THE TRADE OF LONDON IN 1791.
The following account of London's trade at the end of the eighteenth century is, of course, concerned with the manufacturing and commercial activity of the whole country as well as with the particular work of London; but the City was the chief port and centre of a trade which had grown with marvellously rapid strides. The mechanical inventions in the textile industries, the phenomenal growth of manufactures at this time, the stimulus given to English trade by the disturbances on the Continent, all assisted in an amazing development of commerce, of which London was the centre.
Source.—The British Directory, 1791.
The commerce of the world being in perpetual fluctuation, we can never be too watchful, not only for preserving what we are now in possession of, but for availing ourselves of the mistakes or negligences of other nations, in order to acquire new branches of it. Who could have imagined, three hundred years ago, that those ports of the Levant, from whence, by means of the Venetians, England, and almost all the rest of Christendom, were supplied with the spices, drugs, etc., of India and China, should one day come themselves to be supplied with those very articles by the remote countries of England and Holland, at an easier rate than they were used to have them directly from the East; or that Venice should afterwards lose to Lisbon the lucrative trade of supplying the rest of Europe with them; or lastly, that Lisbon should afterwards lose the same to Amsterdam; or that Amsterdam and Haerlem should gradually lose, as in great part they have done, their famous and fine linen manufactures to Ireland and Scotland? At present, our woollen manufacture is the noblest in the universe; and second to it is our metallic manufacture of iron, steel, tin, copper, lead, and brass, which is supposed to employ upwards of half a million of people. Our unmanufactured wool alone, of one year's produce or growth, has been estimated to be worth two millions sterling; and, when manufactured, it is valued at six millions more, and is thought to employ upwards of a million of our people in its manufacture; whereas in former times all our wool was exported unmanufactured, and our own people remained unemployed. Even within the three last centuries, the whole rental or value of all the lands and houses in England did not exceed five millions; but by the spirited exertions of the City of London, seconded by the merchants of the principal trading towns in the country, the rental of England is now estimated at twenty millions per annum, or more; of which vast benefit our nobility, gentry, and landholders begin to be fully sensible, by the immense increase in the value or fee-simple of their lands, which has gradually kept pace with the increase and value of our commercial intercourse with foreign nations, of which the following are at present the most considerable:
To Turkey we export woollen cloths, tin, lead, and iron, solely in our own shipping; and bring from thence raw silk, carpets, galls, and other dyeing ingredients, cotton, fruits, medicinal drugs, etc.
To Italy we export woollen goods of various kinds, peltry, leather, lead, tin, fish, and East India merchandise; and bring back raw and thrown silk, wines, oil, soap, olives, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, dried fruits, colours, anchovies, etc.
To Spain we send all kinds of woollen goods, leather, lead, tin, fish, corn, iron and brass manufactures, haberdashery wares, assortments of linen from Germany and elsewhere for her American colonies; and receive in return wines, oils, dried fruits, oranges, lemons, olives, wools, indigo, cochineal, and other dyeing drugs, colours, gold and silver coins, etc.
To Portugal we mostly send the same kind of merchandise as to Spain; and make returns in vast quantities of wines, oils, salt, dried and moist fruits, dyer's ingredients, and gold coins.
To France we export tobacco, lead, tin, flannels, horns, hardware, Manchester goods, etc., and sometimes great quantities of corn; and make our returns in wines, brandies, linens, cambrics, lace, velvets, brocades, etc. But as a commercial treaty has so lately taken place with France, added to the attention of its people being drawn off from trade, and almost wholly engrossed with the establishment of its late wonderful revolution, it is impossible to state the relative operations of this trade at present.
To Flanders we send serges, flannels, tin, lead, sugars, and tobacco; and make returns in fine lace, linen, cambrics, etc.
To Germany we send cloth and stuffs, tin, pewter, sugars, tobacco, and East India merchandise; and bring from thence linen, thread, goatskins, tinned plates, timbers for all uses, wines, and many other articles.
To Norway we send tobacco and wollen stuffs; and bring from thence vast quantities of deals and other timber.
To Sweden we send most of our home manufactures; and return with iron, timber, tar, copper, etc.
To Russia we send great quantities of woollen cloths and stuffs, tin, lead, tobacco, diamonds, household furniture, etc.; and make returns in hemp, flax, linen, thread, furs, potash, iron, wax, tallow, etc.
To Holland we send an immense quantity of different sorts of merchandise, such as all kinds of woollen goods, hides, corn, coals, East India and Turkey articles imported by those respective companies, tobacco, tar, sugar, rice, ginger, and other American productions; and return with fine linen, lace, cambrics, thread, tapes, madder, boards, drugs, whalebone, train-oil, toys, and various other articles of that country.
To America we still send our home manufactures of almost every kind; and make our returns in tobacco, sugars, rice, ginger, indigo, drugs, logwood, timber, etc.
To the coast of Guinea we send various sorts of coarse woollen and linen goods, iron, pewter, brass, and hardware manufactures, lead-shot, swords, knives, firearms, gunpowder, glass manufactures, etc.; and bring home vast numbers of negro slaves, and gold dust, dyeing and medicinal drugs, redwood, Guinea grains, ivory, etc.
To Arabia, Persia, East Indies, and China we send much foreign silver coin and bullion, manufactures of lead, iron, and brass, woollen goods, etc.; and bring home muslins, and cottons of various kinds, calicoes, raw and wrought silk, chintz, teas, porcelain, coffee, gold-dust, saltpetre, and many drugs for dyer's and medicinal uses. These are exclusive of our trade to Ireland, Newfoundland, West Indies, and many other of our settlements and factories in different parts of the world, which likewise contribute an immense annual return.
Our trade to the East Indies certainly contributes one of the most stupendous political as well as commercial machines that is to be met with in history. The trade itself is exclusive, and lodged in a company which has a temporary monopoly of it, in consideration of money advanced to the Government. Without entering into the history of the East India trade, within these twenty years past, and the Company's concerns in that country, it is sufficient to say, that, besides their settlements on the coast of India, which they enjoy under certain restrictions by Act of Parliament, they have, through the various internal revolutions which have happened in Indostan, and the ambition or avarice of their servants and officers, acquired such territorial possessions as render them the most formidable commercial republic (for so it may be called in its present situation) that has been known in the world since the demolition of Carthage. Their revenues are only known, and that but imperfectly, to the Directors of the Company, who are chosen by the proprietors of the stock; but it has been publicly affirmed that they amount annually to above three millions and a half sterling. The expenses of the Company in forts, fleets, and armies, for maintaining those acquisitions, are certainly very great; but after these are defrayed the Company not only cleared a vast sum but was able to pay to the Government £400,000 yearly for a certain time, partly by way of indemnification for the expenses of the public in protecting the Company, and partly as a tacit tribute for those possessions that are territorial and not commercial. This republic, therefore, cannot be said to be independent, and it is hard to say what form it may take when the term of its charter is expired, which will be in the year 1794. At present it appears to be the intention of Government that its exclusive commercial privileges shall then finally cease, and no new charter be granted.
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.