about £500 out of £2600 this year. General Green promised to pay punctually the 1st January, but his affairs are so embarrassed that I am afraid I shall get but little from him this Crop, and bills cannot be negotiated on you at sixty days sight. my friends to the Eastward have given me orders to pay here four times as much as I shall receive this year. I am with great Regard, Dear Sir,1 Your most, Obed." "Humel Ferr. Nath Russell Bill of Exchange 1028 Guilders at 10. G. 13 Stiv. is Sterling. £96.10.7 1.18.7 2.10. £100.19.2 Credit. PROTHEROE AND CLAXTON TO CHRISTOPHER CHAMPLIN Sir, WE Bristol, 23d January, 1786. We are favored with yours of the 1st November, enclosing an Order for a few Articles to be shipped you by the first opportunity, for New York, Boston or Philadelphia. at present there is none offering for either of those Ports, but whenever there is, We shall comply with your Orders, and attend very particularly to the directions you have given us. Numberless have been the Applications made to us to ship Goods to different parts of America, but hitherto we have declined executing a single Order, knowing the difficulty people there must labour under of making their Remittances, however well inclined they might be; but the 1 He married, in 1788, Sarah Hopson. knowledge we have of Mr. Wright, and the great regard we know he has for our Interest, will occasion our executing with much pleasure the Order you have sent us. The premium of Insurance all through the last Year on American Bottoms was from three guineas and a half to Six Guineas per Cent.; on British Bottoms 2 per Cent.; much will depend on the knowledge the Underwriters have of the Vessell and Master, and whether many Captures have been made by the Algerines about the time we may want your Insurance made; but you may be assured that we shall take Care to get the premium full as low as it can be done in London, and it is possible we may be able to get it done at 3 Guineas per Cent., but we do not think it probable. We wish you had favored us with the Names of your Correspondents at the different Ports you have ordered us to ship your Goods to, as we do no Business with any House at either of the places you have mentioned, nor indeed at any Port in America. Our Market is at present rather bare of American Produce. At foot you have the Current Prices, And We remain, Sir, Your very obedient Servants PROTHEROE AND CLAXTON Pot Ashes 18/ to 25/ per C. Free Do. Duty 24d per C. Free LEE Bar Do. Carolina Indigo £16 to £17 20d to 5/ per C Cod Oil. £22. Seal £26 to £30 Do. Do. Spermaceti £36 to £41 per Ton. If taken by If in American Ships pays a Duty of 13/2 2/5 per Ton Sir, NATHANIEL RUSSELL TO CHRISTOPHER CHAMPLIN Charleston, 6th March, 1786. ENCLOSED you have Messrs. Vose and Graves third bill of Exchange for 1028 Guilders and I Stiver in favor of Messrs. J. J. Frolich & Co. of Copenhagen on Messrs. Graves and Co. of Amsterdam at 60 days sight, the two first I forwarded you by Captain Hull. I would have sent you the 80 bbs. Rice by this opportunity, but could not sell a Bill of Exchange on any Terms, and Rice cannot be bought at one days Credit, and no prospect of receiving a shilling on your Brothers account. the Legislature are now sitting and have continued to shut up the Courts until January next. I have not received £200 for all his Cargoe of Negroes and I see very little prospect of any payments. it will be out of my power to ship you any Rice. I am with Respect, Sir, Your most Obedient Servant, NATHANIEL RUSSELL LANE SON AND FRASER TO CHRISTOPHER CHAMPLIN London, 30 March, 1786. Sir, OUR Friend Geo. Gibbs Esqr. of your place has acted with so much integrity and punctuality in the course of his business with us and has shewn himself so extremely ready to do us any Service in his power that it is impossible for us to refuse putting up the Goods you have ordered from us, notwithstanding we have made a determination to open no new account with any person in America that requires any Credit whatever and we actually wrote to Mr. Gibbs sometime ago to recommend no new person to us. Your Punctuality with the late Mr. Hayley's house we presume was equal to his with us, or he no doubt would not have written to us on the subject. if we find it so we shall think ourselves under obligations to him for it and look upon it as an additional mark of his Esteem. We have seen Mr. A. Champion, Jun'r. who confirms the whole of what you say and tells us he has since received some of the Money you speak of, so that the balance due from you to Mrs. Hayley is less than you quote and will no doubt be intirely settled in a few months, as we observe the Funds for that purpose are all of this side the Atlantic. Your Friend Mr. Forbes has also sent us word he shall remit us 500£ out of the proceeds of the Flax Seed consigned to him and you may depend we shall forward advice of the receipt of it as soon as it comes to hand, and we shall immediately put your order for Goods in hand and forward them to you via Boston or New York in an American bottom, and shall in other respects follow your directions as punctually as we can but do not think we shall effect the Insurance you order on them on the terms you mention but shall get it done as low as any one will who pays equal attention to the goodness of the persons who subscribe their policies. the Algerines have been very troublesome and continue so unless the United States will buy them off as all other powers are obligd to do that find it their Interest to keep well with them. We are very Respectfully, Sir, Your most humble Servants LANE SON AND FRASER EDWARD FORBES TO CHRISTOPHER CHAMPLIN, Dublin, 19 April, 1786. Gent, I BEGAN the Sales of Flaxseed at £4.10 to £4.5 per hhd and had sold about one half the Quantity consigned me last week to my country Customers, when some Persons who had Seed consigned them, finding they were not selling so fast, or apprehending more would arrive, lowerd the price to 82/6 and down at £4, at which I have been selling some days and am now determind to stand my Ground, as our whole Import of Dutch and American is not more than 6000 Hds which am certain we might have disposed of at £4.5, had not Gentlemen who had Seed from your Place, etc., been intimidated. For I am confident all thats imported will be wanted. Its astonishing the People give such a Prefferance to the Dutch which keeps up at £5.2.6 to £5.5. here we dont sell above 800 or 1000 Hhds of it, but in the Ports of Derry, Newry, and Belfast, they have imported 11000 Hhds from Rotterdam this Year which has been mostly all sold there before they began to buy the American Seed, the prices of which by my letters this days post was £4 per hhd at Derry and Newry, and at Belfast only 75/ per hhd when the Dutch was £5. indeed the Dutch Seed is much better cleand and a larger Grain than yours. I have the Pleasure to tell you that what you sent me was cleaned as well as any that came here and I hope you'll continue to do so, but I do not think its so well fannd as it might be. the running it thro' the Fann should be the last Operation as it takes out all the Dust and faulty Seeds, which is the Mode they pursue in New York and that Seed is remarkably well cleand. if you can do yours better, it will make it command a prefferance in the Market; I have dispatchd some your Seed to my friends at Drogheda and some into the inland Country about 50 Miles off, which I thought better than to let it go at £4. upon the whole I hope to hand you agreable Sales and you may both depend that your respective orders shall be duly complyd with in making Remittances as fast as I am in Cash for the Produce. indeed to support the Price was obliged to give two and three Months Credit for the greater Part of it but to safe good Men I think. I am very respectfully, Gent, Your most obedient Servant, EDWARD FORBES I reffer you to the inclosd Printed Paper of our Imports and Exports which I had purposely printed for the use of my American friends. the directions if attended to will be serviceable and at all times of the Year you may thereby see how to assort a Cargo for this Market as all your products are saleable here. [Endorsed,] Per the Hope, Captain Gyles. |