The sales of SADDLERY reach _nine hundred_ and _eighty thousand_ (980,000) _dollars_, of which nearly one-half are of domestic manufacture.
The sales of HATS and CAPS, necessarily including sales at retail, amount to _six hundred_ and _eighty-three thousand_ (683,000) _dollars_.
The sales of QUEENSWARE, less reliably taken, reach _two hundred_ and _sixty-five thousand_ (265,000) _dollars_.
There are _thirty-nine_ wholesale GROCERY houses, whose aggregate sales reach _ten millions, six hundred_ and _twenty-three thousand, four hundred_ (10,623,400) _dollars_, which gives an average of _two hundred_ and _seventy-two thousand, four hundred_ (272,400) _dollars_ to each house. A brief statement of some of the principal annual imports in the Grocery line will perhaps give a better idea of this business. The figures refer to the year 1850:
Louisiana Sugar 15,615 hhds. Refined " 10,100 p'ckgs. Molasses 17,500 bbls. Coffee 42,500 bags. Rice 1,275 tierces. Cotton Yarns 17,925 bags. Cheese 25,250 boxes. Flour 80,650 bbls. Bagging 70,160 pieces. Rope 65,350 coils. Salt, Kanawha 110,250 bbls. " Turk's Island 50,525 bags.
The following Recapitulatory Table will enable the reader to see at a glance all that has just been stated:
------------------------------------------------------------------ Description of Business.| No of |Aggregate Annual|Average Sales to |Houses.| Sales. | each house. ------------------------|-------|----------------|---------------- Groceries | 39 | $10,623,400 | $272,400 Dry Goods | 25 | 5,853,000 | 234,000 Boots and Shoes | 8 | 1,184,000 | 148,000 Drugs | 8 | 1,123,000 | 140,375 Hardware | 9 | 590,000 | 65,555 Queensware | 6 | 265,000 | 44,166 Hats, Furs, &c. | 8 | 683,000 | 85,375 ------------------------|-------|----------------|---------------- Total | 103 | $20,321,400 | $197,295 ------------------------------------------------------------------
It will be seen that these tables do not include many of the largest departments of business. Beside the houses already mentioned are many commission houses, whose sales in cotton, tobacco, rope, bagging, hemp, provisions &c., would very greatly increase the amounts above stated. The impossibility of procuring accurate and reliable statistics of the amount of sales by these houses will prevent any attempt to fix the exact ratio of their business. The Western reader who is at all connected with commerce does not, however, need to be told that the trade in these articles in Louisville is of immense extent. The great superiority of this city as a market for hemp and its products, bagging and rope, is so obvious, so well known and so widely acknowledged, that any dissertation upon these merits is unnecessary here.