I was so fortunate as to arrive about half an hour before they began to run; there is a vast furnace in the centre of the building containing the pots of melted metal, and on each side of it a row of ovens with small furnaces for casting. An immense table of cast copper, as I judge by my eye (for I did not care to measure any thing) twelve feet long and eight broad, by five inches thick, stands at the mouth of the annealing oven, heated by a furnace on each side of it. When every thing is ready for running the glass, a comis enters, the doors are bolted, and silence is proclaimed by one of the men striking an iron bar on the ground; if any person speaks but a word after this, he is fined heavily. The furnace, in which is the melted glass, is then opened, and the pots of eighteen inches diameter are drawn out; two men, receiving it upon a sort of barrow, wheel it to the table above-mentioned, where an iron crank suspended from a windlass is fixed, and hoisting the metal, is emptied on to the table. A great copper roller is pushed over it, moving on two strips or bars of iron or copper, the thickness of which determines that of the intended plate of glass, for the pot discharging its contents between them, and the roller brought gradually over it, which flattens by its great weight the metal to the thickness of those bars; the glass is then pushed forward from the table into the oven heated to receive it for annealing, or cooling gradually, to prevent cracking. The dexterity, coolness, freedom from confusion, with which every thing is done, was very pleasing. The grinding house is great; the whole of that operation is performed by hand. The motive for establishing this manufacture here, in a situation by no means convenient for navigation, though the distance is not great, was that alone of the plenty of wood. It is in the midst of a great forest belonging to the duke of Orleans, hired by the company that carried on the manufacture. All the fuel employed is beech wood, to which circumstance they attribute the superiority of the French glass to that of England. ST. QUINTIN..... They make here linen, cambric, and gauzes, fabrics that spread all over the country; for all common goods they use the flax of the country, but for fine ones that from Flanders. CAMBRAY.....They make gauzes, cleres, and some fine cambrics, called batisles. VALENCIENNES..... Laces are here and in all the villages around a very considerable manufacture; that of thirty to forty lines breadth, for gentlemen's ruffles, is from 100 to 216 livres (91. 9s.) an auln, with all other prices lower; a pair of ruffles and a frill to 16 louis; the quantity for a lady's head-dress from 1000 livres to 2400 livres. The poor women who do this exquisite work do not earn more than 20s. a day, or at the utmost 30s. The fine cambrics are all woven in cellars for humidity of atmosphere. LILLE..... This is one of the most manufacturing, commercial, and industrious towns in France; there is a manufacture royale of fine cloths made of Spanish wool. Three calico printers' houses, but not upon a very great scale. Their greatest trade is that of camblets, which employs many hands; they are made of the long combing wool of Holland, Germany, Flanders, and what they can get from England, this being the fabric which uses more English wool than any other in France. They have a cotton fabric of stuffs for linings, &c. another of blankets; also one of silk stuffs, which the - proprietor refused to let me see, the only instance of the kind I met with in the course of the journey; one may fairly conclude that he had nothing to shew, instead of the secret he pretended to; add to these a fabric of porcelain. ST. OMERS.....There is a manufacture of worsted stockings, also of a kind of stuff called pannes, but the quantity not considerable. Much wool is spun. ARRAS.... The only fabric of any consequence is that of coarse thread laces, which find a good market in England. BEAUVAL.... A considerable manufacture of coarse hemp and linens, sacking, &c. AUMALE.... A fabric, of no great consequence, of coarse woollens for the wear of the common people. ROUEN.... The Manchester of France. One of the most commercial and manufacturing towns of the kingdom. They say, that at present the velours and cotton toiles are the most flourishing. The fabrics spread over all