The Tracts Collection was inaugurated in 1852, with the opening of the first public library in Manchester and the purchase of a collection of mainly political and commercial pamphlets belonging to London-based Danish merchant Nicholas Magens (director of the London Assurance Company, author of The Universal Merchant [1753] and an authority on commerce and banking). Another 13 collections of tracts were added in subsequent years up to 1885 including those of John Perceval, Earl of Egmont and Nicholas Vansittart, Lord Bexley. There are now around 60,000 documents of which 1800 are pre-1850.