-r^. ^'^^ 'if 1^«^ \ VI ... V - -x-) GIFT or J.i3. Peixotto Digitized by the Internet Archive \ in 2007 with funding from j ' IVIicrosoft Corporation j http://www.archive.org/details/cyclopaediaofcomOOdeverich CYCLOPAEDIA OP COfflERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. i ;.r »,; ■c'*»:i.A»*Wi1i'CE ^^.;^.^r.^.'■r ^LA.-^^^^^ ' /. By the AmxnrHX HniiW X»lf ('o-XcwrAbrU. CYCLOPEDIA COMMERCIAL AND BUSI^-ESS ANECDOTES '^^..^ COMPRISING • .'»',»,, I I* ''-,'1'', '''' * ' • INTERESTING REMINISCENCES AND FACTS, BEMABKABLB TRAITS AND HUMORS, AND %i^iMt ^mmy ^t^\m% ^xp^nw^^, m& mwiwm MERCHANTS, TRADERS, BANKERS, MERCANTILE CELEBRITIES, MILLIONNAIEES, BARGAIN MAKERS, ETC., ETC. IN ALL AGES AND COUNTRIES. DESIGNED TO EXHIBIT, BY NEARLY THREE THOUSAND ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS, THE PIQUANCIES AND PLEASANTRIES OP TRADE, COMMERCE, AND GENERAL BUSINESS PURSUITS. ASTOR, GIRARD, McDONOGH, BARING, ROTHSCHILD, BIDDLE, TOURO, LORILLARD, OUVRARD, LABOUCHERE, LONGWORTH, PERKINS, BATES, APPLETON, BAYARD, LEROY, BARKER, LAFITTE, STEWART, RUgSELL, LENOX, COOPER, SHAW, STEIGLITZ, HOWQUA, GRESHAM, LOWELL, BUSSEY, GOLDSCHMID, PEABODY, MORRIS, VANDERBILT, HOPE, NOLTE, RIGGS, JEEJEEBHOY, HOTTINGUER, BROOKS, GIDEON, GRINNET.L, GRACIE, RIDGWAY, SLATER, LEE, COUTTS, GRAY, FRANCIS, FUGGER, BELMONT, CHILD, DEXTER, TATTERSALL, MORRISON, HUDSON, WHITNEY, HOPPER, DE MEDICI, LAWRENCE, STURGIS, COPE, ETC., ETC., ETC. Lon^ life to Commbece I What lives not through it f What is all fresh life, all movement, in reality, but trade, exchange, gift for gift!— Bebmkb. Come, Anecdote I with all thy praoes come. Relii the ffrave— to mirth thy rights afford, the And crown the sparkling glass and hospitable board.— Cooke. I am persuaded that every time a man smiles— but much more so when he laughs— it adds something to thia fragment of life.— Steene. A dinner oi fragments is often said to be the best dinner.—'* Guesses at Teuth." By ERAZAR KIRKLAND. -b**:^*^'*^ EMBELLISHED WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIVE CUTS. ^TT^ %\ NEW YORK : B. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 443 & 445 BROADWAY. LONDON: 16 LITTLE BRITAIN. 1868. . -• c»' -•.":: c ...-• c'*.. .:: .o:. '•'.••• / \ kil^J,y.P,(j^u.^,ca^ Enteeed, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. The design and scope of this work will be found as clearly indi- cated and as amply set forth on the Title page, as is requisite to the most complete understanding of the plan which it involves and the character of the matter embodied in its pages. As there stated, it is a collection, original and selected, of the choicest, most striking and recherche Anecdotes relating to Business Men and Commercial Puk- suiTS, from the earliest trading transactions of which any record can be found down to the present time. It is in no sense intended as a work of biography, history, statistics, or collated facts, only so far as either of these has been found associated, anecdotically, with some episode of Business Character or Dealing, illustrative of the latter in their various aspects of the gay, the ludicrous, the witty, the ingenious, the droll, the original, the unique — laughter-provoking, side-shaking, wonder- exciting, &c. ; with such these pages abound. The Anecdotes here given necessarily pertam both to persons and things — alike to the Celebrities of traffic in all ages and nations, and to the multitudinous Objects which give to traffic its name and import. Every country, as well as people, has here its personal representative — exhibiting, in all their kaleidoscopic lights aiid shades, the idiosyncra- sies, customs, and animus peculiar to it, in bargain and sale ; every clime its happy illustrations, in the productions native to it, or which enter into its commercial exchange : the whole forming, as it were, a sort of mental Pantechnicon, or Bazaar, where are to be seen deline- ated, in endless variety, and as pictures hung upon a wall, the curiosi- ties incident to the genius and craft of the Mart ! Perhaps no volume ever issued from the American press has fur- nished, in a compendious form, so fruitful a display of the unique and marvellous in human nature, on its commercial side, as this. Indeed, it has the merit, whatever that may be, of being the first work of the kind which has ever appeared, in this or any other coimtry, devoted to the Humorous phase of Trade and Traders. Collections of anecdotes having reference to art, science, literature, morals, the drama, etc., — some of them possessing high merit, and attaining a wide circulation — 869012 vi PREFACE. have at different times been sent forth for public favor ; but not one, it is believed, of all these, has ever touched, or but very slightly, the field of pleasantries and piquancies here spread out to view. Our volume, therefore, being thus sui generis, offers no opportunity of winning praise by comparison, or of suffering from disparagement by contrast with any other work of its kind. But, however the fact might be Tn this respect, it would not stand in the way of an honest claim in behalf of the work, of being as perfect in its character as the sources of material available to that end would permit. No time has been spared, no means and facilities left unimproved, no expense or labor withheld, to render these pages tempting to every lover of pithy, pointed, sparkling, and mirth- ful reading. It is not too much to say, that the anecdotes, witticisms, and memo- rabilia, which are here presented, of such monarch merchants as Astor, Rothschild, Girard, Baring, Lafitte, Jacob Barker, De Medicis, Lorillard, Howqua, Bates, Peabody, Lawrence, Hope, Touro, &c., &c., would form, of themselves alone, one of the most delectable of volumes. But these are only a few out of many scores of mercantile notabilities who have flourished during the past, or are yet on the stage of action, and of whom it is the object of this book to present the most lively and pleasing incidents illustrative of their professional character, moods, and dealings. And here it will not be impertinent briefly to observe, that, as every undertaking must have its limits, so in the case of the present work, it has been found a point of necessity to exercise a re- straining hand, that the several divisions might not become too bulky or diffuse. Arising from this consideration, there are some characters, more or less noteworthy, whose names are not here to be met with, but to which we would gladly have given place. It is believed, however, that this omission rarely involves a name of extensive renown, but applies rather to those whose fame, living or posthumous, is restricted to particular localities or circles ; and, as almost every business com- munity, large or small, is known thus to have its " representative men," — those of strongly marked individuality in their calling, — it is apparent that no task could be more impossible than to attempt to give, without discrimination, the current reminiscences of such a multitude. In the prosecution of our purpose, every important catalogue, both American and foreign, has been carefully consulted, with a view to examining whatever might promise aid to our efforts ; and not a single library of note, in our largest cities, has been left unexplored for mate- rial, in the way of biography, travels, adventure — fresh, racy, and rele- vant — in the preparation of this work. Besides these invaluable means, the best private sources within the circle of men of letters have been resorted to, and the suggestions and assistance thus personally extended have added greatly to the pleasantness of our task, as well as to the value of its results. PREFACE. yii But the perplexities attending a nice discernment in the selection of matter for this volume have by no means been slight. The first