Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-27
THE TEMPLE MARKET.

but to organize it, to protect the arrogant.
old-fashioned French manufacturers
against their up-to-date, supple and cheap
selling German competitors
The fair of Paris has government coun-
tenance. 1t is to be opened under trades
syndicate and chanbers-of-commerce au-
spices. Over three hundred of the fore
most French manufacturers have already
entered it with vigor and enthusiasm,
that In the middle of next month. begin
ming March II, If you choose to come to
Paris, you will have the privilege of as
Sisting," s they say. at what will doubtless
be looked back on, in future years, as its
historical Inauguration.
L Will go further. l will prophesy that
the fair Of Paris will inaugurate practical
new departure in the wholesale business
methods of the whole world: and this in
spite of the fact that the fair of Paris is
to largely initiate the long-estabished an
cient fair of Leipsig.
The Leipsig Fair.
OF course you have heard of the fair OF
Leipsig. We often hear that the fur trade
of the world is controlled through it. This
is not true, because London is great
wholesale fur mart; but 1t is the pictur-
esque idea that I call your attention to.
The Leipsig fair has always attracted
merchants from afar-buyers and sellers.
AS early as the year 1850 it's biennial mar
Ohio the Rich Margrave of Meissen. In
1907 the Lepsig fair Cor, rather, fairs had
become SO important that the Emperor Maxi
milan granted safe conducts to all their fire.
quenters coming from and returning to no
matter what country. Not even the contin-
ual wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries could suppress them. And in 1850,
fifteen years after SaXony joined the Ger
man customs union, it was estimated that
10000 traders from all parts of Europe. in
Guiding especially IsraeliteS, Greeks, Bull
garians Armenians, Poles, Russians and
Turks, came to 1T annually; and that the
total value of it's sales amounted to $780,
100000, the six most prominent wholesale
staples being furs ($5, 100000 annually.
leather, cloth, wooden wares, glass and
linen. But you will also find manufac-
turers who, on an order for a single dozen
will undertake to make a music-box cyl
inder playing any special tune you indi- |
cate.
OF late years the picturesque annual mart
has become less and less picturesque in this
senSe-that the brilliant costumes OF orien-
tails and Africans are no longer seen In |
number. 1t is the European costume every |
where only the Turkish feZ and the Polish !
long coat have resisted the progress" Lit |
tie by little the fair, which was never COM
pletely wholesale and sample fair but |
carried with it both amusements and retail
riff-raff, has condensed. The serious manu- |
facturerS came to understand that buyers
could see better in less time if their sam
pies were intelligently grouped, and on the
attempt of Berlin few years ago. to
create a sample fair, the Leipsig munich |
pality constructed a magnificent kaufhaus, |
or strictly sample trade house. similar to
the one the Parisians establishing, and
whose plan is herewith given.
One Square to Firm.
Please notice that the very essence of
the wholesale trading of tomorrow must be |
looked for in the small squares thus rented |
out to big manufacturers by the munich |
palties of Leipsig, Berlin and Paris. The |
plan is the map of the first fair of Paris |
to be held next month in the historic Tenn |
pie Market, on the spot where Marie An |
toinette and Louis XVI We're imprisoned |
and where the unhappy little Dauphin was |
mysteriously done away with. |
1t looks like a lot of embarrassing squares, |
but remember that each one is the same !
size as the other, and that no manufac-
turer, no matter what his Importance, may
rent more than one sQuarei
AS l will show you later, here is some |
thing tremendously important to the |
wholesale trade of the future, in course of |
evolution. The evolution certainly began in |
Leipsig. Before the establishment of the |
kaufhaus, during centuries, the traders !
from all Germany and Europe had to rent !
shop room in Leipsig where they could, in |
big and little hotels. in cafes, In private |
houses and apartments, and in the shops of |
local retailers. This still continues the |
practice for all the smaller outside trade |
ness that cannot find space in the present |
kaufhaus, SO that new one is to be |
built Thus small room IN a hotel or |
private house, fairly situated. three yards !
long by three yards wide. rents for the
eight principal days of the fair for not less !
than 200 marks ($50). Even Railways are !
rented at so much per yard.
In the Leipsig kaufhaus the price is !
from so to 60 marks ts1250 to $50 per |
yard for the galleries. and from that on up |
for the square spaces in the four different |
stories But it must be noticed that pre-
sentable space costs between 500 and 800 |
marks (s200 and $3.50, and although the |
little space is rented for year, the mer-
chant occupies it regularly only during |
fifteen days.
Enormous Trade.
The trade done during this time is enor- I
NOUS From Paris alone 1t may be truth
fully said that all the great houses are I
represented. Over 1900 heavy wholesale
buyers from all parts of Europe and the
Americas hasgle with $500 wholesale vend-
ers, the most important of these being.
naturally, Germans.
You will ask what Parisians want there?
will not mention furs. leather, cloth, WOOL
ems. glass or linen. But take the peculiar