| Description | (2 pcs.)
Dear Madam,
Nothing can be so painfull to me as the [not] haveing it in my power to grant any favour you may please to ask, but so it is in respect to copper.
The duty paid in England upon the importation of copper is ten guineas per ton; and, though the price at Smyrna [is] very low, yet the sundry expences as stated by Messrs. Morier and Wilkinson raises it to £113 without the English duty. I observe in their calculations they reckon the freight from 3 to 4 £ a ton and their other charges 18 per cent. They also say that the former price of copper was at 27 pa[ras] per oke. The oke is 2lb. 3/4 and 40 paras is = 2s. 2d. 40½ okes is = to 112lb. or our Cwt., or about £87 15s. per ton. Now if it could be deliver'd in England and cost no more [than] 90 when the duty was paid, it might be worth thinking of, but as I am not in want of copper now, haveing 60 or 70 [tons] to sell, and as the price is lowering every day in Eng[land], I see no possibility of giveing you a chance for fr. . .
Mr. Dunaste in Philpot Lane has been a[t] Smyrna and continues to do business there; query if he co[uld] be any use to you?
As I shall be in Green Lettice Lane this week, I h[ope] to see Captain Stocker before his departure, and to thank [him] for his obliging attention to my enquiries when he [was] last at Smyrna. I believe Mr. Watt will set our tom[orrow], but it is not certain that I shall.
In a letter I had yesterday from Mr. Parker he says I may draw on the Serra Leona Co. for 1000 at two months, but if I wait till Thursday he says he will get the account passed and I may then draw for the ballance, which is upwards of £1200, and I shall also draw on Brickwood for near 200, and I hope when I see Bowser he will pay me £1000.
I remain ever, dear madam, yours most affectionately,
Mattw. Boulton
[Edited transcript.] |