requi- site, of course, in the qualities of an anecdote, is that of truth. Where this is wanting, the narration, however agreeable or well told, falls off at once ninety per cent, in its interest and import. It becomes a mere fable, and should be thus entitled. The number of so-called " anec- dotes " coming within this latter class, and which might have had their nominal appropriateness in these pages, is very large ; they have been rejected in every case where they could not stand a fair test of authen- ticity. Many others, of the genuine cast, have been abridged or con- densed ; and others still have been revised or rewritten, so as more nearly to conform to fact and reason, or that they might appear in a more perspicuous dress to the reader. There is yet another class — and one which forms an exception to the observation just made with refer- ence to credibility — namely, the bristling fantasise of commercial satire, burlesque, &c., which have been allowed a welcome place in almost every department. These explain themselves, and may be said to con- stitute one of the richest and most attractive features of the work. It is believed that the general arrangement and classification of this volume are scarcely susceptible of improvement. They are such as to relieve the matter of all stiffness, formality, and tediousness, while they at the same time open up, at the reader's will or fancy, and in pleasing diversification, all the various spheres and phases of commerce, business life, and its individual appertainments. It is not claimed, however, that there are no instances to be found, where portions of one department might not as appropriately — and perhaps more so — have had a place under some other specialty. The difficulties of perfect precision in this respect, in such a work, are obvious, and were frequently felt in the allotment of its contents. For any incongruities that may thus be manifest, a lenient criticism is asked. Our acknowledgments are due, and are here most gratefully ten- dered, to those librarians in our principal cities w^ho have so freely and courteously opened the treasures of their alcoves to our use ; and also to the many editors, authors, and merchants, who have not only encour- aged us by their warm approval of our work, but have favored us with their advice and friendly offices, and with the happy effusions of their pens, with which to enliven our volume. The magnificent collections of standard periodical literature, now to be found complete in almost all our great libraries, and embracing full sets of the Edinburgh, Westminster, Gentleman's, Fraser's, Blackwood's, Eclectic, Harleian, Jerrold's, Dublin, Punch, Notes and Queries, Cham- bers', Household Words, The Leisure Hour, &c., — these, in addition to our American publications of similar character, furnish -a vast and bountiful storehouse, inviting and rewarding the research of the scholar. All these have been made readily accessible to us; and, though the YJii PREFACE. labor of painstakingly examining their contents has certainly been for- midable, it has yet been richly remunerative for the purposes of this volume. The choice sippings of Pxmch will be relished by all who love to drink at that fountain of mirth, satire, and facetiae ; and Mrs. Parting- ton, that brusque old wit — or witch — will be found to grace, by her weird presence, the same exhilarating category. The pages of the now venerable, but always sprightly and inimitable Knickerbocker, have been drawn upon for some of those *' saws " whose teeth always have a point ; and the " Drawer " of Harper's, that charming repository of keen blades and fancies, has been approached like a bundle of golden jack-straws, from which we might extract, here and there, a dainty waif, without taking all. From the files of Hunt's and Homans' mag- azines, we have culled not a few of the admirable morceaux of com- mercial biography and the humors of mercantile genius, which give to those serials so pecuhar a value ; and the same observation is pertinent to the more youthful Continental, especially the series of brilliant per- sonal sketches from the facile pen of Mr. Frothingham. Of the writings of Mr. Richard B. Kimball and "Walter Barrett," from which we have taken an occasional anecdote or vivacious passage, it may truly be remarked that those authors have succeeded in imparting the delight of romance to the counting-house themes which they have made their specialty ; and the great popular favor which their works have received, evinces the widespread taste for the pleasantries of com- mercial literature, under the inspiration of a genial hand. Having wrought, to the best of our ability, in the field from which this Cyclopedia of Anecdotes has been garnered, it is sent forth with the consciousness that, whatever defects or deficiencies may be discover- able, it has at least been the aim of the editor, from the inception of the volume to its completion, to spare neither time, labor, nor cost, in rendering it as rich and perfect of its kind as seemed humanly possible. INTEODUCTION. " Every class of readers requires a book adapted to t7sey."— D'IsrAeli. It is generally admitted by those qualified to speak authoritatively in such matters, that the term Anecdote may be used to designate collections, either of the recorded acts of noted individuals, of remarks made by them, or of extracts from their private writings as well as their published works ; or gen- erally, of particulars respecting them and their calling — detached incidents, narratives, and experiences ; personal tastes, traits, and habits ; eccentricities, witticisms, &c., &c. It is thus, in its most enlarged and comprehensive sense, that the word is employed in this volume, and applied distinctively to those engaged in Business Puksuits. That the ancients were given to the wit and raillery conveyed through anec- dotes, may reasonably be supposed from the fact that no less a person than Julius Caesar compiled a book in which he related the don-mots of Cicero ; and Quintilian informs us, that a freedman of that celebrated wit and orator com- posed three books of a work entitled De Jocis Ciceronis ; and Gellius has filled his Noctes Atticse with anecdotes which he heard from those distin- guished characters whose society he frequented in Rome. Procopius gave the title of Anecdotes to a book he published against Justinian and his wife Theodora ; and other similar collections of incidents in the lives of eminent men have been published. Muratori gives the title, Anecdota Greca, to several writings of the Greek Fathers found in the libraries, and first given to the world by him. Martene and Durand have given a Thesaurus Novus Anecdoto- rum. Becker, Bachmann, Heinbach, and others, have made collections, and called them Anecdota. The Orientalists, more than others, were particularly fond of these agreeable collections; and the fanciful titles with which they labelled their variegated miscellanies, sufficiently attest their delight. The first eminent person of modem times, whose jests and opinions have in this way been transmitted to posterity, is Poggio Bracciolini, who was secretary to five successive popes. He and his friends were accustomed to assemble in a hall to discuss the news and scandal of the day, and at these meetings they communicated to each other entertaining anecdotes. The pointed jests and humorous stories which occurred in these unrestrained conversations were collected by Poggio, and formed the chief materials of his Facetiae, printed in 1470. One of the most curious of such collections is considered to be the Wal- INTRODUCTIO^'. poliana, founded upon the life and sayings of Horace Walpole, who was distin- guished for his resources of anecdote, wit, and telling remark, as well as for his epistolary qualifications. The most