Showing 107 results

Manuscript account book kept by a wine merchant at Saumur (Maine-et-Loire), recording purchases of wine from farmers and proprietors in the Loire Valley, mostly for the period 1781-1793, but continuing up to 1812. The accounts are written in French, by several scribes (one of whom identifies himself as Tessie Boilesve, [1800]). Certain purchases, after 1800, are made 'pour la Flandre', 'pour la mer' and 'pour l'etranger'.

Manuscript volume containing a memorandum by John Ashley, [1745-1747], headed 'A Proposal to support the British Nation against the ambitious views of France. Humbly offered to the consideration of the Right Honourable Henry Pelham', and suggesting the substitution of a capitation tax on sugar and salt for duties on the products of West Indian plantations as a means of undermining French commercial competitiveness.

Printed bill of lading completed in manuscript for the ship Sprightly Packett, 19 Oct 1782, at Bristol and bound for Cork with eight hogsheads of dye goods.

Printed bill of lading, 1799, completed in manuscript for the schooner Pearl bound for Demerara (British Guiana) from Stonington, Connecticut, USA. Cargo includes mess beef and pork, prime beef and pork, mutton, bass, codfish, mackerel, horses, mules and cattle.

Nine printed bills of lading, completed in manuscript, for ships bound for Marseilles, including those for Le Décidé bound from Salonika, 1728; St Jean l'Évangéliste, from Istanbul, 1733; Le Benjamin, from Smyrna, 1763; Sainte Marie, from Port Maurice, 1765; La Fortune, from St Pierre, Martinique, 1765; La Napolitaine, from Naples, 1778; L'Aimable Marguerite, from Smyrna, 1779; S. Giovanni Battista, from Genoa, 1787 and 1788. Also includes a similar bill of lading for La Vièrge de Grace, bound from Marseilles to St Malo, 1729. Merchandise carried included raw cotton, yellow wax, fish, oil, vinegar, soap, coffee and silk.

A signed holograph proposal, 1739, for preventing the illicit practice of wool, tea and brandy smuggling, submitted to both Houses of Parliament.

Letter from John Burnett of the Board of Trade to Professor H S Foxwell, 11 Nov 1889. 'There can be little doubt that there were trade combinations in existing [sic] very early in the eighteenth century'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from W G Burns of Derby to Colonel [Thomas Perronet] Thompson, 23 Feb 1846. 'As I think it [a] pity you should be ignorant [of] the nature of the arguments [u]rged against free trade principles I send you a specimen of [w]hat a clerical opponent can [d]o ...'

Autograph, with signature. Written on the dorse of the title page and the end fly leaf of a pamphlet [by Henry Robert Crewe] The repeal of the Corn Laws (1846).

Authorisation, 1668, to seize upon contraband Irish beef and other provisions, on the attempt being made to import them into Scotland.

Printed certificate with texts in English and French testifying that Henry Wright was an Englishman, possessed a 'handsome property', and 'may be depended upon in any mercantile concern he may transact between England and France, or any other nation', signed by Wright and 16 inhabitants of the parish of Tamworth, Staffordshire. With two duty stamps, one dated 1797. Printed by 'Cotton, printer, Tamworth'.

A manuscript volume containing a collection of papers made by George Chalmers chiefly relating to Ireland including notes and transcripts relating to royal activity in Ireland from the time of King Henry II, tables of imports and exports for Ireland made in the late seventeenth or eighteenth century, a letter by Sir Peter Pett dated Dec 1678, and letters to Chalmers from General Charles Vallancey, Apr 1791, and Francis Douce, [1808]. On one paper, giving the exports of Ireland for 1641, 1665 and 1669, Chalmers has written 'This paper is worth more than its weight in gold'.

A letter book of William Chalmers, 1740-1744, containing letters addressed to agents in Great Britain, Europe, the United States and North Africa. Commodities included wine, tobacco, cloth, spices, leather, copper, papers, butter, citrus fruit, figs, salt, cork and rum.

Paper entitled The Strike in the London Boot Trade, 1885-1886.

