| The Year. | Ships arrived. | Ships sailed. |
| 1735 | 199 | 212 |
| 1740 | 307 | 208 |
| 1741 | 292 | 309 |
| 1744 | 229 | 271 |
| 1745 | 280 | 301 |
| 1746 | 273 | 293 |
But it is much to be feared that the trade of Philadelphia, and of all the English colonies, will rather decrease than encrease, in case no provision is made to prevent it. I shall hereafter plainly shew upon what foundation this decrease of trade is likely to take place.
The town not only furnishes most of the inhabitants of Pensylvania with the goods which they want, but numbers of [[54]]the inhabitants of New Jersey come every day and carry on a great trade.
The town has two great fairs every year; one in May, and the other in November, both on the sixteenth days of those two months. But besides these fairs, there are every week two market days, viz. Wednesday and Saturday. On those days the country people in Pensylvania and New Jersey, bring to town a quantity of victuals, and other productions of the country, and this is a great advantage to the town. It is therefore to be wished that the like regulation might be made in our Swedish towns. You are sure to meet with every produce of the season, which the country affords, on the market-days. But on other days, they are in vain sought for.
Provisions are always to be got fresh here, and for that reason most of the inhabitants never buy more at a time, than what will be sufficient till the next market-day. In summer there is a market almost every day; for the victuals do not keep well in the great heat. There are two places in the town where these markets are kept; but that near the court-house is the principal. It begins about four or five o’clock in the morning, and ends about nine o’clock in the forenoon. [[55]]
The town is not enclosed, and has no other custom-house than the great one for the ships.
The governor of the whole province lives here; and though he is nominated by the heirs of Pen, yet he cannot take that office without being confirmed by the king of England.
The quakers of almost all parts of North-America, have their great assembly here once a year.
In the year 1743, a society for the advancement of the sciences was erected here. Its objects would have been the curiosities of the three kingdoms of nature, mathematicks, physick, chemistry, œconomy, and manufactures. But the war, which ensued immediately, stopped all designs of this nature, and since that time, nothing has been done towards establishing any thing of this kind.
The declination of the needle was here observed on the thirtieth of October 1750, old style, to be five deg. and forty-five min. west. It was examined by the new meridian, which was drawn at Philadelphia in the autumn of the same year, and extended a mile in length. By experience it appears, that this declination lessens about a degree in twenty years time. [[56]]