Dear Sir
I have written you along letter on the present State of public affairs & intend this on Commircial matters. Your favour dated paris 30th Septr last is the only one I have from you and from the tenor of it I judge that several of yours to me & mine to you must have miscarried. I have long been aware that you wou'd suffer vexations for want of remittances & have often told the Committee so, yet such has been our situation and Circumstances it was not possible to mend the matter, in a former letter I told you of the several Captures of ships & Cargoes intended for different parts of Europe to provide you with Funds, our Ports were shut the greatest part of the Summer & now again when we expected them certainly to be open, the Enemy are Cruizing at the mouths of our Bays and along the Coast with more industry than ever, I have told you in my other letter that the Eastern States had little fit for exportation to Europe, their Fisherys being prevented, there is no Oil, Fish, Whale Bone &c as formerly, they are not employed in making Pot & Pearl Ashes as usual & in short there is nothing for an European Market but Masts & Spars from New Hampshire, some little Bees' Wax & Flaxseed in Connecticut & Rhode Island. The Secret Committee gave orders to Mr. Langdon to Ship Masts & Spars on the Public Account & to John Bradford Esq at Boston to purchase Such Prize Goods as wou'd serve for remittance, they Commissioned Mr Shaw at New London to buy Flaxseed &c but all to little purpose. Mr Langdon has done something the rest have not, at New York nothing cou'd be done you must be sensible, indeed Genl Washington was obliged to stop for the use of the army some Cargoes that Mr Livingston and Mr Lewis had shipped there. here we were blocked up the best part of the Season and lost several Valuable Cargoes intended for you indeed the principal part of our Trade was obliged to be carried on in small Vessels & these were hardly sufficient to pay for the necessarys we imported from the West Indias, in Maryland & Virginia we have been buying much Tobacco & as fast as Vessels cou'd be got to carry it to market they have been sent off but they are very scarce in all the States to the Southward of this, and Seamen, Cordage, Canvass, & other materials still more scarce, to send them from one part of the Coast to another was extreamly hazardous whilst our Enemies Cruizers covered the Seas in their very track however we have been obliged to adopt this mode & buy or charter Prize Ships in N England to go in Ballast for Virginia, Maryland & Carolina whether they will get safe or not is very doubtfull but if they do, we hope you will still be provided in the Course of this Winter with satisfactory remittances for we have many thousand hogsheads of Tobacco ready, & that article of all others will make the best remittance from Carolina they had no trade at all untill very lately that some small vessells have gone from hence with flour & Iron to them, & some few French Men from the West Indias have Ventured thither, however the Committee have lodged Funds & orders with Messrs Levinus Clarkson & John Dorsius 2 to ship largely in Rice & Indigo, and if they can get Ships this will be done, the same from Virginia & Maryland, and from hence when we can but our River is now full of Ice & our Bay pestered with British Men of War, in short you may perceive clearly that it is absolutely necessary the French shou'd send us aid in the Naval line, A few Line of Battle Ships under our direction last Summer wou'd have totally destroyed Ld Howe's fleet & Transports & a few of them next Summer will command our Rivers & Bays so that Ships may get in and out when once at Sea they must take their Chance & that we are content to run, but whilst they can ride securely Masters of the Mouths of our Rivers & Bays it is next to impossible to escape and so we have found it. These Considerations induce me to wish you may have negotiated some loans with the French Court that they may become so interested as to send their Men of War, in order to Cover their own remittances. We did not find it necessary to direct remittances for you into Holland as France cou'd draw on Lisbon, Cadiz & equally well, but unluckily little has arrived for them to draw.
I am very sensible of your difficulties and I think those you are Connected with must be sensible of ours and that they will exert themselves to get them removed, however I wish you may have negotiated a loan & shipped the Goods and Stores you mention for the West Indias that we may get em from thence in small fast Sailing Vessells unless you cou'd send them out in Men of War of the Line. In the late Confusion and alarm at this place I sent all my Books & papers out of Town where they still remain so that I cannot at present have referrence to what I wrote you the 5th June, but I am much concerned that you depend on Insurance being made here this business has been totally dropped this Summer for altho the Underwriters might otherwise have been willing to Continue it, yet the ample employmt every body have found either in public or less hazardous business, induced them to lay it oneside, and as things are now Circumstanced it wou'd be impossible to prevail on them to take it up again in this City. New York is in the Enemies hands, so that there is no place but Boston where there is the least chance of getting Insurance done & even there they are not fairly got into their geers again. I hope my Brother has Communicated to you what I formerly wrote him on the Subject of Insurances & that you will have got them done in France or Holland on whatever property you may have Shipped this way —
As yet nothing has arrived nor do I know of any thing you have shipped being taken Capt Morgan was taken near Cape May & is but just discharged from the Man of War 3 he tells me he had but little Goods on board & that the dispatches were all sunk, the Young Man that was passenger with him is still detained at New York a Prisoner I suppose it was by him you wrote respecting the Loan I had mentioned &c. Shou'd you have engaged in a plan of sending out Goods to the Value mentioned & we are tollerably lucky in getting them in, great things will be done, they will sell for enormous prices and I will invest the Money in Tobacco Indico, Rice &c which shall be shipped back fast as possible. The things intended for your Family I suppose were on board Capt Morgan but have not come to hand. I shou'd have been proud to had an opportunity of sending them forward. I had the pleasure of seeing one of your Brothers here some time since who told me all your family were well —
Tobacco is to be sure a fine price in Europe and I hope we shall benefit thereby before long, both for the Public & in some degree for ourselves also. Shou'd you obtain a French Fleet to come out here, then will be the time to Speculate and I wou'd have you to charter & send out some Ships with Salt for Virginia Maryland & this place to carry Tobacco back, my Brother will Conduct the business & you and he must fix the Concern or Shares, but if no fleet, send no Ships let us wait & look further first — The Congress give me too many employments & heap vastly too much on me for any Man living to do as it shou'd be, if they had left me to manage their Commercial Matters & those only I cou'd have done great things, but instead of that all their active business is pushed on me, much against my judgement altho inclination prompts me to do what I can in any line that promotes the service of my Country.
I wish for time & opportunities to write you much oftner than I do and I am also very impatient to hear from you again being Dr Sir [&c.]