A list of merchants and factors doing business in Alexandria in 1775 emphasizes the transition from tobacco to wheat. Of twenty-one firms enumerated, fourteen were purchasers of wheat: 1. Hooe and Harrison--_wheat_ purchasers. 2. Steward and Hubard--_wheat_ purchasers. 3. Fitzgerald and Reis--_wheat_ purchasers. 4. Harper and Hartshorne--_wheat_ purchasers. 5. John Allison--_wheat_ purchaser. 6. William Sadler--_wheat_ purchaser. 7. Robert Adam and Co.--_wheat_ purchasers. 8. Henby and Calder--_wheat_ purchasers. 9. William Hayburne--_wheat_ purchaser. 10. James Kirk--_wheat_ purchaser. 11. George Gilpin--_wheat_ purchaser, inspector of flour. 12. Thomas Kilpatrick--_wheat_ purchaser, inspector of flour. 13. McCawlay and Mayes--import British goods which they sell wholesale. 14. William Wilson--seller of British goods who buys tobacco. 15. John Locke--seller of British goods who buys tobacco. 16. John Muir--seller of British goods who buys tobacco. 17. Brown and Finley--they import goods from Philadelphia and purchase tobacco and _wheat_. 18. Josiah Watson--he imports goods from Philadelphia and purchases tobacco and _wheat_. 19. Robert Dove and Co.--distillers. 20. Carlyle and Dalton--import Rum and Sugar. 21. Andrew Wales--brewer.[42] It is said that Virginia wheat was the best to be procured and all Europe was a market for Alexandria flour. It was not long before the great wagons that had formerly carried wheat from Tidewater to Philadelphia and the Delaware found the Potomac port as good a market and a shorter journey. Numerous bakehouses appeared and Alexandria packed and shipped large quantities of bread and crackers along with flour to Europe and the Indies.