe three years, and the goods exported are obliged to be fent to London or 
Falmouth, at a great expence of land carriage, inorder to be fhipped there, which tends to dimi- 
nifh the orders from abroad, as the charges thus incurred are fo great as nearly toabforb the 
ufual profits. 
Very few placesin the kingdom have had fo rapid an increafe of trade as the town of Swann 
SEA, for, from the Cuftom-houfe books, it appears that the number of veilels which entered 
there in 1768, was 694, making 30,631 regifter tons, whereas in the laft year, 1799, they were 
2351, making 134,876 regifter tons, Indeed, throughout Glamorganthire, trade has been, and 
is rapidly increafing ; in confequence of which the iron works at Merthyn and Neath, the collie- 
ries, &c. on the Cardiff canal, the coal and tin trade on the Neath canal, are all going on with 
fpirit. Ina line-of country of lefs than four miles in the neighbourhood of Swanfea, there are 
two navigable rivers, and four canals, all communicating with the fea; and there are upwards of 
fifteen collieries, which raife about 2000 ton of coal, ftone-coal, and culm, per diem, for which 
there isa regular fale. From the immente mines of coal, lime, iron, rotten-ftone, flags, and 
clay, the following very extenfive manuta¢tories have been erected within two miles of the town, 
“viz. feven copper works, in which sco men are conftantly employed, 400 tons of coal daily con- 
fumed, and 220 tons of copper are daily melted; one large iron foundry, one brafs houfe, one 
fpelter manufactory, one large pottery, in which upwards of eighty perfons are daily employed ; 
there are likewife two large breweries, and a wet and dry dock. “A plan for forming an outward 
harbour, and deepening the river, by erecting a pier of 228 yards long, with another oppofite, 
io as to leave only feventy yards opening, which would form an harbour capable of containing ma- 
ny hundred veffels, is carrying on, and two feet of water have been already gained. Ay 
The ports into which wheat and rice are to be imported under the att for granting bounties, 
thereon until the rt of Otober next, are the following ; Aberyitwyth, Barnftaple, Beaumaris, 
Berwick, Biddeford, Bofton, Bridgewater, Bridport, Briftol, Cardiff, Cardigan, Carlifle, Car- 
harvon, Chefter, Chichefter, Colchefter; Cowes, Dartmouth, Dover, Exeter, Falmouth, 
Fowey, Harwich, Hull, Ipfwich, Lancatter, Liverpool, London, Lyme, Lynn, Malden, 
Milford, Newcaftle, Newhaven, Penzance, Plymouth, Poole, Portfmouth, Prefton, Rochetter, 
Sandwich, Scarborough, Shoreham, Southampton, Stockton, Sunderland, Swanfea, Wells, 
Weymouth, Whitehaven, Whitby, Wifbeach, Yarmouth, Aberdeen, Ayr, Alloa, Borrowfton- 
nefs, Campbeltown, Dumfries, Dunbar, Port Dundas, Dundie, Grangemouth, Glafgow, 
Greenock, Kircudbright, Leith, Lerwick, Montrofe, Perth, and Wigton. The bounties are, 
en wheat from any part of Europe, fouth of Cape Finifterre, the Mediterranean, Africas the 
BESS Se or Di 

