1602.} 
bordering on the Rhine, and from other 
caufes, even the Englith, though they 
‘fold their goods uncommonly cheap, were 
not ahle todo mych bufinefs, There had 
been indeed a great number of vifitors at 
Frankfort ; but the merchants from the 
North of Europe have forty German miles 
farther to teavel to Frankfort than to 
Leipzig, and this faving alone more than 
counterbalances all the adyantages arifing 
from the greater cheapnefs of provifions 
and houfe-rent, and from the lownefs* of 
the duties paidin Frankfort. It is pro- 
bable then, that Leipaig will remain the 
principal ftaple-place for the trade with 
the North; and for this more provifion 
had been made laft fair, than in any pre- 
ceding one, It was faid, that no lefs than 
forty-fix Englifh mercantile houfes had . 
ware-rooms at the fair. Among thofe 
who attended for the firf{ time, we ob- 
ferved the following :—-W. Barbe and Co. 
W. Turner and Co. from Manchefter ; 
A, Rutherford, from Manchefter; Kerr 
and Duddingfton, J. Cunliff, Blatt, and 
Ridgway, Tonner, and Co. T. Brookes 
and Co. from Manchefter; J. Gibfon and 
Wm. Guthrie, from Glafgow. The 
Englifh houles, however, which were al- 
ready known at Leipzig from their former 
dealings, Campbell, from Glafgow. Arch. 
Macnab (who fome time ago married and 
fettled at Brunfwick), and particularly J. 
Humphreys and Co. (who filled with 
goods all the front rooms of -Dufour’s 
Jarge houfe in the great market-place), 
maintained a fuperiority over the new- 
comers, and fold extraordinary quantities 
of muflins, dimities, thickfets, &c. The 
cotton manufactures of Saxony were thus 
again almoft wholly beat out of the market 
. by the Britith, with which they could not 
ftand a competition, either with refpe& to 
the beauty and neatnefs of the patterns, or 
the lownefs of the prices. 
But what at former fairs ‘had been lefs 
the cafe, the importation of the lighter 
forts of Englith woollens was likewife im- 
menfe, and threatened an entire agnation 
in the manufactures of Germany. Even 
the middling cloths, and not merely the 
fineft forts, had been fent from England in 
fuch abundance, that the cloth-dealers of 
Zillichau, Gorlitz, and other parts of 
Brandenburgh and Saxcny, were almoft 
reduced todefpair. But this Severe ftroke 
a 
* For inftance, the duty paid at Frankfort 
for a bale of cloth centaining twenty-four 
pieces, is twenty-four creutzers : but in Leip- 
zig, it would amount toperhaps as many half- 
dollars. . 
Some Account of the Leipzig Michaelmas fair, 
209 
upon them might have been forefeen ; for, 
during the two laft years, all the fine and 
even coarfer wool, in the markets of Baut- 
zen, Drefden, Leipzig, -Naumberg, &c. 
had been bought up by Englith ageniss 
and fent to Zneland.. The Saxon manu- > 
facturers made {trong remonfirances againft 
the exportation of the raw materials, but » 
their petitions feem not to have been at- 
tended to, and the confequence is the ruin 
of the woollen-manufactures, and the 
breadleffnefs of many thoulands of {pin- 
ners and weavers in that country, Agents 
have again been travelling about in Saxs 
ony with Enelifh guineas, who even buy 
beforehand the produce of the next fheep- 
fhearing, and by their competition conft- 
derably advance the price of the wool. 
All this could not failto excite the live- 
lieftfentiments of indignation in the breafts 
of the German merchants. It had’ been 
{ 
-propofed by the Electoral Deputation for 
Trade and Manufaétures, to ereSt_a ma- 
gazine, where the merchants might depofit 
their goods, and receive a fum out of the 
elegtoral treafury.equal to one-half of their 
value, without intereit; but with this 
pawn-fhop, as it was called, no one was 
fatisfied, nor indeed could be. The Eng- 
lith effect every thing by means of ma- 
chinery and immenfe capitals. The lat- 
ter the Saxon manufa&turers with torobtain 
as a free loan from the Eleétor: and, with 
refpeét to the former, fome of the mof 
active intended to exert themfelves to the 
utmolt, and hoped to perform great things, 
provided no hindrance arofe fram the ex- 
‘clufive privileges granted to fome manu- 
facturers in Cnemnitz, &c, Some models 
of {pinning jennies, &c. were exhibited at 
the fair, with propofals on reafonable 
terms for the erection of. them; which 
fhewed, at leaft, that the induftry and in- 
genuity of the Germans have not unfuc- 
cefstully attempted to appropriate te 
themfelves the improvements of Englifh 
artilts. A Madame Tefch publifhed pro- 
pofals, according to which fhe offercd to 
furnifh machines for {pinning wool for 
fine cloth and caffimirs, — 
On the proper pay-day, the Thurfcay 
in the pay-week, there arrived from Dret- 
den a fevere prohibition of the fale of 
French porcelaine, with which the fair 
was inundated. The direftor of tie ma- 
nufaétory of Meiflen, Marcolini, Matter 
of the Horfe, and chief favourite of the 
Elestor, had attended the fair, and had 
every where feen large quantities of ihe 
Séve China-ware expofed to fale, not omy 
by Ollerwald, Drapeau, and other vencers 
of fafhionable articles trom Paris, but 
| likewife 
