Series 2 > Letter-book of Bailie John Steuart of Inverness

xvi LETTER-BOOK OF BAILIE JOHN STEUART
litle or no Irish meall imported last year, yet I made verie
litle of about 2200 I shipped off from Banff shire for that
Countrey last year, tho I purchast the same at £4 Scots,
and 4:3:4 the highest pr. boll, payle. only at this Merti-
mass. So your Lop. may easily judge its not in my power
to give the price demanded ; but if your Lop. will Accept
£4 :10 sh. Scots pr. boll, payle. at the term of Mertimass
nixt, 1734, I will take your Lops, parcell, provideing it be
good sweet meall: but He take no part of it that is sour
or old teasted.’
The fish trade of Inverness in Steuart’s time was very
important. He and other Inverness merchants purchased
salmon in large quantities from proprietors on the East and
West Coasts, and sent it sometimes to London and Leith,
but more frequently to Continental seaports from Rotter¬
dam to Venice—timing their ships as a rule to reach their
destinations before the beginning of Lent. For example,
in 1725 William Mackay, an Inverness merchant, and a
grandson of General Hugh Mackay who opposed Dundee
at Killicrankie, despatches four ships laden with salmon—
180 barrels for Alicante, 400 for Leghorn, 200 for other
ports in the Mediterranean, and 110 for Havre-de-grace.
The Bailie bought his salmon mainly from Lord Lovat,
the Earl of Moray, Sir Thomas Calder of Muirtown in
Morayshire, Mrs. Mackenzie of Assynt, the Laird of Sand
in Gairloch, and Lord Seaforth, proprietor of Kintail. Of
his numerous ventures the following may be mentioned.
He purchased 99 barrels of salmon, including grilse,
from Lord Moray in 1718, and was thereafter for many
years a regular purchaser of his Lordship’s fish. In 1720
he sends 200 barrels to London. The confusion of trade
in the winter of 1720-1721 was such that a large quantity
of the salmon of 1720 remained on his hand, and in 1721
he writes his Bordeaux correspondent, Robert Gordon,