The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-07-02 00:00:00

has been made on Shoulders. Hams remain as before.
There has been an active business in Lard, the sales
reaching to about 160 tons, at over last week's prices.
Cheese sells slowly, at late rates. For Tallow there has
been a steady inquiry. Grease Butter, being now in
abundant supply, is more difficult to move.

INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL CONDITION
OF LIVERPOOL IN THE FOURTH YEAR OF
FREE TRADE.

NO. 11.

The building trades of Liverpool, for many years, whilst
her commerce was extending and her population rapidly
increasing, afforded employment to a numerous class of
skilled artisans and labourers, as well as custom to trades-
men, shopkeepers, &c. Up to within the past two years
a large business was going on in building, which received
its first check in the summer of 1847, when the pressure
upon the money market put a stop almost entirely to the
operations of one class—the jerry builders, and parties
who derived their funds from building societies, mortga-
gees, &c. The same pressure was felt also by much more
responsible and sound persons. In 1848, the building
carried on was chiefly to complete works already begun ;
and a great amount of distress amongst the operative
classes connected with the trade, must have ensued, but
for the employment which chanced to, be afforded to a
portion of them by the fact of two railways being brought
through the heart of the town, requiring viaducts, bridges,
&c., to be erected, and by a few public buildings in pro-
gress of completion. Last year, the proceedings of the
Health Committee, acting under the sanitary act, which
empowered them to close entirely a number of cellar and
court habitations, which were considered as likely to ge-
nerate illness amongst the inhabitants, were expected to
give a material stimulus to the building of cottage houses
especially. Yet operations proved far below the average
of preceding years; and during the present spring, the
trades in question have been greatly depressed.
Yet there were circumstances which were calculated to
inspire hopes of a different state of things. A quantity
of property, well tenanted, chiefly by the middle and
respectable operative classes, had been removed to form
the site of the viaduct of the Lancashire and Yorkshire
and East Lancashire Railways into Tithebarn-street. A
considerable quantity of property had also been removed
in the formation of the new tunnel from the Loudon and
North-Western Railway to the north docks. A ma's of
warehouses and dwelling-houses are also being taken
down upon the site of the intended Wapping Dock ; and
it was generally anticinated that this property would have
to be replaced. Such, however, has not proved to be the
case. New houses have not sprung up to any extent in
any part of the town ; and the condition of the operative
classes, in consequence, has been anything but prosperous.
A few have been employed upon the public buildings going
on—the new Workhouse, St. George's Hall, &c.—another
portion, consisting of men of the best character, and
natives of the town, have been kept on by their employers,
possibly at a sacrifice of both convenience and money ;
but, of the remaining bands a large portion have left the
town, or are employed upon casual jobs. At the preient
moment there is a trifling revival in the trade, which,
however, is not expected to continue long, consisting as it
does chiefly of repairing, rebuilding shop fronts, &c.; and
the prospect for the next winter is considered by parties well
able to judge to be most unpromising. So little, indeed,
is any permanent revival expected for some time to come,
that the manufacture of bricks has almost entirely ceased.
Notwithstan.;ing the temptation held out by the abolition
of the duty, one firm, hitherto the largest makers in this
town, having had a few years ago as many as forty stools
in operation, only carry on now three, and those merely
to work up some material, whilst another maker, who
generally worked thirty to thirty -five, has not one ! This
branch, it is well known, has, in past years, afforded re-
munerative employment to numerous hands, consisting of
both males, females, and children.
As a proof of the decrease in building, we give the fol-
lowing, which has been furnished to us by Mr. Rishton :
Return of the number of dwelling-houses erected, or in course
of erection, within the municipal borough of Liverpool from
the Ist of January to the Ist of July, 1850 :
Under £l2 per From £l2 to From £25 to From -€35
annum £25 -t•35 upwards Total
9
_ 126 37
. . 33 905.

It will be seen that the bulk of these 205 dwellings are
rented from £l2 to £25, which confirms a fact stated to
us, and referred to below, that the class of property so
rented is the most remunerative and best paid in Liver-
pool. Tie return is slightly above that for the corres-
ponding period of last year ; but when our readers are re-
minded that 'five years ago the number of dwellings
erected, and in course of erection, in this town, during the
twelve months, amounted in round numbers to 3,706, the
falling off will be readily seen.
There may be mentioned a few exceptions, amongst the
working classes, of parties who are reaping the benefit of
the reduced prices of food and other necessaries. A
large number of men ate employed in the various works
which are being carried on by the Dock Committee ; and
these, of course, being in constant work, are, or ought to
be, in possession of increased means. Their proslerity
must also operate to increase that of the tradespeople and
others dependent upon them, principally at the north end
of the town. But it is undeniable that the condition of
:he working classes in the aggregate has greatly deterio-
rated within the past few years, on account of the great
diminution which has taken place in employment.
As an index of the condition of the community, gene-
rally, the evidence of rent and other collectors is most
valuable; and we have accordingly made every effort to
obtain information from these parties, with respect to
various sections of the town. In the northern districts,
especially the localities inhabited by the Trish portion of
the working classes, consisting of dock labourers, porters,
hawkers, and others, rents have never been very well
collected, and are now very unsatisfactorily paid. A
large number of families in this quarter of the town are
little better than squatters in miserable property, con-
demned by the' authorities as untenant able under the pro-
visions of the sanatory act, or they herd together in filthy
hovels so held as to enable them to evade the byelaws
for the regulation of common lodging-houses. The ces-
sation of the building trade has thrown a large amount of
this population out of honest employment ; and how they
subsist at all is matter of wonder. There have always
been great fluctuations, however, in the condition of this
class, although it has been deteriorated recently by conti-
nual accessions of numbers from the sister isle, ready to
struggle in any way fora meal.

