The sales of Hats and Caps, necessarily including sales at retail, amount to six hundred and eighty-three thousand (683,000) dollars.

The sales of Queensware, less reliably taken, reach two hundred and sixty-five thousand (265,000) dollars.

There are thirty-nine wholesale Grocery houses, whose aggregate sales reach ten millions, six hundred and twenty-three thousand, four hundred (10,623,400) dollars, which gives an average of two hundred and seventy-two thousand, four hundred (272,400) dollars to each house. A brief statement of some of the principal annual imports in the Grocery line will perhaps give a better idea of this business. The figures refer to the year 1850:

Louisiana Sugar 15,615hhds.
Refined" 10,100p’ckgs.
Molasses 17,500bbls.
Coffee 42,500bags.
Rice 1,275tierces.
Cotton Yarns 17,925bags.
Cheese 25,250boxes.
Flour 80,650bbls.
Bagging 70,160pieces.
Rope 65,350coils.
Salt, Kanawha 110,250bbls.
"Turk’s Island 50,525bags.

The following Recapitulatory Table will enable the reader to see at a glance all that has just been stated:

TABLE.

Description of Business.No of
Houses.		Aggregate Annual
Sales.		Average Sales to
each house.
Groceries39$10,623,400$272,400
Dry Goods255,853,000234,000
Boots and Shoes81,184,000148,000
Drugs81,123,000140,375
Hardware9590,00065,555
Queensware6265,00044,166
Hats, Furs, &c.8683,00085,375
Total103$20,321,400$197,295

It will be seen that these tables do not include many of the largest departments of business. Beside the houses already mentioned are many commission houses, whose sales in cotton, tobacco, rope, bagging, hemp, provisions &c., would very greatly increase the amounts above stated. The impossibility of procuring accurate and reliable statistics of the amount of sales by these houses will prevent any attempt to fix the exact ratio of their business. The Western reader who is at all connected with commerce does not, however, need to be told that the trade in these articles in Louisville is of immense extent. The great superiority of this city as a market for hemp and its products, bagging and rope, is so obvious, so well known and so widely acknowledged, that any dissertation upon these merits is unnecessary here.

As a Tobacco Market, Louisville possesses advantages which are not afforded by any other Western or Southern city. The rapid and healthful increase in the receipts and sales of this article during the last few years is of itself sufficient evidence of this fact. Even as early as the year 1800 the prospects of the city in this regard, though in the distant future, were looked upon as highly flattering. A Mr. Campbell had at that time a tobacco ware-house, which was situated opposite Corn Island. This ware-house was suppressed by the legislature in 1815, and a new one ordered to be erected at “the mouth of Beargrass.” The building thus directed was located on Pearl Street, about one hundred feet from Main, and the salary of the Inspector was fixed at £25, currency, per annum. This inspector resided at some distance from the city, and when a sufficient quantity of tobacco had been collected at the ware-house to make it an object, he was sent for to come and perform his duties. The entire crop did not then exceed 500 hogsheads. There are at present in the city three large tobacco ware-houses, all receiving and selling daily immense quantities of this article. Speculators are attracted to this market from great distances and the receipts are continually upon the increase. The following table of receipts since 1837 will show how steadily and securely this increase has been effected:

1837 2,133hhds.
1838 2,783"
1839[18] 1,295"
1840 3,113"
1841 4,031"
1842 5,131"
1843 5,424"
1844 "
1845 8,454"
1846 9,700"
1847 7,070"
1848 4,937"
1849 8,906"
1850 7,155"
1851 11,300"
1852 16,176"