A COMMERCIAL DAY BOOK. 25 



(In March, 1718, the stock stood at 113 per cent., and Mr. 

 Richards 's shares were worth 5,650. The crash came, I 

 think, in the 1720s. Let us hope that Mr. R. sold at the 

 top price.) 



The fourth entry is " Cash Dr. to Profit and Loss, 500 

 received of William Rooke, for taking of his son John 

 apprentice." 



The days' record is interesting. It shows Mr. Richards 

 living on a very modest scale in the house of Richard Locke, 

 and at the same time spending what represents in the present 

 day about 1,000 on horses and carriages.. For a frugal 

 man this was lavish extravagance. One wonders, had Mr. 

 Richards been pricked for Sheriff, and was the admission 

 of John Rooke to the firm suggested by the pleasing thought 

 that his premium would pay for the carriages and horses ? 



People now-a-days often find it expedient to conceal from 

 their friends the nature of the business which calls them daily 

 to the city. In Mr. Richards 's time the motive to do so was 

 greater, because the social gulf between trade and the land was 

 wider than it is now, and, moreover, the absence of railways, 

 telegraphs, and any regular post made concealment easier. 

 Also, I take it, there was a camaraderie among business men of 

 that day. They kept to themselves their knowledge of their 

 friends' affairs ; they did in fact as they would be done by. 

 They honoured each other all the more that, as men engaged in 

 making money in an honourable way, they were looked down 

 upon while so doing only. John Rooke, the apprentice 

 of Jan., 1715, apparently succeeded Mr. Richards in 

 1722, if indeed he had not become partner earlier, for his 

 name occurs in connection with some later recorded trans- 

 actions. So far as I know, Hutchins is the only authority 

 for the statement or for the belief that William succeeded 

 his father. His name does not appear in the book, nor does 

 John's, except on the one occasion already referred to. 



Having two sons of an age to succeed him, why did Mr. 

 Richards take an outside apprentice ? Probably because 

 they preferred to be left independent of business, and their 



