34 State of Arts, Manners, Ge. in Edinburgh and Leith. 
not more than one-half is compenfated by 
their produétive labour. i 
For the women of labouring families, 
the modes of employment are not very 
many. ‘They fell fruits, greens and fith ; 
they are employed as milliners, mantua- 
makers, fempftrefles and wafher-women ; 
they do tambour-work: but I do not 
know that the manufacture of flraw-hats 
has been, as yet, tried among them. 
Numbers of them goto work as reapers in 
harveft. At the cotton and paper-muiils, a 
few find employment. 
One of the moft fortunate circumftances 
in the condition of Edinburgh is, that it 
fiands in the midft of a country abundant 
in limeftone and pit-coal. ‘The former is 
fo ufeful for building, &c. that a great 
town could fearcely rife where it 1s want- 
ing. The, latter is of fuch indifpenfable 
utility, that in no northern climate where 
fuel, efpecially this very fort of fuel, 
is not cheap and plentiful, can popula- 
tion or induftry ever flourifh. On the 
fouth-fhde of Edinburgh towards Dal- 
keith and Roflin, to the north on the Fife- 
fide of the Frith, and weitward in the 
country towards Glafgow, abundance of 
coal is procured. It is fold in Edinburgh 
at about feven fhillings for a fingle horfe’s 
eart load. Hence, neither domeftic com- 
forts, nor the conveniences for manufac- 
tures, are liable to be diminifhed, or to 
be felt as wanting here, on account of any 
{cantinefs of fuel. The coalliers live 
rather in the vicinity of Edinburgh, than 
in the town itfelf. They receive great 
wages, work but four days in the weck, 
are very diffolute and very poor. The 
women work with the men in the coal- 
its. ; 
In all thefe different ways are the means 
of fubfiftence fupplied to the inhabitants of 
the metropolis of North Britain. They 
fubfift, in great part, upen the profits of 
direétly productive induftry which is elfe- 
where exercifed. But, their affemblage 
and employments contribute to augment 
the power of that induftry, fomewhat in 
the fame manner in which the application 
of mill-machiery fetves to increafe the 
produétion of the labour of the fpinner and 
weaver. It is probable, that the whole of 
the dire&t income of the inhabitants of this 
place, arifing. from immediately produc- 
tive indufiry exercifed in it, or from the 
fruits of a productive indufiry operating 
elfewhere, may be about one million fter- 
ling annually. The total value of their 
capital, in houfes,§lands, money, houfe- 
hold furniture, carriages, drefs and per- 
fonal ornaments, goods in fheps and ware- 
[Feb. 1; 
houfes, horfes and other cattle, conveni- 
ences of ftreets, roads, water-conduits, fea- 
portsand flipping, and in the advantages 
for fifhing which render the fea to them, ‘as 
it were, a fort of perfonal eflate, may be 
moderately eftimated at taventy millionsr 
Should we, after the example of Sir Wil- 
liam Petty, attempt to value alfo the peo- 
ple themfelves; I fhould fuppofe, that 
they might be reckoned worth about fen 
millions frerling—an eftimate, perhaps, ra- 
ther too low. But, upon thele principles, 
the whole value of the Scottifh capital, its 
people and their property, will be zhirty 
millions frerling. 
Fhe merchants of Edinburgh, Leith, 
and the environs, are affociated, with the- 
approbation of Government, in a Cham- 
ber of Commerce, which watches over 
_their common interefts, and occafionally 
correfponds with his Majefty’s Minifters 
refpecting matters in which thefe interefts 
are deeply concerned. They are a re- 
{peftable body. Some of them are bank- 
ers; fharers in the property of the Old 
Bank, the Royal Bank, or the Britith 
Linen Company—three incorporated com- 
panies of bankers; miafters of private 
banking houfes only ; or perfons at once 
fharing in the property of the public com- 
panies, and aéting feparately as private 
bankers. The houfes of Forbes, Hunter. 
and Co. and of Mansfield, Ramfay and 
Co. are little lefs refpected in credit, and 
little lefs extenfive in their tranfa&tions, 
than the incorporated companies them- 
felves. The ftock of the Old Bank has 
long been at a higher value in the market 
than that of almoft any other public com- 
pany in Great Britain. Thefe banks 
keep current accompts with the merchants, © 
iffue notes payable on demand, difcount 
good bills, tranfa&t the bufinefs of the ex- 
change or money between Edinburgh and — 
other places, &c. 
The Ruffia, &c. merchants, trading to 
the dominions of Ruffia, Denmark, and 
Sweden, in the Baltic and North Seas, 
are confiderably numerous and opulent. 
Tar, timber, iton, hemp, flax, coarfe 
linens, Ruffia leather, &c. are the im- 
ports from thofe parts. Cottons, glafs 
and bottles, articles of houfehold furni- 
ture'and drefs, utenfils of the arts, &c. 
are the goods fent out in return. Many 
of the imports are for immediate con- 
fumption, not for manufaGure in order 
to re-exportation. For the articles of 
timber, tar, hemp, and flax even alone, 
the nations of the Baltic draw vaft fums 
from the merchants on the Frith of 
Forth. Corn to a great value is imported, 
‘for 