celebrated of the French collections of anecdotes is the Menagiana — the best known, the fullest, and most valuable. Other works of this kind that may here be named are the Conversations of Luther, Boswell's Life of Johnson, Selden's, Johnson's, and Cowper's Table Talk, the Percy and Arvine collections, &c., &c. It would be a tedious as well as profitless task, however, to go over the dusty past, with a view to describing the character, or discussing the merits, of the various works of this kind which have appeared at different times and in different countries. It will suffice our immediate purpose to say, that, among them all, no volume of anecdotes, wit, and amusement, relating to the votaries of Trade and Commerce, as such, is numbered, notwithstanding the universality of those occupations, and the vast numerical preponderance of those engaged in them. The present volume, then, may be said to be the first in the pleasuig domain of Commercial Incident, Novelty, and Humor. And if it be true, as has by some one been remarked, that there is no species of composition so delightful as that which presents us with personal anecdotes of men notable in their peculiar calling — illustrating the- genius of their adaptation to and success in such call- ing, as well as their domestic traits, and peculiarities of temper — then a claim for no small credit may with justice be put forth in behalf of the present work, the abundant pages of which are stored with the rarest, the best, and most striking of such memorabilia. They will be found to be a " salad " alike for the " solitary " and the " sociable " — entertaining, from their variety, and curi- ous, as presenting a lively image of those whom they thus portray, in their most interesting relations and doings. If men reason more correctly on paper, they usually display their feelings and convictions with more truth in that unpre- meditated conversation, and in those natural outgushings of wit, which they give play to in the familiar haunts of business, and under the free-and-easy influence of home surroundings. Few are so cautious or artificial that they do not sometimes drop the mask in the society of their friends, and express just what they think or feel, when they entertain no apprehensions of being watched and noted. In many instances, however, anecdotes are to be regarded rather as affording an idea of the casual turn of thinking and acting, of those whose conversations they detail, or whose deeds they record, than as authorities for settled opinions. Thus, a spirit of contradiction, a wish to display ingenuity, to astonish, or merely to support conversation, may often lead men to maintain ideas in colloquial intercourse, which they perhaps never seriously held, or at least would be ready to disclaim on mature deliberation. It being the nature of anecdotes to involve or exemplify more or less of Wit, it is well for those who use or listen to them to bear in mind that such an ele- ment is rarely calculated to have any influence on reasoning, other than to dis- turb it. To determine, however, the precise character, or to give a definite meaning, to the term wit, is indeed difficult. According to one, both fancy and judgment are comprehended under that name ; but this idea is far from being the one generally adopted, and the word has perhaps passed through more sig- nifications, than any other in the English language. At one time, it used to denote a superior degree of understanding, and more particularly a quick and brilliant reason; but it came subsequently to be regarded as consisting INTRODUCTION. xi in lively and ingenious combinations of thought ; and was afterward very neatly described to be such an assemblage of ideas as will give delight and surprise ; and from this it has ultimately come to be regarded as ludicrou.^ surprise. But, in addition to the pleasure to be derived from anecdotes on account of the wit which may characterize them, and which carries with the recital both relish and stimulus, there is also the very active element of Curiosity, in the con- stitution of the human mind, and which craves and welcomes every opportunity of gratification. This feeling of curiosity oftentimes rises to eagerness and enthusiasm. There is an anxiety to know all that is possible to be learned of those who have occupied a prominent position in their sphere of life. It is not, merely, that every circumstance derives value from the person to whom it relates ; but an apparently insignificant anecdote often throws an entirely new light on the character of a man's actions. Great deeds, though they shed a broad and lasting lustre round the reputation of those who have achieved them, yet occupy but a small part of the life of any individual ; and mankind are never unwilling to penetrate through this bright halo surrounding one or more illustrious deeds, to see how the interior or remaining intervals are filled up ; in a word, to look into the every-day details, to detect incidental foibles, and to ascertain what qualities such persons have, or had, in common with the great mass of men, as well as distinct from them. DTsraeli very philosophically remarks, that " every class of readers requires a book adapted to itself" It was in this conviction that the book now ofiered to that numerous and influential portion of every community — the Business class — had its origin ; fortified by the well-known fact, that anecdote fonns an element of positive force and profitable efiect in the transactions of the count- ingroom and shop — as much so, perhaps, as in any other profession. And why should it not be so ? An anecdote in point, occurring to a man of business, when he is plying the arts of trade, whether as buyer or seller, will naturally give spur to his thoughts, and perhaps be the means of balancing things in his favor, when all other expedients and every other recourse would have proved unavailing. This is a principle as rational as truth itself, and the value of which will be found most amply unfolded in the contents of this volume. That all pleasantries ought to be short, has long since passed into an axiom. Due regard has been paid to this sentiment, in the preparation of these pages. Nor has it been any part of the purpose of this volume, to make it a mere lum- ber room of the relics and dotage of far-back ages — a few things good and fresh mixed up with many stale and inferior wares. A special characteristic, too, of mercantile or business men, is that of action — of ready doing, rather than loqua- cious talking ; a quality of which Kothschild, of the Old World, and Girard, of the New, may be cited as memorable examples. Anecdotes are brief, or should be — all over in a short time ; and, if they hit the mark, the object is gained. This collection treats of the business classes on a similar plan : their acts, sayings, achievements, fortunes, customs ; shop talk and " conversations commercial ; " curious annals and interesting data in all the departments of trade ; all the turnings and windings of mercantile life ; apt maxims, ingenious or philosophical thoughts ; testimonies and examples of virtues, of vices, and of abuses, in all their ramifications ; types, pictures, and images ; signs, shows, and wonders ; all things, in short, that have either wit, or humor, or sparkling ideas in them, or a more original or novel spirit than ordinary, here enter as xii INTRODUCTION. ingredients, and are interwoven in pleasing variety — a distillation of whatever j is pointed or pungent — tlie milledulcia extracted from the choicest and innu- '] merable sources. .