Letter from Sir Josiah Child of Streatham to the Hon. Sir Thomas Cooke, Governor of the East India Company, 28 Dec 1692. Recommending 'Bearer' [unidentified], who is willing 'to returne to Bombay a leift. In the meane time he is willing to be knowne to his Masters of which you are nowe ye Cheif'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Richard Cobden to Mrs Drummond, 16 Shamrock Place, Edinburgh, 12 May 1845. Thanking her for a present to his young daughter. Referring to [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, who 'is now I fear a little under the shade, in consequence of his Maynooth vote, with some of his constitutents', and to the bazaar given by the National Anti-Corn Law League at Covent Garden.

Autograph, with signature. With the original envelope (with a decorative border in the form of wheat ears), bearing the seal of the National Anti-Corn Law League.

Letter from Richard Cobden of Manchester to F Buloz, Esq, Paris, 19 Dec 1845. Answering Buloz's request for a collection of the National Anti-Corn Law League's publications for an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes. Cobden explains that 'no complete collection of [tracts, articles, pamphlets and advertisements] has been preserved - Nor has there been any history of the League written in England.' He promises to give full information and 'copies of all our publications which are preserved' to a visitor 'if recommended by you'. He recommends Bastiat's Cobden et la Ligue [printed by Senlis, Paris, 1845]. 'I may also add the Monsr Fonteyrand ... paid us a visit here a few weeks ago to whom I explained the machinery of our organisation ... I am not sure that he would feel at liberty to assist in furnishing an article for your publication - But he is more competent than any other person in France to do it correctly - At all events, I wish you would see him ... and say that I shall be obliged if he will allow you to have access to the publications which I gave him and afford you all facilities in his power for preparing a description of the League ...'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Richard Cobden of Manchester to Mr [?George] Moffatt, 23 Dec 1845. 'Not a word passed between [Earl] Grey and me upon any other subject than corn - I called on him solely for the purpose of urging the Whigs to stick to our principle, and to explain that the League could not swerve a hairs breadth from its path of Total and Immediate to suit any party. This is all that passed - [Viscount] Palmerstons name was of course never mentioned or referred to ... The Whigs are lower than ever by this exhibition of impracticableness at a moment when every other question ought to have been suspended at least till they had dealt some-how or other with that food crisis which alone called them into place and alone warranted them in assuming a power which otherwise they did not possess. At such a time to squabble over seats at the Council board! If I had been Lord John [Russell], history should have rather said of me that I had sent into the parish vestryroom for a dozen select men of the parish to form my cabinet, until I could in my place in Parlt. birng on the total repeal of the corn law, than that I had allowed any two or even twelve men to stop me in my course when once pledged to such an undertaking'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Richard Cobden to R C Chawner, Esq of Wall, near Lichfield, [Staffordshire], 9 Apr [1844]. Asking him to give a 'free trade address from the boards of Covent Garden.'

Autograph, with signature. With the original envelope, bearing the seal of the National Anti-Corn Law League.

Letter from Jean-Baptiste Colbert of Versailles, [France] to M Daguesseau, 1 Jan 1683. Promoting the manufacturers of Saptes and Clermont in France, and their exports to the Levant.

With autograph signature.

Manuscript volume containing a report [to the House of Lords] by the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, 16 Dec 1703, on the state of trade.

Manuscript volumes containing copies of the minutes of the 'Committee of Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations', 3 Mar 1823-6 Feb 1827. Each volume contains an index of contents. It appears from the watermarks that the volumes were written later than 1826, possibly under the direction of William Huskisson, President of the Board of Trade.

Minutes of evidence of the Committee to consider the state of the linen trade in Great Britain and Ireland, given at twelve sessions held between 1 March and 12 May 1774.

Manuscript volume containing a report giving a list of all the costs of the upkeep of a galley in a squadron, [1700-1750], requested by 'S R Gerosna', entitled 'Relazione distinta di tutta la somma che si spende e consuma per il manteninento di una galera dalla squadra di questa S R Gerosna'. Includes frequent references to the port at Malta, and to Sicily, Sardinia and other islands in the Mediterranean, and notes of advice for captains of galleys trading in the area.