the country, they admit the velverets of England to be much cheaper, but assert their pasmentiers of silk and cotton mixed, to be cheaper than any similar fabric in England; they have also some woollens, but none fine, or deserving particular notice. Asserted here that spinning cotton employs 50,000 persons in Normandy. HAVRE.... Cotton 260 livres the quintal. The duty on the export of French cotton rather more than 2d. per lb. PONT A DE MER.... Viewed the manufacture royale of leather here, having letters to Monsieur Martin the director. It consists of a considerable tannery and curriery; there are ninety-six fats for tanning, and eighty workmen are employed. I saw eight or ten English curriers; there are forty of them. The price of raw hides from the butcher is at present 10 to 12s. a lb.; a year ago only 61⁄2, which was the price for three or four years past; the rise they attribute to an arret of the parliament, prohibiting the killing any cow calf, which has made the skins dear, and the high price of meat has had a yet greater effect. Foreign hides from Buenos Ayres are now 18s. the lb. that were 10s.; they have many from Ireland, which would be the best, if it was not for the careless way of cutting them more than necessary in killing. The Irish are the largest hides. The bundle of bark is 30lb. (28 to 32) and the price per one hundred bundles, or three thousand, is 150 livres, which is about 41. 4s. a ton; a few years past it was at 80 livres; they bark all oak of ten years growth, preferring young to what is old. Some hides they dress without lime, in the Jersey way; they dress many hogs' hides, and also goats from Sweden. They complain of the excise on leather, assert that there were once forty tanners in this town, but now not twenty, the declension owing to the duty of 3s. per lb. CAEN....They make a great deal of silk lace here, also cotton and worsted stock ings. CHERBOURG.... Near this place is a considerable fabric of blown plate-glass, which Monsieur Depuy, the director, was so obliging as to shew me; about 350 workmen are employed, but before the American war there were 600; the works at Cherbourg have hurt it, as well as grubbing up the forest belonging to Monsieur. It is now sent to Paris to be polished. BRETAGNE.... Rennes.... Some fabrics, but not of consideration; linen for ship-sails, hats, earthenware, dimities, siamoises, thread stockings: some years ago one of cotton, established by Pincjon, author of a pamphlet Commerce de la Bretagne, but it was not attended with any success, and died with him. ST. BRIEUX.... Received here some information concerning the linen fabric of Bretagne. The merchants and factors chiefly reside at St. Quintin and Loudeac, some at Pontivy and Uzelies; St. Maloes is said to export to the amount of ten millions. The thread is spun all over Bas Bretagne and bought up at markets, and woven into linen at those towns and their districts; the lowest price is 34 to 38s. the auln; the next 40 to 50s. and some, but little, is made so high as 5 livres. The greatest object in the fabric is the bleaching to a great degree of whiteness, which the Spaniards seem only to regard; to do this the manufacturers are forced almost to rot it. Among other operations to which they subject it, is that of putting it in casks of sour milk for three or four months, but the linen that is only commonly bleached is strong and excellent; the flax is all produced in Bretagne. BELLE ISLE to MORLAIX PONTON.... Much spinning of flax through all this country; the flax of their own raising; every farmer enough for the employment of the family; the thread sells at 30s. alb. at Morlaix. MORLAIX.... Much linen exported; thread sells at 45s. the lb.; spinning is 12s. the lb. I was shewn some fine thread that cost 3 livres 10s. the lb. and which will make cloth of 4 livres 10s. the auln. The linen trade is now very dull, but flourished greatly in the war; the linens here are toille de menage; that exported to Spain is here called toille de leon, and is whitened till rotten. NANTES.... Here I ain assured that the linen fabric of Bretagne amounts to twentyfour millions. Examine some of these linens that are for the Cadiz market; the finest of all is 4 livres 7s. the auln of Bretagne of 50 inches, and three fourths wide; it has eighty threads in an inch English: 3 livres 7s. the