| The opening department of this volume — that which presents Business ] Celebrities in their more distinctively biographical aspect — forms one of the i most interesting of the series. It is the vestibule, or porch, as it were, to the ; rest ; and the endeavor has been to arrange it with that care and completeness j which should distinguish matter of such a character. To render biography i generally attractive, it is indispensable that its basis should be that of truth. | Without this, it necessarily wants the great superiority of the narrative of real ■ events over that of mere fictitious creations ; viz., that of recording what has ■ actually occurred in real life. How important an element this is in awakening i the sympathies, may be seen in childreu, who, when particularly fascinated by j any stoi-y they are told, almost invariably end by asking, " But is it all true ? " j The fact, also, that biography deals with personal characters, admits of its , expansion into many topics, both interesting and amusing. As the delineation < of character is its object, and the events of individual life its principal subject, i it not only admits of, but requires a thousand incidents and descriptions, which ; are essential to a right understanding of the characters portrayed. Such details ; enable the reader to clothe the characters in which he is interested in the actual j habiliments in which they were arrayed ; they bring before one's eyes the busi- ] ness occupations and resorts, the dwellings, the firesides, the traits of domestic I association, and other data, which go to make up the warp and woof of life. j Nor is it less instructive than pleasant, to be, as it were, introduced thus ] familiarly to the companionship of men who have been or are distinguished in \ the sphere occupied by them. If they be men of sterling and intrepid quali- | ties, it is a privilege to be made acquainted with the motives of their actions, to j follow them from their starting point, to mark the difficulties and opposition ! they encountered in their struggle for advancement — the energy and skill by \ which they were overcome, and the courage that animated them to persevere in * their efi'orts. By their failures, also, warning is obtained of the various quick- ! sands and dangers that beset the path of commercial life. i Thus considered, the lives of noted business men supply abundant and \ striking material for the pen of the writer. It is true, that only here and there j does such a life present itself among that class — so full of versatile and remark- ; able experience — as to aflford substance for an elaborate and formal biography. : Such as the latter have sometimes been written, exhibiting a most frugal pro- | portion of kernel to shell— mere rivulets of fact in meadows of verbiage, and i bringing positive discredit both upon the author and his subject. But, not- ,■ withstanding this, there are very many characters which afford, respectively, j some trait, habit, or individuality, capable, when presented in a lively manner, J of furnishing entertainment and profit in the highest degree ; as the numberless | specimens here spread out before the reader will attest. It may safely be asserted, that no character of fiction, made ever so dazzling \ by the imagery of the novelist, presents to the mind such marvels as may be J found in the solid realities of experience pertaining to an Astor, a Rothschild, i a Lawrence, a McDonough, a De Medicis, a Girard, and their compeers, the ] chronicles of whose great and unfaltering career loom up so conspicuously in ; these pages. Isor is the mind less startled at the history of the magnificent sue- J cess of a Morris, a Law, a Lafitte, a Goldschmid, a Fordyce, a Hudson, and j INTRODUCTION. xiii others, and their subsequent downfall and ruin. Not only are such narratives adapted to intellectually impress — to captivate, to excite, to confound, to arouse to wonderment, to amuse — but they may be made subservient to positive profit ; in business parlance, they may " be made to pay ! " An aquaintance with the ways and means which have characterized the career of successful business men — their apt sayings, or more apt silence ; their penetration of human character) and art of imperceptibly influencing its sensibilities and moods- to their own ends ; their genial sallies and happy repartees ; their shrewd plans, skilful combina- tions, ingenious finesse, and general modus operandi of " turning a trade ;" such an acquaintance cannot but be a capital desideratum to all who move in a kin- dred path. The plan which has been adopted of dividing the contents of this work into different sections, each devoted to a particular specialty, is one which will enable the reader to strike easily at every salient point in the anecdotical field of commerce and commercial character thus spread before him. Of the bear- ings of the first department, we have already spoken ; the others admit, sev- erally, of similar explanatory detail with respect to their prescribed object and the illustrations afforded by their contents. But, not to attempt to specifically portray or analyze the features of each department by itself, into which this volume is divided — the fascinating data which open up in the memorials cf world-renowned merchants, bankers, and millionnaires — the arts and humors of money dealing — the captivating examples of success based on the practice of the more rigid qualities — the low craft and bold criminalities both of ancient and modern traffic — the whims and ingenuities of business phraseology — the unique thoughts and things pertaining to commercial transit — the curious phe- nomena of trade and merchandise in their legal bearings — the exhibition of the private or domestic side of mercantile characters — the novelties and erratic expe- dients characteristic of bargain makers in different countries — the vagaries and hazards of insurance — the incidents of clerk life, shop experience, &c., to- gether with the variegated jottings of trade and its votaries, as related to " the rest of mankind ; " — without attempting to depict the results, or point out the peculiar entertainment presented by each one of these, separately, it may be remarked, in conclusion, that perhaps the portion of this volume which ex- hibits the phenomena of commercial dealings in their most extraordinary de- velopments, is comprised in the recital of the manias, bubbles, panics, and delusions, which have from time to time swept the business world like a tor- nado, carrying before it the verdant like chaff", and ultimately the most sagacious and wary. Now that those delusions are past, it is difficult to conceive how mercantile men could be led to entertain such visionary expectations, and to pay immense premiums in distant and hazardous undertakings, of which they knew little or nothing. A blind ardor seemed to take possession of men's minds ; every rumor of a new project was taken at once as the presage of sudden and inex- haustible wealth. People supposed they were forthwith to lay their hands on treasure that waited simply their bidding. The rise, in many cases, exceeded cent, per cent. Many who were most eager in pursuit of shares, intended only to hold them for a few hours, days, or weeks, and then profit from the advance which they anticipated would take place, by selling them to others more credu- lous or bold than themselves. The confidence of one set of speculators con- firmed that of others. Meanwhile, the indiscriminating rapacity of the public Xiv IXTRODUCTIOX. was fed by every conceivable art. Madness ruled the hour. The poor and the rich rushed wildly to invest their all ; and even mendicants rolled proudly, for a while, in fictitious wealth ! But, as in all such cases since the world was, the shadows of doubt began, in time, ominously to cast themselves athwart this bright picture, and soon deepened into the dark and lurid clouds of stern real- ity. People turned ashy pale. Consternation took the place of confidence, and Panic spread out her spectral wings. Thus, one by one these airy bubbles ex- ploded, leaving the wail of desolation, of gaunt despair, and of ghastly suicide, in their fatal train. The pen of the romancer, in its most unrestrained flights, would fail to equal, in startling wonders, the chronicles of commercial tragedy which have their appropriate department in this volume. ONTENTS. PART I. ANECDOTES AND REMARKABLE REMINISCENCES OF THE EARLY CA- REER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES IN ALL AGES AND COUNTRIES,. AsTOR, Rothschild, Odvrard, Bates, Barker, Touro, McDonogh, Howqua, Gold- SCHMID, Hope, Hottinguer, Coutts, Morrison, De Medicis, Girard, Biddle, Labocchere, Lafitte, Appleton, Cooper, Gresham, Peabody, Nolte, Gray, Vanderbilt, Beatty, Lawrence, Lowell, Whitney, Gideon, Baring, Morris, LoRiLLARD, Steiglitz, Perkins, Jeejeebhoy, Brooks, Longworth, etc., etc., etc. FAOB Appleton, Nathan, merchant, of Boston.. 