Papers of David Cranstoun, 1840-1845, comprise three letters to Robert Sutton and Lydia Sutton, East Bilney, near East Dereham, Norfolk. Correspondence mentions the sugar crops, molasses, and the state of the water supply. The final letter (dated 1845) includes the following: '... We hailed the intelligence of the ministers plan of reducing the duty on sugar with much satisfaction in hopes it will materially benifit [sic] us. There are however some who are skeptical on this head concieving [sic] the British West Indies will not benifit to the extent anticipated, in consquence of the great reduction which has also taken place in foreign sugars, the latter being grown and manufactured at a much cheaper rate than ours - we must however patiently wait the result ... Within the last week we have had an arrival of twelve sturdy Irish labourers, they seem quite pleased with their employment and are working well - these are the description of people we want, for it is said that in Ireland they scarcely ever taste butchers meat - their principal support being potatoes and butter milk - not so with those from England - they are accustomed to better living and seem to feel the want of their beer which they have been used to, and which they cannot obtain here but at a dear rate ...'. All items are autograph, with signatures. Franked, sealed and stamped with the dates: 14 March 1840, 21 May 1842, 11 April 1845.

'A memoriall concerning the free-trade now tolerated between France and Holland', addressed to Sidney Godolphin.

Manuscript volume, [1610], containing a treatise by Sir John Davies, Attorney General of Ireland, on royal regulation of commerce, beginning 'This question concerning your Majesties prerogative in laying Impositions upon Marchandizes'.

Accounts kept by Thomas Davis of Aleppo, merchant, dated 30 Mar and 18 Dec 1630 and 18 Dec 1631, relating to broadcloth received from his brother Richard Davis of London, also a merchant, and to gogram and ardass silks sent by Davis to London, 'being 16 balles cont: 80 peeces broad clothes under the m[a]rke per margent receved out of the shipp Sampson of London Bence Johnson master is debt[es?] to charges of merchandize for the fraight custome and other charges as ffoll[oweth?]...'. Other persons mentioned include Bryan Harrison, master of the 'shipp Unicorne' of London, and Thomas Davis.

Bound volume containing file copies of decrees relating to commerce collected between 1717 and 1725 by a Paris office of the Compagnie des Fermiers-Généraux, which was a company trading with the Levant. All are printed excepting the following manuscript transcripts concerning the regulation of trade: 1)An extract of the declaration given to the Ministers of Holland and England by the Plenipotentaries of the King, 4 January 1717, including a note that 'this copy was given to the Company on 11 March 1718, in consequence of a letter written by M. Piquet, Keeper of the Seal at the Council of Foreign Affairs'. 2) A decree, dated 7 October 1717, on the laws governing duties on butter and cheeses. 3) Decree headed 'Cires', 1719, beginning 'The King wishes to treat favourably the manufacture established at Limoges...', and transcribed on the last page of a printed decree of 30 March 1719. 4) Decree, dated 1 August 1720, relating to the sawing and merchandising of merain wood, transcribed on the last page of a printed decree of 9 July 1720. 5) Copy of a letter written by the Companie des Fermiers-Généraux to Sr. Savalette, Receiver at St Valery concerning the liability of duty to goods imported from the Levant.

Manuscript volume containing a list of twelve different castes of inhabitants of Bombay, India, 1828, with particulars of their trades, customs, countries, and food, with a few remarks on the names of their priests, holidays, dress, and marriage and burial customs.

Manuscript volume containing lists of unoccupied mercantile houses in Dublin, 1843-1844, namely a memoranda giving some formerly eminent mercantile concerns in Dublin, 8 Mar 1843, and comments on the state of Dublin as ascertained by inspection, 30 Jan 1844.

Papers presented to the House of Lords concerning the East India Company's status as a Joint Stock Company, Feb 1647, comprising a paper presented by the Company in defence of their trading as a Joint Stck Company, and a copy of the former endorsed by Alderman [John] Fowkes beginning 'Sixe arguments...to justify the pursuance of the trade to th'east Indies by one Joint Stock Onely'.

Financial abstract of the East India Company, entitled 'Abstract of the finances and disbursements for 1783-4, the estimate from the end of 1783'. The abstract is 'extracted from materials received from Bengal', and signed by John Annis 'Auditor of Indian Accounts' and endorsed by John Michie, Director of the Company. Other endorsements include the following: 'Deficiency 156 Lack 17 m[ohurs?]. Bond Debts 193 [Lack] 43 [mohurs?] or about £2,200,000'.

