Series 4 > William Melrose in China, 1845-1855

162
WILLIAM MELROSE IN CHINA
be a pity to spoil the effect I intend those very sage and philosophic
remarks to produce by saying any more until next month by which
time they will have been well digested. So with kind regards to all
and several, I am my Father your affectionate son.
Macao, 20 June 1851
I have yours of April and am glad to see you are all well. I have
got the -£30,000 all right and observe all that has been arranged
regarding the two cargoes. I feel very much obliged for what you
have done for me as I am sure you did it entirely to benefit me and
I feel very grateful to you for it. But at the same time, to tell the
plain truth, I do not feel very much pleased with the arrangement
because they put me down for a third share, and thereby secure my
best endeavours, of course, to make the venture profitable. I am
made liable in case of a loss to the amount of about -£4,000 (taking
two cargoes) and all they pay me for this is 2j%, about enough to
pay my expenses out here. And besides that [they] tie me down
with positive limits and instructions so that I must act and take a
share too, even if I thought there was to be a heavy loss, so that all
I get by the adventure is a little more than will pay my expenses
out here and a third share, which may turn out a profit and may
turn out a loss.
Let them try Russells or Jardines or any other house and just see
if they would take a share in their shipments for 2%%. I don’t think
they would do it if they were to pay them 7%. Houses out here
won’t take shares in the purchases; and [they refuse orders] over
and over again rather than take a share in them, even if the people
at home leave the purchases to their own discretion and pay them a
full commission. Wetmore’s1 tea taster told me the other day that
they might make their business three times what it was if the house
here would consent to take shares in the orders they receive, but
that they make a point of never doing so. Scare, with whom I am
living here and who came out for Hyde Lenox and Co., tells me
they might have had one of the largest commission houses in China
if they would have taken an interest in the consignments out and
1 Wetmore & Co.: an agency house in Canton with three partners and seven assistants
in 1846. CR, xv (1846), 8.