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buying, of warehouse-room, shipping and the attendant fees, freight, 

 and insurance ; and, on the arrival of the merchandize in England, 

 there are duties, dockage, warehouse-room, and many other items 

 which leave no small interest in the hands of those who do the 

 business. 



-' It is scarcely possible to imagine, much less to describe, the dis- 

 appointment which prevailed among mercantile gentlemen a few 

 months after their arrival in South America, particularly among 

 those who had orders not to sell the goods entrusted to them lower 

 than the prices specified. 



Their sanguine expectations of incalculable heaps or bars of gold 

 speedily vanished ; many persons came to look at their stores, 

 but few offered to buy ; and, incredible as it may appear, yet it is 

 true, that when goods were offered to them at half the original 

 cost, they invariably exclaimed, " Very dear." Scenes of this 

 kind I have repeatedly witnessed, and could scarcely suppress my 

 indignation at seeing goods thus depreciated, which a few months 

 before were so eagerly sought after. Gentlemen consignees so 

 situated were at a loss how to act : the duties, rents, charges, and 

 other expences were high, and must peremptorily be paid ; their 

 only resource was to open a shop or room for the purpose of selling 

 their goods by retail. 



These gentlemen had calculated upon doing business only in the 

 large way, similar to our first mercantile houses : they had set apart 

 their hours for horse-exercise, and for going to their country-seats*. 

 The idea of vending by retail was a bitter which destroyed all their 

 pleasing anticipations of doing business in style : they came out as 

 merchants, and could not stoop to be shopkeepers ; and many of 

 tjiem, rather than yield to that degradation, sent goods to auctions. 



' * Delicate connections were soon formed, and females of the obscurest class appeared 

 dressed in the most costly extreme of English fashion. 



U U 



