Part 35 (1/2)
”This is being more eager as a trader, than prudent as one who should know the value of credit;” he said, making, at the same time, a lofty gesture to betoken indulgence for so venial an error. ”We must overlook the mistake, Captain Ludlow; since, as the young man truly observes in his defence, gain acquired in honest traffic is a commendable and wholesome pursuit. One who appears as if he might not be ignorant of the laws, should know that our virtuous Queen and her wise counsellors have decided that Mother England can produce most that a colonist can consume! Ay! and that she can consume, too, most that the colonist can produce!”
”I pretend not to this ignorance, Sir; but, in pursuing my humble barter, I merely follow a principle of nature, by endeavoring to provide for my own interests. We of the contraband do but play at hazard with the authorities. When we pa.s.s the gauntlet unharmed, we gain; and when we lose, the servants of the crown find their profit. The stakes are equal, and the game should not be stigmatized as unfair. Would the rulers of the world once remove the unnecessary shackles they impose on commerce, our calling would disappear, and the name of free-trader would then belong to the richest and most esteemed houses.”
The Alderman drew a long, low whistle. Motioning to his companions to be seated, he placed his own compact person in a chair, crossed his legs with an air of self-complacency, and resumed the discourse.
”These are very pretty sentiments, Master--a--a--a--, you bear a worthy name, no doubt, my ingenious commentator on commerce?”
”They call me Seadrift, when they spare a harsher term;” returned the other, meekly declining to be seated.
”These are pretty sentiments, Master Seadrift, and they much become a gentleman who lives by practical comments on the revenue-laws. This is a wise world, Captain Cornelius Ludlow, and in it there are many men whose heads are tilled, like bales of goods, with a general a.s.sortment of ideas.--Hornbooks and primers! Here have Van b.u.mmel, Schoenbroeck, and Van der Donck, just sent me a very neatly-folded pamphlet, written in good Leyden Dutch, to prove that trade is an exchange of what the author calls equivalents, and that nations have nothing to do but to throw open their ports, in order to make a millennium among the merchants!”
”There are many ingenious men who entertain the same opinions;” observed Ludlow, steady in his resolution to be merely a quiet observer of all that pa.s.sed.
”What cannot a cunning head devise, to spoil paper with! Trade is a racer, gentlemen, and merchants the jockeys who ride. He who carries most weight may lose; but then nature does not give all men the same dimensions, and judges are as necessary to the struggles of the mart as to those of the course. Go, mount your gelding, if you are lucky enough to have one that has not been melted into a weasel by the heartless blacks, and ride out to Harlaem Flats, on a fine October day, and witness the manner in which the trial of speed is made. The rogues of riders cut in here, and over there; now the whip and now the spur; and though they start fair, which is more than can always be said of trade, some one is sure to win. When it is neck and neck, then the neat is to be gone over, until the best bottom gains the prize.”
”Why is it then that men of deep reflection so often think that commerce flourishes most when least enc.u.mbered?”
”Why is one man born to make laws, and another to break them?--Does not the horse run faster with his four legs free, than when in hopples? But in trade, Master Seadrift, and Captain Cornelius Ludlow, each of us is his own jockey; and putting the aid of custom-house laws out of the question, just as nature has happened to make him. Fat or lean, big bones or fine bones, he must get to the goal as well as he can. Therefore your heavy weights call out for sandbags and belts, to make all even. That the steed may be crushed with his load, is no proof that his chance of winning will not be better by bringing all the riders to the same level.”
”But to quit these similies,” continued Ludlow, ”if trade be but an exchange of equivalents----”
”Beggary and stoppages!” interrupted the Alder man, who was far more dogmatical than courteous in argument. ”This is the language of men who have read all sorts of books, but legers. Here have advices from Tongue and Twaddle, of London, which state the nett proceeds of a little adventure, s.h.i.+pped by the brig Moose, that reached the river on the 16th of April, ultimo. The history of the whole transaction can be put in a child's m.u.f.f--you are a discreet youth, Captain Cornelius; and as to you, Master Seadrift, the affair is altogether out of your line--therefore, as I was observing, here are the items, made out only a fortnight since, in the shape of a memorandum;” while speaking, the Alderman had placed his spectacles and drawn his tablets from a pocket. Adjusting himself to the light, he continued: ”Paid bill of Sand, Furnace, and Gla.s.s, for beads, L.
3. 2. 6.--Package and box, 1. 10--s.h.i.+pping charges, and freight, 11.
4.--Insurance, averaged at, 1. 5.--Freight, charges, and commission of agent among Mohawks, L. 10.--Do. do. do. of s.h.i.+pment and sale of furs, in England, L. 7. 2 Total of costs and charges, L. 20. 18. 8, all in sterling money. Note, sale of furs, to Frost and Rich, nett avails, L.