32 Appleton, Samuel, merchant, of Boston.. 48 Appleton, William, merchant, of Boston 33 Astor, John Jacob, merchant, of New York 47 Astor, William B., millionnaire, of New York 39 Barings (The), bankers, of London 27 Barker, Jacob, merchant, of New Orleans 43 Barnum, P. T., " the Prince of Showmen," of New York 29 Bates, Joshua, of the house of Barings, London 21 Beatty, James, merchant, of Baltimore. . . 23 Biddle, Nicholas, financier, of Philadel- phia 26 Brooks, Peter C, millionnaire, of Boston 49 Bruck, M., Austria's great merchant banker 7 Bussey, Benjamin, merchant, of Boston.. 15 Callaghan, Daniel, the Irish mercantile celebrity 9 Child, Francis, founder of English bank- ing houses 14 Coeur, Jacques, French merchant in the Middle Ages 87 Cooper, Peter, merchant, of New York... IG Cope, Thomas P., merchant, of Philadel- phia 53 Corning, Erastus, merchant, of New York 51 Coutts, English banker 3 B Dadabhoy Jeejeebhoy, Parsee banker and merchant 41 De Buirette, the illustrious German mer- chant 28 " Denison, Old Mr ," of St. Mary Axe. ... 46 Dexter, Lord Timothy, eccentric mer- chant, of Newburyport 20 Fish, Preserved, merchant, of New York 10 Forbes, William, Scotch banker 6 Fordyce, Alexander, the Shark of the Ex- change 44 Fugger, Johannes, and the great commer- cial family of Fuggcrs 15 Garrison, C. K., merchant, of San Fran- cisco 40 Gideon, Sampson, the rival of Rothschild 18 Girard, Stephen, merchant and banker, of Philadelphia 29 Goldschmid, Abraham and Benjamin, old English bankers 38 Goodhue, Jonathan, merchant, of New York 50 Gracie, Archibald, merchant, of New York 52 " Gray, Old Billy," merchant, of Boston . . 35 Gresham, Thomas, royal merchant and financier, of London. 26 Haase, Henry Engelbert, banker, of Bre- men 9 Herodotus, a merchant 41 Hogg, William, Pennsylvania millionnaire 41 Hope, Henry, banker, of Amsterdam ... . 13 XVI CONTENTS. PAGE Howqua, senior Hong merchant 2 Jeejeebhoy, Jamsetjee, great Parsee mer- chant 19 Khan, the celebrated Persian merchant. . IS Labouchere, P. C, the youthful prince merchant 2 Lafitte, Jacques, French banker 8 Lawrence, Abbott, merchant, of Boston. . 42 Lawrence, Amos, merchant, of Boston. . . 11 Lawrence, Cornelius W., merchant, of New York 12 Leavitt, David, merchant, of New York. . 11 Lenox, James, merchant, of New York.. 11 Little, Jacob, " of Wall Street " 22 Lloyd, Jones, banker, of Loudon 8 Longworth, Nicholas, millionnaire, of Cincinnati 45 Lopez, Judah M., speculator in annuities 38 Lorillard, the New York tobacconist 46 Lowell, Francis C, merchant, of Boston 14 McDonogh, John, millionnaire, of New Orleans 17 Medicis, Lorenzo de, "the magnificent merchant," of Florence 12 Morgan, Edwin D., merchant, of New York 31 Morris, Robert, financier, of Philadelphia 1 Morrison, James, " of Twenty Millions " 21 PAGE Nolte, Vincent, the wandering merchant 19 " Old Billy Gray," merchant, of Bos- ton 35 Ouvrard, G. J., "the Napoleon of finance" 52 Overend, John, pioneer bill broker, of London 46 Peabody, George, merchant and banker, of London 16 Perit, Pelatiah, merchant, of New York. . 37 Perkins, Thomas H., merchant, of Boston 50 Ricardo, David, English financier 33 Ridgway, Jacob, merchant, of Philadel- phia 37, 54 Rothschilds (The), wealthiest bankers in the world 23 Solomon, the merchant sovereign 7 "Spencer, Rich," merchant and banker, of London 35 Steiglitz, richest of Russian merchants.. 7 Stewart, Alexander T., merchant, of New York 30 Sturgis, William, merchant, of Boston.. 473 Tattersall, the London auctioneer 4 Touro, Judah, merchant, of New Orleans 34 Whitney, Stephen, merchant, of New York 14 Wood, James, the Gloucester million- naire 3 PAET II. ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS OF BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONET RELATIONS. Banks, Bankers, Brokers, Specie, Notes, Loans, Exchange, Drafts, Checks, Public Securities, and Currency in all its Forms and Phases ; -with Jottings op the Most Celebrated Millionnaires and Money Dealers — their Business Modes and Characteristics, Maxims, Colloqiues, Wit, Eccentricities and Finesse. PAGE "Accommodation" offered at the Bank. . 119 Addison's Opinion of the Royal Exchange and its Frequenters 112 Albert Gallatin declining Mr. Baring's Offer of a Fortune 115 An Excited Specie Hunter 97 Another Bank Project 72 Application for a Discount, by Astor. . . . 102 Astor's " Secret Pain " 88 Atchafalaya Currency by the Cord 75 Avoiding Specie Suspension 74 Bank Parlor in the Winter 74 Bank Teller's " Varieties '[ 92 Bankers of the Old School 76 PAGE Bankers Snubbing Napoleon 87 Banking Habits of Girard 66 Banks Failing 84 Banks of Ease 108 Barnard, the Proud Broker 114 Bewitching a Bank Teller 114 "Borrow Money! Borrow Money!" 90 Bound not to Break 86 Brief Explanation of Banking 83 Burning a Banker's Notes 76 Business Aspect and Conduct of the Richest Banker in the World 71 California Gold, Seventy Years Ago 73 Capital of European Bankers 81 CONTENTS. xvu PAGE Cashier Inviting a Run upon his Bank. . . 77 Coin used by Judas 100 Colloquies inside the Bank 106 Conducting Business on the Paris Bourse 95 " Confidence" in Hard Times 62 Couutiug-House Dinners 61) Croesus, vast Wealth of 91 Curious Reason for Borrowing Money. . . 74 Detecting Bad Bills....' 96 Determining the Genuineness of a Check 96 Disadvantage of being a Bank Director. . 107 Discounting an Hibernian's Note Ill Disinterested Brokers 68 Drawing the Specie 59 Dudley North's Opposition to Brokerage 81 Endorser's Qualification 110 Establishment of the Bank of England- Curious Facts 85 Final Argument at a Bank Counter 80 Financial Physic 82 First Jewish Bill of Exchange 80 First Run upon Bankers 116 Florentine Brokers and Money Loaners.. 94 Four Money-making Rules of Rothschild 115 Franklin's M ultitude of Capitalists 98 Gallatin, Albert, declining Mr. Baring's Olfer of a Fortune 115 George Peabody's Colossal Fortune 72 Girard's great Government Loan 100 Glances behind the Bank Counter 61 Goldschmid and Baring's Unfortunate Contract — Suicide of the Former 61 Governor of the Bank of England taken by Surprise 113 Greatest Lending House in Europe 105 Gresham's Scheme of Exchanges 115 History of the Old Red Cent 101 Immense Consignment of Gold to a New York House 119 Intruding into the Bullion Room 99 Irish Banker Redeeming his Notes 93 Irishman at the Bank 108 Jacob Barker's Forty Kegs of Specie .... 79 Jacob Little and the Missing Bank Bill. . 83 Jacob Lorillard's Note of Accommodation 110 Jewish Money Lenders Ill Jewish Perseverance and Shrewdness... 88 Juvenile Contempt of the Bank 108 Lafitte in a Tight Place. 65 Largest Dealer in Commercial Paper in the United States 90 Largest Private Check ever Drawn 105 Learning the Currency in a Small Way. . 66 Leather Money 80 Lives of Bank Notes 73 Logic of Specie Payments 68 London Bankers and Banking Houses .... 