The mode in which the classes immediately above them,
consisting of artizaes and persons of settled pursuits,
fulfil their eneeeements, forms a more correct guide to
the general condition of the operative portion of the t own ;
and amongst these we find a very material falling off.
The collectors in every quarter of the town represent the
property tenanted by these classes as being let with diffi-
culty, and at declining rents, which are ill paid, and a per-
. tion of them lost altogether. Property of the better de.
scription—say from £3O per annum and upwards to £45
and £so—is both difficult to let and collect, and especially
that portion of it which is occupied by the middle class of
tradesmen and shopkeepers. These classes are generally
declining in station, and many of them falling into insol-
vency. Indeed, we are assured that it is only by severe
struggling and economy that the bulk of them have thus
far managed to keep their heads above water. Amongst
the higher classes—parties who cannot be suspected of
actual poverty—procrastination is becoming the rule; and
pressure has frequently to be resorted to in order to se-
cure the fulfilment of engagements within a reasonable
period. The best class of property in the town, the rental
of which is most easily collected, consists of houses from
£lB to £24 per annum, tenanted chiefly by respectable
clerks permanently employed, and other parties, to whom
unimpeached credit and character are imEspensible.
As a natural result of this state of things, we find that a
very considerable depreciation has taken Ogre in the value
of building land and property, not only within the borough
but in the outskirts as well, and on the Cheshire side of
the river. We mention the latter localities particularly,
because we know it is said that it is a high rate of taxation
which is driving our population from within the borough
to settle in the suburbs. In some measure it may have
been the case that respectable housekeepers have endeav-
oured to evade heavy rates, and at the same time to pro-
cure for themselves, in the suburban districts, the inestim-
able advantages of pure air as conducive to health ; but
the broad tact is, we repeat, that property has depreciated
in value everywhere in the neighbourhood ; and we attri-
bute it to the difficulty which is felt in paying existing
rents. A proof of this depredation was afforded by the
result of a side of property—or rather an attempted sale
—by Messrs. Winstanley and Sons, on Friday last, the
result of which is thus described by a free trade contem-
porary, the Journal :
" There were nineteen lots, but only one sale was effected,
namely, two freehold dwelling-houses, with stabling at the
back, situated in Itathbone-street, which was knocked down
for '5OO. A valuable lot of property in Park-lane, consisting
of a licensed spirit-vaults, a pawnbroker's, and three other
shops, a public-house, and two dwelling-houses, was bid for to
the amount of two thousand four hundred pounds, but was
withdrawn. the reserve being £3.300. An excellent family
house, at- Wavert ree, with gardens. &c., containing 1,030 square
yards of land, was competed for to the extent of .e 760, the
reservecontaining
bnteg. ienrl gr,
gy.
7cl
so,2qmouOma.
raenAyd vnr i
yards
aao,
of land
i eat
win] gio. a
fbr drt
oeh
une
gsla.
tinr
bed
ri
do tienbr
gsu
sei ydt
oi natgnhsde,
amount of .050, the reserve on this lot being also .t 1,900.
The principal lot was a plot of land at Aighurth, about 22 acres,
with an excellent mansion erected upon it, with gardens, out-
buildings, &c. The biddings for this lot went as high as
£ll,OOO, but the highly-persuasive eloquence of the auctioneer
did not result in obtaining an advance, and it was also with-
drawn. This property, a year ago, was valued at £2l,ooo.The highest offer, on this occasion, did not cover the amount
of the mortgage. The remaining lots, consisting of shops,
dwelling-houses, &c. in good thoroughfares in the town, were
all withdrawn without getting a bid for them."
The property here offered, it will be seen, was not town
property alone; but comprised some of the most favourite
country sites. Nor is it difficult to account for the disap-
pointed expectations of the parties offering it. They fixed
their price, doubtless, in accordance with the scale of
rents hitherto realized for such property, which during the
past three or four years has been gradually declining, until
at the present moment it is difficult to procure respectable
tenants, except at a considerable reduction. One of ouro
leading agents for household property considers that 30
per cent. is not an over estimate of the extent of the
depreciation ; and similar estimates are made by otherc
parties.
trouble of visiting the different quer
leading streets
few years ago, when a portion
sofS the
Anne-street, and the
district, That this
will is
bgee general,
evident
dt
o notan
yc o no fintneeerdsw
itoioof arnhiyell
town.partisc articular
in the eastern quarter—such a
were removing westward ; and, s
property erected in that
fied by the quantity of first-class
:cured tenants. We may
direction, and which readily
E tn to the most westerly
' wsterreeettsosidkitrhtiantgtheEverertsopnec-btarbore,
portiontfi
the
ll out
assumptiono of f
our occupation,
populationsc.a sjusti-
fied wti e.
ow, however, from ver e
pass n
nei
guntenantediibourh
neighbourhood
propertyof
a ki
direction. The aristocratic
everyfour years ago the Belgravia of Liver-
ner-square. three or
in untenanted houses ; and rents lower by
pool, abounds
have to be submitted to wherever
I from 20 to 30 per cent.
an dnd
portion of the borough,
keel/ tenants are required. In Toxteth-park the same