auln; 251⁄2 French inches broad, seventy threads to the inch English; they are very white and much beaten. A considerable fabric established near this city in an island of the Loire, for casting and boring cannon; the coals cost here 34 livres the 2000lb.; they come by the river from the neighbourhood, and they calculate that the new steam-engine, now erected, will consume 100 livres a day. Viewed the cotton manufacture of Monsieur Pellontier, Bourcard and Co. the Prussian consul, which employs about two hundred hands; he spins (by jennies) weaves and prints the cloth, but the conductor of it says, that the Swiss fabrics of the same sort are one-third cheaper, owing to their employing much more machinery, and to their men working far better and harder. Price of the best St. Domingo cotton at present 180 livres to 200 livres per quintal. ANJOU....Angers.... All alive with stocking engines, and an infinity of spinning wheels; the stockings are mostly of thread, but some of wool; they have spinning jennies for cotton; a fabric of sail cloth, and some calico printing. &c. MAINE.... Le Mans..... Here are etamines, linen, stockings, bleach grounds, &c. NORMANDY....Allencon.... Great quantities of hemp spun and manufactured in all this country into table-linen, sheets, shirts, &c. GACE....Much spinning of flax, which is brought from Flanders, the price 1 livre 16s. the lb. and sell it spun at 4 livres 10s. but varying much according to the fineness; a woman spins a pound in a week. ELBOEUF.... The fabrics here are chiefly cloths, and by far the greater part are of Spanish wool, a small proportion of that of Roussillon and Berri. The wools of Segovia and the Leonoise are at 5 livres 12s. the lb. and 4 livres 10s. poid de Viscount. It is spun in the country for twelve leagues around; the price of spinning is from 10 to 13s. the lb. average 11s. for which they spin the fine Spanish to the length of 825 aulns of Paris; a good spinner will do a pound in a day, but that is beyond the medium; very few however demand two days. The carder has 6 to 8s. a lb. Monsieur Grande has some jennies, by which a woman spins the work of eight. DARNETAL.... The chief fabrics here are cloths, a facon d'Elbœuf, espagnolettes, flannels, ratteens. Of these the principal are the espagnolettes of five eighths breadth, and price 5 liv. 10s. to 9 liv. 10s. for men's waistcoats, ladies' habits, &c. The wool is in general from Spain and Berri, but not the Spanish of the first quality; the Berri is as good, or better than the Spanish for this fabric. The spinners are paid 14 to 16s. the lb. for which they spin it to the length of six hundred aulns. Carding is 2s. the pound, and no other than carding wool is used here. The weaver is also paid by the pound, at 15s. therefore the weaving and spinning is nearly the same price; many of all these hands are in the country. The master manufacturers here assert, that their fabrics are as good and as cheap as similar ones in England, but they sell none thither. LOUVIERS.....Monsieur Decretot's fabrics of fine cloths at this place, are, I believe, the first in the world; I know none in England, nor any where else, that can be compared with them; the beauty and the great variety of his productions remind me more of the fertility of Mr. Wedgewood's inventions, than any other fabric I have seen in France. Monsieur Decretot brings out something new for every year, and even for every season. The common cloths of this place are well known; but Mons. D. has now made some of the finest and most beautiful cloth that has ever yet been seen, of the pure undyed Peruvian, or Vigonia wool, if it may be so called, for it is not produced by a sheep; this rises to the vast price of 110 liv. the auln, ths wide; the raw wool is 19 liv. 10s. the pound, or thrice as dear as the very finest Spanish: other fabrics he has made of the wool of the chamois from Persia. The finest cloth he makes of common wool unmixed, is of Spanish, at 6 liv. 4s. the pound, and the price 33 liv. the auln, ths broad. Raye en soie marbre #ths broad, 32 liv. Caslorine raye en soie, same price and breadth. Of all these curious fabrics, as well as the wools they are made of, he very obligingly gave me specimens. View the cotton mill here, which is the most considerable to be found in France. They spin to the length of forty thousand