78 Lorillard paying a Bequest in Bank Stock 105 Losing a Bank Customer 110 PAGE Loss of Bank Notes 64 Lost Bank Note of Thirty Thousand Pounds 103 M. Rothschild on the Secret of his Success 101 Manifolding Bank Notes 98 Merchants' Notes as Currency 103 Modes of conducting Operations, by Roths- child 92 Model English Banker 90 Modern Bank Directors' Parlor 96 Money-changers in China 76 Money Street of New York 112 More Cunning than Rothschild Ill Mr. Biddle's Wit 87 Neapolitan Canibiamoneta or Money- • changer. . - 104 New York Bankers and Western Court- houses 83 Nicholas Biddle and the Mississippi Loan 61 Note Buyers 109 Novel Securities for Loans 70 Obtaining Security to be a Broker 78 Oldest Bill of Exchange in the World.... 106 Origin of Paper Money 101 Ouvrard, the Banker, and Napoleon 65 Pawning Money in Ireland 70 Paying Notes in Specie 79 Peculiar Management of the Bank of Amsterdam 102 Peep at the Treasure in Threadneedle Street 91 Peeresses conducting Banking Operations 89 Pennsylvania Bonds 120 Picayunes and Coppers 113 Proud Broker Barnard, The 114 Punch's Money Vagaries 66 Pursuit of Specie under Difficulties 63 Queen Anne saving the Government Bank from Pillage 116 Raising Money on Manuscript 93 Rendering Bank Notes Serviceable 116 Renewing a Note 98 Ricardo's Three Golden Rules 101 Roman Money Lenders 68 Rothschild trying to Raise a Small Loan 100 Royal Runners and Brokers 107 Running a Bank 99 Russian Money Brokers 109 Scenes after Discount Day 104 Securing Trustworthy Bank Officers, and the Safety of Capital 69 Security for a Discount 79 Sir Robert Peel's Opinion of his Son as a Financier , 89 Spanish Reals versus Spanish Bonds 84 Specie in the Brokers' Windows 64 Strongest Bank in the World 82 Supposititious Will of the Bank of Eng- land Directors 117 XVIU CONTENTS. PAGE Terrible Revenge on a Bank, by Roths- child 95 The Great Bankers of the World together in Rothschild's Parlor .» 60 " The Lady's Broker " 77 The United Job and Lazarus Bank 81 Throwing out Jacob Barker's Notes 84 PAGE Timely Hard-money Loan 67 Unexpected Balance at Coutts's Bank 106 Vast Wealth of Croesus , 91 Vaults of the Bank of France 62 Voltaire's Dealings in Government Stocks 111 Weight of Miss Burdett Coutts's Fortune 87 Yankee Hoarding Specie 72 PART IIIo ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF TEE SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS QUALITIES. Integrity, Enterprise, Energy, Perseverance, Courage, Shrewdness, Punctilious- ness, Prudence, Ambition, Gratitude, Benevolence, Generosity, Economy ; with Pencillings op Striking Business Adventures, Vicissitudes, Exploits and Achievements, both Serious and Comical. PAGE A Good Beginning— Old Moses Roths- child 184 A. T. Stewart's Success 145 Aged Merchant saved from Robbery by the Weather 176 Agreement for a Loan 142 American Merchants of the Olden Time — Joseph Peabody 174 "An Error in Shipping the Goods" 170 Aptness and Nicety in Business Hlustrated 170 Arab Honesty in Business Transactions. . 140 Astor's Early Prediction 144 Aztec Merchants 181 Benevolence of Goldschniid, the Old Jew Broker 126 Benevolence of Shai-king-qua, the Chinese Merchant 172 Bone and Offal Millionnaire 161 Boston Merchant's opinion of Business Men's Honesty 157 Boyhood Struggles of a Merchant, Gideon Lee 125 Bruised but not Crushed : the Messrs. Brown of Liverpool 167 Business Habits of A, T. Stewart 165 Business versus Disease 141 Celebrated Question in Commerce put by Cicero 140 Chinese Merchant's Gratitude 169 Commencing in the Sub-cellar 135 Commencing with Three Tobacco Boxes —Jacob Barker 179 Commercial Fortune of a Peer 173 Confidence in Mercantile Success 144 PAGE Controversy among Wine Dealers 137 Cope's, Thomas P., Integrity 155 Correct Appreciation of Mercantile Cha- racter, by Mr. Astor 186 Day and Martin, the Millionnaires of High Holborn 147 Earliest American Whaleship in England 181 English Merchant and Spanish Beggar. . 176 Enterprise of Yankees and Russians 'Cutely Hlustrated 161 Erastus B. Bigelow's Boyhood Bargain. . . 144 European and American Modes of doing Business 171 Everything by turns : Girard's Example. . 136 Expectations against Results 138 Explaining his Business 181 Extension and Profits of Mr. Astor's Fur Business 186 Father Taylor and the Banker's Exhorta- tion 169 First Greek Adventure to America 153 First Penny gained by a Millionnaire .... 126 Five Years of Privation and a Fortune... 161 Foot's, Lundy " Blackguard Snuff"" 135 Fortune of a Commercial Peer 173 Fortunes at a Single Blow 130 French Mercantile Independence 127 General Jackson's Interview with Samuel Slater 1^5 Generosity of Chickering the Piano-Forte Maker 159 Getting the Hang of Mercantile Transac- tions 138 Gideon Lee carrying the Lapstone r> 171 CONTENTS. XIX PAGE Girard trying to raise Five Dollars 142 Good Word for Girard 176 Goodhue, Jouatban, Noble Mercantile Trait of. 162 Great Deeds of European Merchants 134 Gresham's Fortunate Letter 174 Haifa Million Profit by One of Girard's Operations '^-^^ Handful of Wool and a Bank of Money. . . 164 Hiding the Dollar with a Dime 158 Hinges upon which Trade swings 138 Honorable Distinction attained by Mr. Perit IBS Hope and Co., Peremptory Refusal of, to do Business with Girard 134 Hudson, George, Tale at a Dinner Party. 142 Indians' Mode of Judging a Trader 132 Jacob Barker's Success when a Youth.... 147 James G. King's Treatment of Resent- ments 162 John Jacob Aster's ** Highway to For- tune " 171 Johnson's Prejudice against Merchants.. 165 Labouchere and Vincent Notte 151 Ladder of Commercial Success 157 Late at a Dinner Party : George Hudson 142 Lawrence, Abbott, not disposed to Lie. . 164 Lee and his Travelling Companion 125 Lendinga Helping Hand: A. Lawrence.. 141 Liberality of Yakooleff", the Russian Mer- chant 127 Little too Candid 137 Locking-up Foreign Merchants in Eng- land 128 Making Conditions : King James and the Corn Merchants 123 McDonogh's Greatest Victory 162 Mercantile Character Comparatively Esti- mated 131 Mercantile Defalcation Made Good after Sixty Years 158 Merchant Patrons of Literature ISO Merchants and Legislators 133 Merchants getting to be Gentlemen 133 Merchants of the Golden Fleece 128 Minding One's Own Business 171 Mohammedan Mercantile Morality 135 Mohammedan's reason for Not Storing Coods 131 Money Enojigh to Break on 131 Money gettinsr Tact of Jews 173 Monsieur Smith : Girard's Man 154 Mr. Everell and the Hindoo Merchant.. . . 180 Mr. Grinnell's Liberality 183 Murdered Merchant Watched by his Dog 176 Mutations of a Merchant's Life ; the New Orleans Sock-Seller. . 129 Mysterious Benefactor — Incident of the South Sea Bubble 158 PAGE Napoleon and Byron on Trading 131 Noble Mercantile Trait of Jonathan Good- hue 162 Not Ashamed of Work — Astor s Diligence 133 Not disposed to Lie : Abbott Lawrence.. 164 Old Fashioned Shopkeepers 128 Opulent New York Merchants 133 Pati'iotic Merchants of the Revolution . . . 127 Patriotism and Prowess of French Mer- chants 150 Peculiar Feature in Rothschild's Business Character 173 Peremptory Refusal of Hope and Co. to do Business with Girard 134 Perkins's, Thomas U., Deliberate Habits. 150 Perseverance badly rewarded 185 Persevering Traders 170 Philadelphia Young Merchant, who was not afraid of Girard 158 Polly Kenton's Lard Speculation 164 Portuguese Pilgrim in the Streets of Venice proclaiming its Commercial Doom 175 Present Prosperity of the Rothschilds. . . 180 Private Mercantile finances and Royal Fleets 174 Privateering Exploit of a Salem Merchant 149 Quaker Merchant's Idea of Privateering. . 132 Queen Juno's Opinion of Merchants .... . . 