The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-01-25 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE,

MANCHESTER.—We are sorry to have to report the cont'nu-
ance of great depression in our market. Since Tuesday ast.
no change for the better has taken place. The tendency of
prices is still downwards, and some descriptions both of yarns
anti cloth have been purchased even lower than during the most
depressed months of last > ear. The briskness of demand which
has for some time prevailed for low cloths, suitable for the Le-
vant trade, has fallen off considerably Miring the last few days.
The home-trade houses continue very flat. It is quite evident
that should a revival of trade fail to manifest itself very soon,
our sainners and manufacturers wid be reduced to the necessity
of materially curtailing their present reduction. From all
Quarters we hear of proposed reductions of wagra. In same
pluses, as in Blackburn, a very strong resistance is effetetl to
the proposition. Meetings have taken place, and violent ba-
r,ingues have been delivered. ending in resolutions to turn out
rather than submit to a reduction. At Stockport sever**, meet-
ings of the operatives have taken place, but as yet without any
very definite result. At Ashton several hundreds of operatives
are out of employment, owing to some of the 'Wits being •at a
stand.
PRESTON.- The anticipations which were generally indulged
in of an improvement in trade at the commencement of the new
year have been far from realized. Arrangements had been
made for several mills starting is ork, but the discouraging re-
ports of the Manchester market prevented this. This gloomy
state of things is not confined to the cotton business; all trades
are suffering from the general want of confidence, and at pre-
sent, we regret to say, the hopes of early amendment are slight.
RoCHnALE FLANNEL MARKET.—On Monday the weather
was very unfavourable. and the attendance was not so numer-
on: as on the market day previous. There was a fair demand
for fine and middle crantities of finished flannels. Strong
Yorkshire goods have not been so brisk ; dyed p:ods arid coarse
flannels much the same as last week. Prices remain stationa-
ry The Wool market remains steady, both in demand and
prices.
LEEDS.—We have no material change to notice in the state
of the woollen trade in this town and neighbourhood since our
last report. l-.xtreme caution continues to be manifested by
both manufacturers and merchants, each party displaying al-
most an entice lack of speculation. Hence there is no great
accumulation of goods, and prices contintte steady. The houses
in the foreign trade are more active than they were some time
ago, yet neither they nor those of the home market are doing
an average business of the season. It may be mentioned as a
proof of the power with which some of the continental manu-
facturers can compete with the English in the American mar-
ketti, as well as of the- desire of the British not to be outdone,
that a firm in this town, the head of which is a principal of
mercantile houses in Manchester, Huddersfield, &c., has sent
a confidential servant to the United States for the sole purpose
of vetting patterns of European (not English) textile fabrics
which are the most " taking in tee American market.
BRADFORD.—WooI: This trade exhibits not the slightebt
improvement; all are acting ,n the defensive, and purchasing
only what is abso utely requisite for the present reduced con.
smoothen. The prices continue to rule firm for all kinds of
full-bred wools. and the supply is nut abundant, occasioned by
the high price demanded by the growers. Yarns : There is no
change in this department of business. Pieces: There is no-
thing of interest apparent in our market to-day. The closed
Elbe, the money panic in America, and the fact that our home
merchants are not buying in large quantity, causes the busi-
ness to be on a very limited scale. 'I he course now pursued by
the manufacturers augurs well for an early resumption of ac-
tivity, as the stocks ar- very low. No change in price.
IHALlFAx.—Pieces: We have had a very flat market to-day,
only a few buyers attending, anti a very small amount of busi-
ness doing. Yarns still continue in the same dull state, and
very little business doing. Wool: Only a very little demand,
stiinners buying sparingly, in consequence of yarn being in so
little recuest.
trODERSFIELD.—There has been a little more business done
in this market, and considerable inquiries after some descrip-
tions of goods. Prices are without any alteration, and stocks
generally light.
LEICESTER.—No improvement can be reported at present in
the general state of trade. Every thing continues as flat as for
some time previous, with no immediate prospect of a better
state of things.- The number of hands out of employ still con-
tinues large, and the protracted depression is now very severely
felt by all classes of small tradesmen. A feeling, however, ex-
ists that the worst has 'teen passed, and that after a short time
a gradual amendment will become perceptible.
NOTTINOHAM.—Lace: Some widths an 1 qualities of plain
net have been rather more asked for during the past week.
Lever lace, of good patterns, and coarse, cheap, fancy wide
goods, have also been selling to some extent. Black silk laces,
for the American market, are yet sending out. On the whole,
however, business is in anything but a satisfactory state. The
retail trade of the country, on which ours greatly depends, has
been paralysed. Until there is confidence felt that the usual
spring purchases will be made--in other words, until the coun-
try shopkeepers begin to replenish their exhausted stocks, and
so oblige the London and country wholesale dealers to cotne to
market, and buy with something like their usual spirit—the
Prosperity of this department of manufacture is scarcely to be
looked for. It is satisfactory to state, that stocks were never
lower in any branch •, and prices of wrought goods, of most
kinds, being at or below cost, cannot be reduced. The foreign
demand is expected to increase as the year advances. Hosiery :
Since our last, there is little change to mention in our market,
Notwithstanding the improved state of the money market, and
commercial affairs generally, our spring trade progresses but
slowly ; however, should the present severe weather continue
for a few weeks, it would materially tend to improve the general
trade; for, until the retail purchasers have removed some con-
siderable portion of their winter stocks, we cannot expect them
to enter into any very extensive arrangements for spring goods.
In the yarn market, we have experienced another reduction—
an act as unwise as it was unexpected and unnecessary, and
which must have arisen from some local causes, such as coin-
petition and rivalry among certain spinners. As the present
position of the wool market could not warrant so unlooked for
a change, the injurious effects of it will be felt throughout the
whole trade.—Nottiaghatn Mercury.
KIDDERNONSTEIL—There are about 110 looms at work at
Messrs. Pardoe and Hoonian's, at what is called tape-try work,
the same as that made by Messrs. Crossley, of Halifax; the
men employed at it receive 18s. per week, and work from six in
the morning till six at night. It may serve to show the bad
state of the trade when we state that there are seldom less than
fifty there in the morning waiting for the chance of one or more
of the men being turned off. A rumour having been circulated
that there were several new looms to be set on on Monday,
Jan. 10, there were upwards of a hundred workmen waiting for
the chance of getting work, and so urgent and clamorous were
they, that the superintendent had to threaten to send for the
police before he could make them keep order. We are happy
to state that there are strong symptoms of a return to some-
thing like activity in the carpet trade. Four of the second class
of manufacturers have ordered their weavers to work, and state
that, during their late journey for orders, they have been very
successful. A tirst-rate master, however, has stated that he has
1100 pieces of carpet (mostly thirty-six yards in length,) in
stock, and cannot think of puttingany looms on for some time.
Several weavers have left the town for America since Christ-
mas, and several more are about to start for Mexico, where an
attempt to get up carpets is about to be made.