Exchange for London, Aug. 17th, 1737. £100 0 0 Sir, Ar fourteen days after the date hereof, pray pay to Mr. John Lacey, the sum of one hundred pounds sterling, value of himself, and place it to account, as per advice. Your most humble servant, To Mr. Anthony Bramhall, near E. F. 4. Another form is, when your friend, whom you draw upon, knows that you intend such a particular draught, and has consented you should; then you draw thus: Exchange for . London, Aug. 6th, 1737. £30 0 0 AT fourteen days after sight hereof, pray pay to Mr. George St. John, or order, the sum of thirty pounds, as per your own order, value in yourself, and place the same to account of Your most humble servant, To Mr. Henry Lambskin, G. K. in Sice-lane, London. 5. Another is, when there needs no advice, as is often the case; then as follows: C. E. T. I. U Sir, Exchange for . London, Aug. 6th, 1737. £37 18 6 AT fourteen days after the date hereof, please to pay to Mr. Kenelm Martin, or his order, the sum of thirty-seven pounds eighteen shillings and sixpence, without further advice, value received. Your most humble servant, Q. O. To Mr. Ralph Hodges, Merchant in London. CHAP. XXIX. Of the tradesman in distress borrowing money at interest, whether by bond or otherwise, to carry on his trade. Rules and cautions to be observed by such. Interest, though legal, a canker-worm. The true nature and sad effects of it. The still more dreadful effects of taking up money where extortion is used. If a tradesman gains twenty per cent. and pays but five, he must be, probably, ruined at long run; except he were to give no credit, and sustain no losses. MANY are the difficulties and distresses of the poor tradesman, when he comes to be straitened for money in his business; no man is able to judge of them, but they who fall into the calamity of them ; and many are the shifts and turns, the projects and contrivances, tradesmen are driven to by the necessity of their circumstances, to get out of those straits and difficulties; which, though they are not always successful, and, when they are so, always leave him in a worse and weaker state than they find him; yet as sometimes they so far succeed, as to extricate him out of the difficulty that presses and pinches him at that time, he thinks all the rest worth venturing; as a man drowning in the sea, will get on shore if he can, upon the coast that is before him, though he knows it to be an uninhabited island, where he is almost sure to perish at long run; for here he sees immediate destruction; there he sees immediate life. Just thus the distressed tradesman sees himself in an ocean of business, and, on that account, involved in difficulties, surrounded with the importunities of his bills; debts comes slowly in, money is wanting; he has, perhaps, launched out of his depth in trade; he has taken too great credit while his credit was good, and given too great credit to those whose credit was not so good; his payments did not come due before their payments were due also, and should have been made to answer them : but the difference lies here; when their payments are due, they can trespass upon their credit, and put him off with words instead of money, from one day to another, and, perhaps, from one week and month to another; but bills are drawn on him from the country, payable at the precise time that his debts are due, for the countrymen cannot stay for their money: these bills are accepted; that he cannot avoid; and his credit is at stake, and he in the utmost state of desperation if they are not paid. Bills run from one tradesman to another, then to the goldsmith, or to the bank, and are endorsed from hand to hand; and every one of these hears of it if the tradesman delays payment, his credit is bandied about at the discretion of every little fellow, nay, at the mercy of those who have no discretion: he is insulted at his door by those that demand payment; and on the Exchange, when the people meet there through whose hands the bills may have passed. Sir, says a merchant to his customer, who paid that bill to him for money, what did you give me that bill for? I cannot get the money. Not the money, sir, says the customer! why the bill is due, and I thought he had been a very good man: sure your people have not been with him for it; or if they have been at his house, they did not speak with him. I tell you, says the merchant, they have both been there, and have spoken with him too; but he put them off from time to time; I thought he had been a good man, too, but I find he is a shuffling fellow. Well, sir, says the customer, being a man in good credit, I beg your pardon; I would not have given you the trouble, if I had not thought it had been good, and would have been currently paid; pray send your man to me as soon as you come home, and I will pay the money; but I will take no more bills upon him, I will warrant you. The merchant sends back the bill, and his customer solves his own credit by paying the money; but the tradesman's credit suffers indelible reproach; and neither of these two dealers, to be sure, will trade with him, or take his bills any more. The last man, having taken back the bill, sends it once more for payment, and with reproaches sufficient, and such bitter words as wound the tradesman's ears, as well as his credit. But what can he do? He has not money; he may go and dun those that owe him enough to restore him, and answer all his demands; but they are in the same condition, and give him only words; so he is forced to put off again. And what is the consequence? Why, this man returns the bill to another, and he to another; till, at last, he that had it out of the country, being concerned for the clothier that drew it, or, perhaps, doubting the clothier too, and willing to keep two strings, as we call it, to the bow, satisfies himself not to return the bill; but sends an officer to the distressed tradesman, and arrests him for the money. This part brings an increase of mischief to him. First, there is further disgrace; for he is fain to be beholden to friends to bail him; and that, by the way, is exposing him too; and, sometimes, of as |