125 Recovering a Wasted Fortune 130 Redeeming Lost Time 163 Remarkable Case of Conscience in a Busi- ness Man 182 Restitution by a Shopkeeper 163 Retiring from Business — Engaging to Blow the Bellows 141 Reverses of Mercantile Fortune 168 Reynolds, the Charitable Quaker Merchant 127 Roman Idea of Merchants 154 Romance of Trade — " Blackajuard Snuff'* 135 Roscoe, William, the Poet Banker 169 Rothschild and Astor compared 151 Sabbath Experimces of a Shipmaster 139 Scene in a Merchant's Counting Room after the Peace of T^lo.. 153 Search for a New Route to China 186 Second Thought on a Trade 155 Secrecy in Business Transactions prac- tised by Rothschild 156 Shaking One's Business Credit 123 Sharing in a Good Operation 156 Shopkeepers and Warriors 175 Six Days for Business nnd One for Rest.. 157 Sole Qualification of a Bill Broker 173 Sources of Wealth of the Medici Family of Merchants 182 Spanish Mercantile Dealings 163 Stewart's, A. T. Success 162 "Stick to Your Last" 137 XX CONTEXTS. PAGE Strong Point in Mercantile Success: Girard's Silence 153 Tempting Business Paragraph 161 The Banker's Seven-Shilling Piece 177 Thorburn's Flowery Path to Fortune.... 166 Thomas H. Perkins's Deliberate Habits.. 150 Thomas P. Cope's Integrity 155 Three Merchant Voyages and their Re- sults 155 Too Close application to Business 141 Touro's Great Gift to a Beggar 159 Tudor, the Original Ice Merchant 153 PAGE Usurious Interest on Money : Peter C. Brooks's Rule 172 Value of a Good Credit 132 "Walter Barrett's" Cotton Mission 148 "Washington as a Business Man 179 Wealthy Men of Cincinnati 168 Whale Fishery Enterprise of Americans 160 What John McDonogh said to a Lawyer. 146 Who were the First Whalemen ? 129 William Roscoe, the Poet Banker 169 Yankee Shrewdness Handsomely Illus- trated 124 PAET lY. ANECDOTES OF TRADE AND BUSINESS IMMORALITIES. The Rarest Instances of Ingenious Business Fraud, Forgery, Counterfeiting, and Smuggling ; Usury, Artifice, Tricks, and Malpractice ; with Examples, Ex- traordinary AND Amusing, op Avarice, Covetousness, Parsimony, Extortion, Pride, Rudeness, Violence and Extrayagance of Business Men. PAGE "A Little More'- 198 A Rustic bargaining for a Hat 262 Accomplished Canine Shoplifter 200 Artful Dodge 206 Attempt to overthrow Rothschild's Power in the Money Market 250 Attention to Trivial Things by Girard. . . 243 Avarice of Osterwald, the French Banker 244 Bad Bank Bill 277 Bad Business 223 Bank Teller Filing his Gold Coin 2C0 Bargaining for a Jar 234 Bargains in Cochin-China 219 Bit of Yankee Financiering in Wall Street 266 Blinders for Stockholders 216 Bubble Prospectuses 281 Burns and the Drowning Merchant 272 Business Haggling in Scotland 194 Business Suckers 212 Buying Cheap 211 Buying Wine by Sample 231 Characteristic Smuggling Ingenuity of Parisians 226 Cheating the Oculist 212 City Merchant securing a Customer 241 Coal Dealer's Prediction Fulfilled — Per- haps 265 Colloquy between a Storekeeper and his Customer 243 Commercial Croakers 248 Commercial Milk 223 PAQB Connection between Small Bank Notes and Crime 214 Consequence of a Simple Mercantile Speculation 241 Cool Assurance of a Doomed Financier.. 249 " Cornering " among Brokers 247 Croesus and his Avaricious Guest 221 Custom House Swearing 249 Customs of the Store in Church 253 Dangers of Legitimate Business Transac- tions 224 Deaconing Both Ends of the Barrel 206 Deadhead Customer — a Clincher 195 Deserved Reward of Blasphemy 265 Determined not to be Overreached 200 Determining the Character of an Article by its Age 196 Discounting a Legacy 237 Disposing of an Old Stock 233 Doing Things on Shares 271 "Doing "and "Shaving" Customers... 271 " Done for " Twice 238 Dry Goods Drummer "Sold" 204 Dummies, or Counterfeit Show Windows 269 Duplicity of French Speculators 227 Duplicity practised by Furnese, the King's Banker 210 Dutchman illustrating a Mercantile Prin- ciple 195 East India Company and the Missing Wit- ness *... 225 CONTENTS. XXI PAGE Economical Hardware Merchant 242 Espionage Practised by Girard 297 Estimate of his own Life by a Miser 244 Exchanging a Cheese for a Pinch of Snuff 261 Expedient of a Russian Miser 272 Extravagant Business Rhetoric 252 Fate of a Clerical Dealer in " Fancies ". . 233 Fauntleroy, the Executed Banker 255 Filibustering among Parisian Jewellers. . . 203 Financiering in Alabama 192 First Forged Note on a Bank 255 Fortune-making in Havana 212 French Nicety in Trade Frauds 233 French Usurers and Pigeons 275 Friend Hopper and the Due Bill 266 Game of the Money Packages 209 " Genuine " Wines 196 Government Contractors in Russia 259 Grocers' Raisin Boxes and Nibbling Cus- tomers 206 Half Hour's Experience with London Brokers 207 Hanging a Broker One Hundred Years Ago 240 Hard Philosophy of an Annuity-Monger 274 Hardening Tendency of Business 224 " He's a Country Merchant— Stick Him !" 230 High-heeled Boots with Watches in Them 232 His Ruling Passion 209 Hoarding and Amusing — Noted Instances 253 Imitating Signatures 276 Ingenious Plot against a Banker 260 Ingenious Swindling of Pawnbrokers.. . . 199 Italian Knavery in Picture Selling 279 Italian Picture Dealer Trapping an Expe- rienced Connoisseur 193 Jack's Bargain for Rope 199 Jacob Barker on "Shrewdness" in Stock Dealing 214 James Bolland's Financial Career 193 Jemmy Taylor, the Miser Broker, and the Earl of Northumberland 200 Jew Losing a Bargain 243 Jewish Money Makers in the Holy City.. 253 Jewish Opinion of Rothschild 243 Keen Ruse by a Yankee Peddler 263 Kentucky Hams and Yankee Nutmegs. . . 217 King Charles in the Pawners' Clutches . 210 Knavery of British and Chinese Traders compared 246 Knowing his Customer 236 Latest " Sell " of the Day 218 Lodging a Banker in the Gutter 267 Looking Glass for Wall Street 239 Louis the Fifteenth's Opinion of his Own Paper 240 M. Beautte and the Official Smuggler.,. 237 Making a Good Job of It 275 PAGE Making Change at Railroad Refreshment Stands 278 "Merchant of Venice" — Shylock's Com- mercial Character Vindicated 222 Messrs. Moan and Groan of Cypress Row 220 Mode of Protecting the Money Drawer. . . 238 Morocco Pocketbook Men 225 Mr. Jones's Experience with Peter Funk 213 Muller, the Rich Merchant of Nuremberg: Fictitious Theft 259 Mysteries of Tea Smuggling 229 " Newcsloth " 272 " No Great Judge of de Hemp " 201 Old Guy putting out the Light ; or, Mil- lionnaires rating each others' Fru- gality 236 Old-School Money Jobbers 274 OldVinter's Bank Bills 219 One Cent with Girard 273 One of the Operations in 'Change Alley. . 208 One Price, but not the Same Article 204 "P. D." , 222 Parisian Female Smugglers 271 Philanthropy and Forty per Cent 232 Plan to Ruin the Ancient Firm of Child and Co. by the Bank of England 280 Prayers Requested for a New Business Undertaking 230 Prejudice against Yankee Clock Peddlers, and how it was Overcome 277 Presents to Bank Officers : Curious Cases 254 Price of Extortion and Revenge 235 Purloining Speculator in the French Funds 245 Quaker Banker and the Stolen Doubloons 240 Quaker Shipowner Economizing the Time of his Men 198 Raising his Customer 245 Raising the Price of Bread 201 Resolving to be Rich 273 Restitution of Bank N otes 257 Results of a Career of Overreaching 263 Risks of the Currency 278 Rothschild and Lucas : Stratagem to Learn the Former's Secrets 191 Royal Prize for Raising Money — Raid upon the Bankers 198 Saving the Pieces — Girard and his Brother 222 Selling a Bad Article 277 Selling Salt by a Chalk Line 191 Settling a Question of Taste and Trade. . . 272 Sharing in Rothschild's Fortune 252 Sharp at a Trade— Sharper in Getting Out of It 264 Skinflint Philosophy 245 Slavers Raising a Capital 248 Smuggled Needles, and the American Eagle 269 CONTENTS. PAGE Smuggler's Honor 226 Smuggling by the Chinese 271 Smuggling on a Lace Merchant's Dog. . . 231 Snug Place for Bank Notes 270 Spaniard and Chinaman at a Trade 231 Spanish Contraband Trade 229 Stephen Whitney's Charities 244 Stock Exchange Conspiracy 214 Stock " Washing " 247 Taking Him at his Word 267 Talleyrand and the Stockjobber 211 Terrible Career of Sadleir, the Speculator 227 Terrible Sequel to Parsimony : M. Fescue's Case 250 The Bank Detectives Foiled 264 The Prince Regent's Wine and the Confi- dential Dealer 268 Three Millionnaires Quarrelling about One Farthing. 