The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-12 00:00:00

State of Trad'.

MA CHESTER, Dec. 11. —There has been a good
deal of business in shipping yarns to-day, but
mostly at the prices of last week. In some few
cases a slight advance has been obtained. Some
considerable parcels have changed hands, and the
market closes good with a disposition to operate in
any suitable lots. In home-trade yarns there has
been a rather better market, at prices /d. per lb.
better than the prices of last Friday for some de-
scriptions. Where a greater advance is asked it
seems to check business. In the cloth-market there
seems to have been little disposition to meet the ad-
vance necessitated by the rise in cotton and yarn,
although the inquiry to-day has been decidedly more
general, and offers have been much more freely
made. Still, the advance which sellers have been
obliged to ask has stopped what otherwise might
have been a large business. Sellers have only suc-
ceeded is putting down some few small orders at a
slight advantage on the rates of last week, any in-
crease even on these being most unwillingly con-
ceded by buyers, and quite unobtainable for large
transactions. Messrs. John Slagg and Co. report :
The recent large business in Liverpool, and con-
sequent hardening tendency of cotton, have found
but little response in this market. The advanced
prices asked for yarns naturally react on our quota-
tions for goods, but little advantage is really obtain-
able, and only forsmall quantities. Notwithstanding
the more general inquiry, the advance demanded
for goods has confined our business within very
moderate limits."

CARDIFF, 10th.—The steam coal trade of the dis-
trict is still characterised by a large amount of
activity in consequence of the great demand from
the foreign and home markets, as well as for marine
purposes. In some parts of the district, more par-
ticularly the Rhondda Valley, the out-put is larger
than was ever known, and as the get is restricted
by the want of hands the men who have been dis-
charged from the neighbouring iron works find no
difficulty in obtaining employment. The exports
for last month amounted to 166,850 tons, being an
increase of 46,732 tons on the corresponding month
of last year, and it is expected that the increase will
be even still greater this month, as colliery proprie-
tors are well off for orders on foreign account, and
fresh ones are flowing in satisfactorily. An increase
is also to be reported in the inland demand, and
some difficulty is experienced in obtaining sufficient
railway accommodation for the conveyance of the
large quantities required by the London and other
markets, and for shipment at Birkenhead. In the
house coal trade there are large purchases made on
coasting account, and prices have advanced. The
exports of iron to America are well maintained, and
both southern and northern consumers are rather
forward in their purchases. A small business is
done on South American account, and the Indian
trade is looking more hopeful. The spring contracts
are gradually coming in, and Italy and one or two
of the continental markets are likely to take in-
creasing quantities. Pig-iron sales are fiat, and only
a moderate business is doing in tin-plates.

LEEDS, llth.—The cloth-halls to-day have been
thinly attended by buyers, and the same amount of
dulness which has more or less characterised these
public markets for some time has been exhibited.
The business done was quite of a retail nature,
operations being confined chiefly to small selections
of ordinary cloths, with fair purchases of tweeds
and a few samples of spring fabrics. There was no
change in prices. Wools, too, are steady, but not
much business is being done between the local brokers
and the manufacturers at the present time, as many
of the latter have bought freely at the sales of
colonial wools just concluded in the metropolis. The
condition and quality of the Australian wools which
have come to hand and been opened out are well
spoken of, being quite equal to those of any previous
sales.

ROCHDALE, 9th.—The flannel, the Yorkshire
goods, and the wool trades here keep rather inactive
so far as sales are concerned, and to-day's market
was much like those of the past month or more.
Buyers bought only small selections of goods, but
they included fancy as well as heavy flannels,
and the various descriptions of scourers, and other
fabrics known in• this market as Yorkshire goods,
from the fact that the great bulk of them are made
in the western anal north-western parts of that
county. Generally prices are firm, though it was
noticeable that some flannels and Yorkshire goods
were sold at a slight decline from the terms asked
last week.