Series 4 > William Melrose in China, 1845-1855

121
1850
What with selling bills and examining chops and Chinamen
coming in, I cannot settle down to write you as fully as I could
wish. You will observe that I have sold a large quantity of bills:
^4,500 National at 4s. yjd., -£500 Union at 4s. yjd., -£6,000 Union
at 4s. 8jd. The .£4,500 National and ^£5°° Union were bought
by a Parsee as a remittance for opium. He did not know the ‘ Union’
and it was with great difficulty I got him to take the £500. (Parsees
are always limited to certain paper.) I hope they will get acquainted
with the Union by and by and sometimes give me a good rate.
The Bank this time pitched its rate at 4s. yjd., nominal I suppose;
at least at so bad a rate as to show they had no wish to draw but
were buyers, which was the case. Bank of England notes at sight
were done largely at 4s. yd. to y\d. and Baring’s credits at 4s. 8 Jd.,
and some at anything they could get. The Bank rate here is no
criterion, but it does us good sometimes for when they don’t want
to draw or sell they fix their rate so low as deter people from buying,
or, if they do buy, buy at a very dear rate. Now it sometimes happens
that Parsees want my bills and they regulate their rate sometimes
by the Bank (if other Bank paper is not in the market). This time
it answered me well with the Nationals. The Bank pitching its
rate so low and the Parsee, wanting them, offered me at once Jd.
less for the three months interest (they say interest at home now
is 2j% - at that rate three months sight bills are little more than
half-a-farthing better than six months sight).
[August 1850] :x
With the Unions I was not so lucky. I offered them everywhere
and circulated them, but could not get a bid of 4s. 8d. At last at
the eleventh hour the Bank took them at 8jd. I sold ^£6,000 to
pay up to all bought on your account joint with J. R. & Co., as
you advise me to sell as soon after purchasing as possible. Sample
no. 3 canister Congou I only bought about an hour ago, and sent in
to the Bank to see if they would take .£2,000 more but they would
not. I asked the manager of the other what he could offer for them
and he made an offer 8fd(!) which of course I did not take.
I got by good luck the Chinamen to take back 250 boxes of the
imitation Capers, and the 100 boxes in Superb are all that are to go.
I have also got rid of 268 boxes of Gunpowder, the Tls n chop
1 Handwriting indicates this to be Andrew Melrose’s own note.