Copy letter book of William Scott, Commissioner [of the Board of Control], mainly to Richard Rocke, Acting President of members of the East India Company Board of Revenue at Fort William (Calcutta), 1817-1827. Scott details the collection of accounts of the East India Company's revenue, referring to revenue due from agricultural holdings (land tax, tenantry holdings) in Calcutta, Chardpore, Shahpore and Bindhnapore. Scott also writes about the economic condition of the Indian people.

Manuscript volume containing a discussion of the present exploitation of commerce in Egypt, relative to the French nation, 1762, including lists of goods suitable for import and export, and sections dealing with currency, credit and transport.

A volume giving information on the quantity and value of goods imported and exported to and from England, 1696-1701. The volume has the book plate of John Holroyd, Earl of Sheffield.

Manuscript volume relating to trade in the Far East, 1691-1732, containing transcripts of letters, memoranda, exchange rates, lists of prices, and instructions for the prices of goods, compiled by a Captain of the East India Company trading between China, India and England. The volume includes an account of the state of trade in India by Sir Nicholas Waits, 1699; an account of the state of trade at Surat, India, by Samuel Lock, 1705; a Chinese merchant's advice relating to trade between India and China; various advice and directions for the purchasing of drugs, tea, musk, raw silk, ivory and beeswax; details of customs charges at Canton, 1704; instructions for the purchase of gold and pearls at Madras, India; orders and instructions given by the Directors of the East India Company; a description of the manufacture of lacquer in China, 1708, an essay on a hydrostatical method of discovering the fineness of gold, and an logarithmical table for finding the rate of exchange between dollars and pagodas, 1732, all by Isaac Pyke, Governor of St Helena.

A printed volume containing decisions of the French Conseil d'Estat relating to commerce, 1700-1708, but including three manuscript items as follows:

1. 'Essai des marchandises qu'il est permis de tirer des pays estrangers...suivant l' arrêt du Conseil du 18 Aoust 1705', a table listing items of merchandise permitted to be taken from Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Scotland, Germany, Ireland and Portugal, [1708]. (2 leaves. 11" x 8½").
2. 'Règlement que le roy veut estre observé dans l'ordre de distribution et raport qui sera fait par les sieurs intendans du commerce des affaires qui auront esté renvoyées au Conseil de Commerce', dated at Marly on 9 Oct 1708', followed by lists of areas of jurisdiction with their departmental officers. (14 leaves. 11" x 8½").
3. Incomplete manuscript index to the volume, which is paginated throughout in manuscript. (6 leaves. 11" x 8½").

Manuscript volume, Aug 1710, containing memoirs of the latest peace negotiations held at Gertruidenberg, Brabant, between Mar and Jul that year [to attempt a peaceful settlement to the War Of the Spanish Succession], and notes regarding the means of damaging the commerce and fishing of the Dutch and English. A note in pencil on the title-page attributes this work to 'M de Torcy', though no reasoning is given for this attribution.

Manuscript volume containing three memoranda by Joshua Gee on colonial trade, 1721-1728, namely a memorial relating to the trade and the plantations, 1721, particularly with respect to iron, copper, hemp, flax, boards, timber, and to the enumerated commodities which are now restrained to be first imported into Great Britain, endorsed 'Received 27 Oct 1721, Read 8 Nov 1721'; a memorial to the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, 1728, respecting the trade, raw produce and the manufactures of the colonies, and the production of naval stores there; a paper giving Gee's answers to several queries sent to him regarding African trade, 1726, which is endorsed 'Received March 30, Read March 31, 1726'. An endorsement by George Chalmers, written on a fly-leaf at the beginning of the volume, gives a brief biography of Gee and states that the three pieces in the manuscript were written on subjects referred to Gee by the Board of Trade, and were never printed.

Manuscript volume containing answers from James Glen, Governor of South Carolina, to queries from the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, giving details of the country's geography, weather, neighbours, constitution, shipping and trade, and an account of exports for 1747-1748. This letter was possibly the one from Glen read by the Lords Commissioners on 9 Nov 1749 - see the Journal of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, 1742-1749.

