19, 1878, Mr. Alderman Joseph Chamberlain said the best way to ascertain the trade of the town was to take the local bank returns and the railway traffic “in” and “out,” so far as the same could be ascertained.  The deposits in all the banks that published returns were, at the end of 1877, L10,142,936, as against L10,564,255 in the previous year—­a falling off of L421,312, or 4 percent.  With regard to bills of exchange held by the banks, the amount was L3,311,744, against L3,605,067 in the previous year—­a falling off of L293,323, or 8 per cent.  The amount of the advances, however, was L6,041,075, as against L5,570,920 in the previous year—­an increase of L470,155, or 8-1/2 percent.  With regard to the trade of the town, by the courtesy of the managers of the respective companies, he was able to give the numbers of tons of goods, of coals, and other minerals, the loads of cattle, and the number of passengers.  The tons of goods were 973,611, as against 950,042 in 1876—­an increase of 23,569 tons, or about 2-1/2 per cent.  The tons of coal were 566,535, against 575,904—­a falling off of 9,372 tons, or 1-1/2 percent.  The other minerals were 119,583 tons, against 100,187—­an increase of 19,369, or 19 per cent.  The loads of cattle were 22,462 last year, against 19,157 in the previous year—­an increase of 3,305 loads, 17 per cent.  These were the returns of the “in” and “out” traffic.  The number of passengers was 5,787,616 in 1877, against 5,606,331—­an increase of 181,285, or about 3-1/4 per cent.  So far as the traffic went, as they had been led to expect from the Board of Trade returns, there had been an increase of business, but a decrease of profits; and as to the decrease of profits he had some figures which showed that the profits of trade for the parish of Birmingham fur the year ending April 1, 1877, were L3,989,000; and of the preceeding year L4,292,000—­a falling off of L323,000, or a trifle over 8 per cent.  These figures of Mr. Chamberlain’s may be accepted as representing the present state, the increase in numbers and consequent addition to the traffic “in” being balanced by the lesser quantity of goods sent out, though it is questionable whether the profits of trade now reach L3,000,000 per year.  Notwithstanding the adverse times the failures have rather decreased than otherwise, there being 13 bankruptcies and 313 arrangements by composition in 1883 against 14 and 324 respectively in 1882.  To get at the number of tradesmen, &c., is almost as difficult as to find out the value of their trade, but a comparison at dates fifty years apart will be interesting as showing the increase that has taken place in that period.  A Directory of 1824 gave a list of 141 different trades and the names of 4,980 tradesmen; a similar work published in 1874 made 745 trades, with 33,462 tradesmen.  To furnish a list of all the branches of trade now carried on and the numbers engaged therein would fill many pages, but a summary will be found under “Population,”