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358 making a great variety of these articles, together with shoe and garter buckles. It is estimated that about 3,000 hands are now employed in their manufacture, and about an equal number in the making of locks. The population has increased evenly with the prosperity of the town, and now numbers nearly 50,000.

Having now noticed most of the considerable towns in the Black Country proper, and dwelt at more or less length upon their several industries and other peculiarities, it may interest many of the readers of this volume to see a tabulated resume of one department of the business of the district. It would be difficult to obtain full and reliable statistics of its total production both for home and foreign markets. I believe the U. S. Consulate at Birmingham keeps the only accurate or actual record of even a portion of the wares sent abroad; but this record may serve as a basis for estimating the total amount manufactured in the district. The following tables give the total money value of exports from the district to the United States in the years 1865 and 1866, which were periods of average prosperity. Or rather, they present a total of all the invoices of such exportations certified at the U. S. Consulate at Birmingham. A considerable amount may have first gone to large sea-port towns as the stock of