196. 11. 3.--Balance, as per contra, L. 175. 12. 5.--a very satisfactory equivalent this, Master Cornelius, to appear on the books of Tongue and Twaddle, where I stand charged with the original investment of L. 20. 19.
8! How much the Empress of Germany may pay the firm of Frost and Rich for the articles, does not appear.”
”Nor does it appear that more was got for your beads, in the Mohawk country, than they were valued at there, or was paid for the skins than they were worth where they were produced.”
”Whe--w--w--w!” whistled the merchant, as he returned the tablets to his pocket.
”One would think that thou hadst been studying the Leyden pamphleteer, son of my old friend! If the savage thinks so little of his skins, and so much of my beads, I shall never take, the pains to set him right; else, always by permission of the Board of Trade, we shall see him, one day, turning his bark canoe into a good s.h.i.+p, and going in quest of his own ornaments.
Enterprise and voyages! Who knows but that the rogue would see fit to stop at London, even; in which case the Mother Country might lose the profit of the sale at Vienna, and the Mohawk set up his carriage, on the difference in the value of markets! Thus, you see, in order to run a fair race, the horses must start even, carry equal weights, and, after all, one commonly wins. Your metaphysics are no better than so much philosophical gold leaf, which a cunning reasoner beats out into a sheet as large as the broadest American lake, to make dunces believe the earth can be trans.m.u.ted into the precious material; while a plain practical man puts the value of the metal into his pocket, in good current coin.”
”And yet I hear you complain that Parliament has legislated more than is good for trade, and speak in a manner of the proceedings at home, that, you will excuse me for saying, would better become a Hollander than a subject of the crown.”
”Have I not told you, that the horse will run faster without a rider, than with a pack-saddle on his back? Give your own jockey as little, and your adversary's as much weight as you can, if you wish to win. I complain of the borough-men, because they make laws for us, and not for themselves. As I often tell my worthy friend, Alderman Gulp, eating is good for life, but a surfeit makes a will necessary.”
”From all which I infer, that the opinions of your Leyden correspondent are not those of Mr. Van Beverout.”
The Alderman laid a finger on his nose, and looked at his companions, for a moment, without answering.
”Those Leydeners are a sagacious breed! If the United Provinces had but ground to stand on, they would, like the philosopher who boasted of his lever, move the world! The sly rogues think that the Amsterdammers have naturally an easy seat, and they wish to persuade all others to ride bare-back. I shall send the pamphlet up into the Indian country, and pay some scholar to have it translated into the Mohawk tongue, in order that the famous chief Schendoh, when the missionaries shall have taught him to read, may entertain right views of equivalents! I am not certain that I may not make the worthy divines a present, to help the good fruits to ripen.”
The Alderman leered round upon his auditors, and, folding his hands meekly on his breast, he appeared to leave his eloquence to work its own effects.
”These opinions favor but little the occupation of the--the gentleman--who now honors us with his company,” said Ludlow, regarding the gay-looking smuggler with an eye that showed how much he was embarra.s.sed to find a suitable appellation for one whose appearance was so much at variance with his pursuits. ”If restrictions are necessary to commerce, the lawless trader is surely left without an excuse for his calling.”
”I as much admire your discretion in practice, as the justice of your sentiments in theory, Captain Ludlow;” returned the Alderman. ”In a rencontre on the high seas, it would be your duty to render captive the brigantine of this person; but, in what may be called the privacy of domestic retirement, you are content to ease your mind in moralities! I feel it my duty, too, to speak on this point, and shall take so favorable an occasion, when all is pacific, to disburthen myself of some sentiments that suggest themselves, very naturally, under the circ.u.mstances.” Myndert then turned himself towards the dealer in contraband, and continued, much in the manner of a city magistrate, reading a lesson of propriety to some disturber of the peace of society. ”You appear here, Master Seadrift,” he said, ”under what, to borrow a figure from your profession, may be called false colors. You bear the countenance of one who might be a useful subject, and yet are you suspected of being addicted to certain practices which--I will not say they are dishonest, or even discreditable--for on that head the opinions of men are much divided, but which certainly have no tendency to a.s.sist Her Majesty, in bringing her wars to a glorious issue, by securing to her European dominions that monopoly of trade, by which it is her greatest desire to ease us of the colonies of looking any further after our particular interests, than beyond the doors of her own custom-houses. This is an indiscretion, to give the act its gentlest appellation; and I regret to add, it is accompanied by certain circ.u.mstances which rather heighten than lessen the delinquency.” The Alderman paused a moment, to observe the effect of his admonition, and to judge, by the eye of the free-trader, how much farther he might push his artifice; but perceiving, to his own surprise, that the other bent his face to the floor, and stood like one rebuked, he took courage to proceed.