Papers of the Gordon family of Letterfourie, Banffshire, Scotland, relating to their merchant interests and financial matters, 1735-[1800], comprising, including a bond in £250 of 1735 discharged in 1751 by James Gordon and his son Patrick to John Gordon; two letters from Strauss & Schmidt, Lisbon, to James Gordon, 1763; an invoice and bill of lading, dated Oct 1770, for goods shipped on the Hambro Packet from Hamburg by order of Alexander Gordon & Co., Madeira; a letter from C. Grant, Edinburgh, to James Gordon, 7 Dec 1785; two receipts of 1799 for money paid by a Mrs. Gordon; and a letter from James and Alexander Gordon at school to their parents in Letterfourie, [1800].
The collection also contains material not apparently relating to the Gordon family: accounts of John Scott, vintner in Portsoy, 'for Letterfouries servants and horses when sundry times in Banff', 22 Dec 1798-3 Jun 1799; a 'Certificate of the term of payment of Lady Fraiser [of Durris]'s annuities, 19 Nov 1776, signed by the town clerk of Aberdeen; and a receipt of 1780 for payment for goods bought from E. Fielder, stationer, London, by a Mr. Ruddick. The connection between the Gordon items and the last two items is unknown.

3 letters from Henry George Grey (3rd Earl Grey) of Howick, [Northumberland] to J L Ricardo MP, 16 Jun-4 Jul 1855. Dealing mainly with a free trade agreement between Barbados and Canada, and a proposed loan to Turkey.

Autograph, with signature. With 1 envelope.

A volume entitled Customs of ye Stanarys & Journall of ye Convocators 1703. It relates chiefly to the stannary of Blackmore, but also other Cornish stannaries. Concludes with a note that information used 'were copied out of a manuscript I had of Mr Thomas Hawkins. Signed John Hill.'

Letter from Lancelot Hobson of Athens, Greece to Mr John Wise, merchant, of London, 1685. '... tis some yeares since you have not been pleased to make reply unto divers addressed you'; urging that friends should make 'further tryall of trade heere since tis now ye most open scale of [text missing] whither are brought to be shipped all ye good of Morea and Thessally [text missing] might be purchase against English commodities ...'. Goods mentioned include corn, cheese, wool, valonia [acorns used for dyeing fabric and tanning leather], silk, wax, tin, pepper, Brazil wood, indigo, oils, soap, aniseed and buffalo hides.

Begun on 24 Feb 1685 written in one hand and completed in another hand on 18 Ap 1685; the second hand appears to be Hobson's own.

Letter, May 1 1802 addressed to the Rt Hon William Wickham, Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whitehall. 'Lord Sheffield has caused the tracts sent herewith relative to Ireland to be bound together with the wish they may be usefull (sic) in respect to reference to Mr. Wickham. The first gives details of the state, manufactures & commerce of Ireland to the year 1785. The speech on union continues those details to the present times and the observations on the export of wool to Ireland shews the state of the woollen manufacture in both countries'. Autograph, unsigned.

Papers of John Baker Holroyd, 1789-1830.

Manuscript volume containing extracts [made in 1801] from the records of the Hudson's Bay Company dated between 1684 and 1719, relating to efforts to maintain the Company's monopoly, renew its charter and guarantee its priveledges against the French during the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714) and the Peace of Utrecht (Apr 1713). The presence of the Company's arms on the binding suggests the extracts were made by them.

Letters, drafts and notes, 1830-1831, on agriculture, trade with the colonies, bullionism and other matters regarding politics and trade often in connection with fellow customs official Augustus Grenville Stapleton.

Letter from William Huskisson of Eastham, [Worcestershire] to [? Charles] Grant [? afterwards Baron Glenelg], 9 Dec 1825. Referring to 'our commerical Convention with the Hans Towns'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from J M Hyde of 4 Westcome Park, Blackheath, Kent to J Briggs, 22 Mar 1873. Thanking him for a letter which 'gives me a notion of the v[er]y extreme ideas of a decided oponent [sic] to the dictum of Home Industry being of any national importance - I will send you a copy of a letter addressed by me to Mr [Adolphe] Thiers, it contains the view I hold on the subject of the onesided system of competition, - onesided free trade has introduced ...'

Autograph, with signature.