Wanfried's former importance as an entrepôt is confirmed by a trader's balance sheet from the time about the end of the 16th century and beginning of the 17th. At this time, goods shipped out amounted to 80,000 hundredweight yearly, and the turnover came in at 132,000 hundredweight. Preferred goods were coffee, sugar, oil, spices, tobacco, woollen goods, wine, honey and fish. It was at this time that the stately trade houses arose on the market street, great townsmen's houses, inns, hostels, a stock exchange and a brewery. In the latter half of the 19th century, shipping on the Werra shrank ever more in importance as inland goods transport shifted to the railways. Wanfried was linked to the rail network in 1902 by the "Werratalbahn".