aulns per pound, machinery in this mill saves in labour in the proportion of three hands doing the work of eight. It is conducted by four Englishmen, from some of Mr. Arkwright's mills. This mill cost building 400,000 livres. Near this town also is a great fabric of copper-plates, for bottoming the king's ships; the whole an English colony. CHAMPAGNE.... Rheims.... There are about seven hundred master manufacturers here, and ten thousand persons in the town and the country about it, supported by the manufactures. The fabric is not at present flourishing, and the earnings of carders and spinners but one half what they were. The weavers are paid 12 liv. 10s. for a piece of 55 aulns, and an auln broad. They make here razcastors, marocs, flannels, burattes, the chain of almost every thing of the wool of Champagne; but the rest of Spanish, or that of Berri; and these fine carding wools are combed for most of the fabrics: they use besides these wools much from Bourgogne and Germany, and some from Rome, which are very bad, because the sheep are clipped twice a year, which destroys the texture of the wool. The woollens at Rheims amount to ten millions, and the trade of wine four or five millions. There are twenty-four thousand pieces of woollen stuffs annually stamped, of fifty aulns each, and at the price of 110 to 120 liv. each. LUNEVILLE..... Here is a fabric of earthen-ware, that employs sixty to seventy hands who earn 20 to 30s. a day; but some painters to 24 liv. a week. Common plates by no means good, 3 liv. 10s. per dozen. ISENHEIM to Befort..... Many fabrics in this country especially calico printing. BOURGOGNE..... Dijon..... Many stocking engines, some spinning of cotton, and some coarse cloths made, but nothing of consequence, for the place does not subsist by manu factures. MONT CENIS..... These are amongst the greatest iron works in France, and owe their present magnitude entirely to Mons. de Calonne; they were established by Mr. Wilkinson from England, in the same expedition into France, in which he fixed those on the Loire near Nantes. The iron mine is three leagues off, but those of coal on the spot. They cast and bore cannon on the greatest scale, having five steam engines at work, and a sixth building: they have iron roads for the waggons, make coak of coal, a l'Anglois, &c. &c. Here is also a pretty considerable crystal glass work, in which two Englishmen are still left. There is no navigation, as necessary as coals or iron; but the Charolois canal is within two leagues, and they hope it will come here. AUTUN..... No manufacture. BOURBONNOIS..... Moulins.... No fabric. AUVERGNE..... Riom.....No fabric, except what cotton is spun, &c. in the general hos pital. CLERMONT.....In the mountains at Royau, &c. wool spun 40s. lb. the finest 50s. spinning 1lb. coarse wool 10s. fine ditto 12 to 16s. MARSEILLES..... Price of cotton, 1789, St. Domingo, 130 livres the quintal. 1 Martinique, 120 Salonica, 95 to 100 This place makes soap to the amount of 20 millions a year: the oil from Italy, the Levant, and Tunis. The trade of Marseilles to the colonies not near equal to that of Bourdeaux. The LYONS..... The import of raw silk into all France one million of lb. of 16 oz. crop of all France the same, but not so good by of the price. The price of good silk 25 to 30 livres. The fabric here of all the kingdom, and its exports in manufactured goods the weight of one million of pounds. There are 12,000 looms, each employing five persons, or 60,000, who earn on an average 25s. a day. The men earn by wrought silks 45 to 50s. but on plain ones 30s. Of the fabric here of the value is raw silk, and labour. Throughout the kingdom in the hemp and flax fabrics labour, and raw material. In the last 20 years the manufacture here has augmented very little, if at all. They have a prohibitory law against any loom being erected without the city to a certain distance; and at Amiens there is a prohibition against working woollen stuffs by lamp-light, for fear of greasing the stuffs, yet here the finest silks are thus wrought. The advantageous situation of Lyons, in respect to its two great rivers, has no effect on the transport of its manufactures, for all go by land to Bayonne, Bourdeaux, and Strasbourg, &c. They have here an establishment of Genevois calico printers, to the number of six or seven hundred. |