EIGHTEENTH CENTURY HOME INDUSTRIES
(D. Defoe, Tour through Great Britain: Yorkshire, Vol. III, p. 124)
YORKSHIRE. LEEDS CLOTH MARKET.
Leeds ... is a large, wealthy and populous town, standing on the north side of the river Aire, with great suburbs on the south side, and both joined by a stately stone bridge, so large and wide, that formerly the cloth-market was kept upon it, and therefore the refreshment given the clothiers by the inn-keepers (being a pot of ale, a noggin of pottage, and a trencher of boiled or roast beef, for two pence) [was] called the Brigg-shot for a long time, though now disused.
... The trade soon made the Market too great to be confined to the Brigg; so that it was removed to the High Street ... this bridge was fallen into decay ... and by the narrowness of the road over, occasioned by the buildings and other encroachments, made or set up at both ends and abutments of the bridge, the way or passage over the same was greatly confined and obstructed, and became ... dangerous to passengers on foot and horseback....
But the Cloth market held in the Cloth-hall at Leeds is ... perhaps not to be equalled in the world....
The Clothiers come early in the morning with their cloth ... at about six o’clock in the summer, and about seven in the winter, the Clothiers being all come by that time, the Market Bell at the Old Chapel by the bridge rings; upon which it would surprise a stranger, to see in how few minutes, without hurry, noise or the least disorder, the whole market is filled, all the benches covered with cloth, as close to one another as the pieces can lie longways, each proprietor standing behind his own piece, who form a mercantile regiment, as it were, drawn up in a double line, in as great order as a military one.
As soon as the bell has ceased ringing, the factors and buyers of all sorts, enter the hall, and walk up and down between the rows, as their occasions direct. Most of them have papers with patterns sealed on them, in their hands; the colours of which they match, by holding them to the cloths they think they agree to. When they have pitched upon their cloth, they lean over to the clothier, and, by a whisper, in the fewest words imaginable, the price is stated; one asks, the other bids; and they agree or disagree in a moment.
The reason of this prudent silence is owing to the clothiers standing so near to one another; for it is not reasonable that one trader should know another’s traffic.... The buyers generally walk up and down twice on each side of the rows, and in little more than an hour all the business is done. In less than half an hour you will perceive the cloth begins to move off, the clothier taking it up upon his shoulder to carry it to the merchant’s house. At about half an hour after eight the Market Bell rings again, upon which the buyers immediately disappear, and the cloth which remains unsold is carried back to the inn.
Thus you see 10 or 20,000l. worth of cloth, and sometime much more, bought and sold in little more than an hour, the laws of the Market being the most strictly observed that I ever saw in any market in England.
If it be asked, how all these goods, at this place, at Wakefield and at Halifax are vended and disposed of? I would observe,
First, that there is an Home-consumption; to supply which several considerable traders in Leeds used to go with droves of pack horses loaden with those goods, to all the Fairs and Market-towns almost over the whole island, not to sell by retail, but to the shops by wholesale, giving large credit. It was ordinary for one of these men to carry a thousand pounds worth of cloth with him at a time; and, having sold that, to send his horses back for as much more, and this very often in a summer. But of late they only travel for orders, and afterwards send the goods, by the common carriers, to the different places intended. For they travel chiefly at that season, because of the badness of the roads.
There are others who have commissions from London to buy, or who give commissions to factors and warehouse-keepers in London to sell for them who not only supply all the shop-keepers and wholesale men in London, but sell also very great quantities to the merchants, as well for exportation to the English Colonies in America, which take off great quantities of the coarse goods, especially New England, New York, Virginia, etc., as also to the Russia merchants, who send exceeding great quantities to Petersburg, Riga, Dantzie, Narva, Sweden and Pomerania, though of late the manufacture of this kind set up in Prussia and other Northern parts of Germany interfere a little with them.
The third sort are such as receive commissions directly from abroad, to buy cloth for the merchants chiefly in Hamburg, Holland, etc. These are not only many in number, but some of them very considerable in their dealings, and correspond with the farthest provinces in Germany....
Another hall is appropriated for the sale of white clothes.... This, though large, is much inferior to the other.