|
240 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE
The Mare is brought home & unluckely with fole from (I suppose) some dam'd old Cart stallion. She is ruin'd in my opinion from this circumstance & her lameness, not have recover'd it, nor is there a person here that I can find sufficiently skill'd in horses to know what to do with her.49
Only gradually did some of his feelings change so that by August he could write that he was tf. . . now well reconciled to his Situation & his Sighs for dear Boston and environs become less frequent/'50
After the first rush of trade in April and May, George was kept fairly busy until July when harvest time brought a slackening of business. He thus described the rhythm of the Baltimore market to a Boston correspondent:
From the Commencement of harvest to its Completion, slow sales are made, as the farmers previously lay in their Stock & are too much engag'd to come to Market. this almost inactive state in the Sea ports continues abt 6 weeks, when trade again revives & moderate Sales are made 'till fall & then business goes on rapidly till winter. Little is done again till Spring when & during Summer it again revives.51
Slack trading led him to take inventory, and in July he lamented to Henry,
Business is excessive dull here and the greater part of Nailer Hatch's cargo is on hand as likewise the Rhode Island Packet's which is principally stor'd with us & such a quantity of Havanna Sugars we have had stor'd as to break the main beam of the second floor.52
He therefore bent all his efforts to getting rid of the goods on hand, sending them to Philadelphia or New York when they proved unsaleable in Baltimore, placing some in Virginia for sale, and " doctoring " certain goods to make them sell in Baltimore. He reported to Henry that " Old Jamaica Spirits in 40 gallon Gasks has been selling at Vendue for 6/, 6/6, and even 7/ this led me to try two Hhds of our which I drew off in just such casks but it has such a horrid Smell that it got no higher than 3/3." 53 Trying to sell some bad fish he had no better luck despite ". . . all our art and expence to make them appear better. . . ." 54
The quantity of goods on hand led him to complain sharply to correspondents about the quality of their goods. To John Bromfield, whose rum was poorly casked, he commented, " We fortunately placed the Casks in the middle loft of a Store which was Very Cool that whenever a leak took place we readily Discovered it by its running below." 55 To Henry he wrote, " Your last Cod were almost perished when they arrived & I was glad to get them out of the Store." 55 He toyed with the possibility of shipping goods without paying impost and wrote Henry,
40 George Johonnot to Harry Johnson, July 13, 1784, JJLB.
50 George Johonnot to Henry Johnson and Francis Johonnot, August 3, 1784, JJLB.
51 George Johonnot to Howes and Downes, August 16, 1784, JJLB.
52 George Johonnot to Henry Johnson, July 13, 1784, JJLB.
53 George Johonnot to Henry Johnson, September 14, 1784, JJLB.
54 George Johonnot to Howes and Downes, August 16, 1784, JJLB. 66 George Johonnot to John Bromfield, August 8, 1784, JJLB. 56 George Johonnot to Henry Johnson, July 27, 1784, JJLB.
|
