but generally for the merchants. They charge so much per yard, or so much per piece generally. Men mostly are employed in the dyeing industry; owing to the heavy weights that have to be manipulated, and to the general character of the work, women are unsuitable.

Ready-made Clothing.-A branch of the woollen trade is the ready-made clothing industry, which is carried on in Leeds chiefly. This is not, as might be supposed, a domestic industry, but is carried on in factories, some of which employ upwards of a thousand hands. Probably three-fourths of the persons employed are women.

Having thus briefly, but very imperfectly, described the industrial processes, I now come to the merchanting. Bradford is the chief centre for this, though the merchanting of pieces is also carried on, but to a smaller extent, in Huddersfield, Leeds, and Halifax. The merchanting system of Bradford, which I am about to describe, may be taken, so far as regards piece-goods, to be typical of the other places in the West Riding where such business is carried on.

The merchanting system is of comparatively modern growth in Bradford. Wool merchants are said to have existed in Bradford for very many years, though it is difficult to find any early records of them, but other classes of merchants were unknown up to the beginning of last century. In the first Bradford Directory, issued about 1804, only one stuff merchant is named (he was also a celebrated maker of cork-legs); and in the Directory for 1814 only two are mentioned. Both of these, of course, were home trade merchants. At that time the bulk of the merchanting was done at Leeds, Halifax, or Wakefield, though most of the then stuff manufacturers in the neighbouring districts attended the Bradford market with their goods.

The pieces were purchased in the state in which

they left the looms, and were afterwards, by the merchant's instructions, collected by the dyers-mostly from Leeds and Halifax. Up to about 1810 there were only two dyeing establishments in Bradford; but by 1830 several others had been started. Bradford had by this time become "the metropolis of the worsted industry," and it was only about this time that the merchanting system really took root in the town. A few enterprising Scotchmen then settled in Bradford and developed the "home trade," whilst German and other foreign merchants, who had previously had their headquarters in Leeds or Manchester, or had bought abroad through agents, began business in Bradford, and opened up the foreign trade in pieces, and, later on, in yarns and tops. A considerable number of these foreign merchants afterwards settled in Bradford, and have proved valuable acquisitions to the town. Bradford owes much to these firms, for it was, in the first instance at any rate, mainly by their enterprise that Bradford goods were introducedinto all parts of the globe.

There are, of course, large numbers of merchants in Bradford dealing in a variety of articles, but the principal classes of merchants connected with the textile trade are (1) wool merchants, (2) mohair and alpaca merchants, (3) top and noil merchants, (4) yarn merchants, and (5) piece merchants.

The wool merchant (or wool-stapler, as he was formerly styled) is probably the oldest class of merchant existing in Bradford. Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century the wool consumed in this country was almost entirely home-grown. In those days the manufacturer himself generally purchased in the woolproducing districts, and, after having had the wool combed and spun, gave out the yarn to be woven into pieces-combing, spinning, and weaving being at that

time done by hand, instead of by machinery, as at present. To-day the wool merchant not only visits all the wool-producing districts of the United Kingdom, besides attending the sales of colonial and foreign wools held periodically in London, but also imports wool from abroad, and, after "sorting" it, sells it to the consumer or the export merchant, or has it made into "tops" for sale to the spinner or export top-merchant. Some wool merchants deal only in English wools, others confine their attention to foreign and colonial wools, whilst others deal in both kinds. Others, again, make a speciality of "short" wools and "noils "-the short fibres taken out in the process of combing.

Since 1860 the quantity of wool imported from abroad has been largely in excess of that produced at home, as will be seen from the table on page 108.

The development of the last forty years may be briefly summed up as follows:—

At the prices of 1860, the wool consumed in 1902 would be worth about £40 millions.

The mohair merchant imports mohair from Turkey and the Cape, and, after sorting it, sells it to spinners of mohairyarn. Some mohair merchants deal only in Turkey mohair; others deal in both Turkey and Cape. Mohair was hardly known as an article of commerce before 1835.

The top merchant makes or buys his tops and exports them to foreign countries or sells them to

QUANTITIES OF Wool, Mohair, Alpaca, etc.,

Imported into, exported from, and consumed in, the United Kingdom. (In millions of lbs.)

spinners. The export trade in tops is, comparatively speaking, a new trade. In 1882 (the first year for which statistics are available), the exports of tops, noils, and waste amounted to only £90,000, whereas last year the exports of tops alone amounted to £2,850,000.

The yarn merchant is engaged in the foreign trade exclusively. It is true that a few merchant firms sell yarn to Bradford manufacturers, but these firms are mostly agents for Continental spinners or for Lancashire cotton spinners. It is worthy of note that this country imports annually from Belgium, Germany, and France. woollen and worsted yarns to the value of over £2,000,000 sterling. This, however, is a class of yarn either not spun in Bradford, or which it would not at present pay Bradford firms to spin. The export trade in yarns ranks next in importance to that of pieces. In 1877 (twenty-five years ago) the value of yarns exported was £4,200,000; in 1902, although the quantity was exactly double that of the earlier period, the value was only £5 millions. At the prices of 1877 it would have been worth about £8 millions. Germany takes two-thirds of our entire exports of yarn, the remainder going to other Continental countries chiefly.

The Bradford piece merchant deals not only in the worsted, mohair, and silk goods (including plushes and velvets) manufactured in the city and district, but also in the worsted suitings and coatings of Huddersfield and Halifax, the woollen goods of Leeds, Dewsbury, and Batley, and the carpets, blankets, etc., of Halifax, Heckmondwike, and other places; in fact, probably twothirds of the entire textile productions of the West Riding are merchanted in Bradford. In addition to these articles, Bradford merchants have also a considerable trade in cotton goods, manufactured in Lancashire, but dyed and finished, and sometimes "mercerized,"