235 Throwing Sawdust in the Eyes of Custom House Officers 270 PAGE " To what Base Uses have we Come at Last !" 280 Tobacco in Loaves 249 Tompkins's Horse Trade 218 Tough Experience of a Business Drummer 257 Tradesmen's Ticketing System 242 Trading in Imaginary Candlesticks 263 Tragical Result of Losing Bank Notes .... 224 Transactions in W^orsteds 219 Trick for the " Spashy " 209 Trickery in the Clothing Trade 202 Turtles and Gold Snuflf Boxes 248 Two Playing at the Same Game 228 Unparalleled Parsimony and Benevolence of a Millionnaire 242 Virginia Usurer Foiled 217 Wanting to Pay the Cash 262 Weighing Short 279 What it means to be " Selling Off" 197 Window ** Gazers" Employed by London Shopkeepers 203 PAKT Y. ANJECDOTES OF FAMOUS COMMERCIAL EESOBTS AND LOCALITIES. The Exchange, Custom House, Boards op Trade, Markets, etc. — their Axnals, Usages, Peculiarities ; with Personal Miscellanies, Aphorisms, Oddities, Whims and Caprices of their Habitues. PAGE Amusing Perplexities at the Custom House 298 Animated Scenes at the French Exchange 293 Attacks on the Stock Exchange 289 Business in London at Four o' Clock 295 'Change Alley as a Business Resort 297 Custom House Official dealing with a Princess 285 Custom Houses and Star Chambers 289 Derivation of the Commercial Term " Bourse " 294 Drinking the Health of Custom House Officers 287 Duty on Pictures 298 First East India House 299 Free Trade 293 Hall of the St. Petersburg Exchange 300 High 'Change Hours 298 Lloyd's Establishment, London 206 Ludicrous Custom House Examinations. . . 294 PAGR Manchester Cotton Merchants 292 Manners at the English Stock Exchange 288 Men of Letters frequenting the Share Mart 301 Merchants and Business Resorts in Mos- cow 295 One Thousand Million Pounds' Business Annually at the London Clearing House 297 Origin of Boards of Trade 289 Paying Government Fishing Bounties. . . 286 Photograph of Wall Street 286 Quotations of the New Exchange 290 Railway Clearing House 296 Reduction of Custom House Duties — " Death to the Beet Root." 294 Rencontre between Rothschild and Rose, the Broker, on 'Change 285 Romance and Trade 299 Scenes in a Turkish Custom House. . . . . . 291 The Origin of the Clearing House r. . 294 CONTENTS. xxm PAET VI. ANECDOTES OF C0MMEBCI4L ART AND PHBASEOLOGY, Advertisements, Signboards, Trademarks, Tokens, Envelopes, Labels, Inscriptions, Mottoes and Terms — Quaint, Curious, Grotesque, Ingenious and Laughable. PAGE Adepts in Commercial PuflBng 305 Alliteration in Advertising 335 An untried Method 309 Ancient Pictorial Signboards 317 Arms and Seal of the Bank of Ireland. ... 814 Baking and Banking 820 Boston Merchants' Business Marks or Tokens 307 Broadway Signs 337 Business Puffing Two Hundred Years Ago * 329 Business Signboards in Different Nations 332 Buying a Claim 336 Cabalistic Sign for an Ale House 317 Carmeline the Dentist's Sign 316 Charging for Advertisements 331 Chinese Trade Puffing 310 Class Advertisements in City Papers 321 Classical Shop Language 310 Commercial Envelopes, Wrappers, Labels, &c 311 " Cotton is Quiet " 318 Criticism of a Hatter's Sign 316 Dean Swift and the Barber's Sign 306 Dialects of different Trades 322 " Ditto " 328 Earliest Printed Advertisements 307 English Business Mottoes 308 Evasions of Trade Marks 313 First Advertisement in America 322 First Trade Advertisement 315 "Five Per Cent." 830 " For Her Majesty " 312 Free Shave and a Drink 334 French Ideas of Advertising 834 Fresh Gems from English Advertising Columns 309 Fresh Sea Water 314 Full-size Headings to Advertisements. . . . 338 Getting Rid of his Neighbor's Customers 337 Harlow's Sign Painting Extraordinary... 333 Hide Dealer's Sign— Rare Bit of Philos- ophy 325 Historical and Poetical Signs 330 Inscriptions on Trade Coins 307 Irish Advertisement 316 Irish Pun on a Sign 305 C PAGB Jemmy Wright's Modesty 331 Joke upon a Boston Sign 318 Killbury and Maimsvvorth Railway's Advertisement 306 Latin on Business Signs 326 Literature and Groceries 312 Meaning of " Fund " and " Stock " 328 Merchants' Religious Formulae or Phrases 828 Mottoes in Ancient Times 308 Natural Advertising 321 New York Business Tokens 807 Odd Comminglings 324 Out of Style 321 Pathos and Puffing Extraordinary 335 Pat's Definition of Railroad " Stock " 337 Pawnbrokers' Three Balls 325 Paying at " Maturity " 327 Phenomena Extraordinary 819 Pleasant History of a Familiar Word. . . . 317 " Punch " on Commercial Phraseology . . 322 Quack Advertisement Two Centuries Ago 319 Questionable Sign for a Clothier 820 Responding to an Advertisement 829 Rush's Celebrated Figure Heads 839 Scotch Tobacconist's Motto 308 Shop and Business Signs: Ancient Ex- amples 314 Shopkeepers' Nomenclature of Goods 326 Signboard Punctuation 312 Silk Dyer's Poetical Sign 838 Stock Terms in the Sick Room 319 Streets and Shop Signs in Canton 317 Striking a Bargain 830 «' Take down that Old Sign " 881 The Napoleon of Advertising 882 «• Tight Times " 315 Titles of Business Firms 314 Trade Placards and Shop Bills 823 Transactions in the Cab Market 830 Unexampled Enterprise — the Chinese Wall for Advertisements 315 " Universal Stores " 835 " Up to Snuff" 305 Very expressive S24 Very Racy 837 Where " Tariff" came from 828 " Words have their Meaning " 334 XXIV CONTENTS. PART VII. ANECDOTES AND THINGS MEMORABLE CONCERNING BUSINESS TRANSIT AND COMMUNICATION. Shipping, Steamboats, Railways, Expresses, Coaches, Omnibuses, etc.— their Owners, Officers, Patrons, jls Attaches. PAGE ADeep Design. 868 Amending the Charter 884 American Shipuology 356 An Interesting Consignment 370 Arrival of the Steamer 353 Ask any Committee Man 847 Assuming the Responsibility 373 Captain Macalester and his Fast Ship " Fanny " 887 Change of " Packet Day " 385 Church and State 'VS. Railways 851 Commercial Importance of the Cat 346 " Considering " a Ship Builder 344 Curious Division of Ships into Ounces. . . 350 Decoration of Railroad Depots 368 Disinterested Railroad Contractor 376 Dismissing a Shipmaster 346 Drinking Success to the First Railway . . 385 English Hares by Express 350 Female Shipmaster from Cape Horn to San Francisco 860 First Railroad in Europe or America 353 First Ship at St. Petersburg 371 First Vessel in the World 850 Floating Railways 345 Forwarding by Telegraph 858 From Honolulu to Kaui 382 George Hudson, the Railway King 378 Good Land for Railroad : 375 Great North Pole Railway 373 Guarding the Track 367 Imaginative Expressmen— An Artificial Corpse 344 Jumel the Merchant, and the Carman 358 Lady Ship master 863 Largest Ship Owner in England , 355 Laughable Opposition to Steam Trains.. . 862 Literature of the Cabin 855 Lloyd's Nautical Book 851 Locomotion and Amalgamation 864 Lucky and Unlucky Names of Ships, and Sailing Days 364 Luxuries in the Car 359 Mode of Getting Money Transmitted 354 Mr. Griggs' Mode of Overcoming Obstacles 380 Names of Vessels and Trade of New York in 1680 350 PAGE New Rules for Railways 364 New York to Boston in Four Days 375 " No Swearing among the Crew " 855 Not Posted in Geography 883 Oldest Vessel in America 349 Origin of the Express Business — Harn- den's First Trip 856 Palmerston and the Station Master 886 Paying off Jack 855 " Pleasure Excursions " 877 Probable Origin of Schooners 360 Proposed Line from England to China... 372 Protective Costume for Travellers 374 Prussian Ship Navigated by a Lady 360 Punch's Own Railway 369 Purchase of Jacob Barker's Ship " United States," by the Emperor Nicholas. . . 343 Rail Car Privileges 353 Railroad Damages— the Tables Turned.. 365 Railway Politeness, Scale of 376 Rare Passenger in an Omnibus 371 Rather Dry 375 Rather Ominous 348 Reading the Annual Report 347 Rigid Obedience of Shipmasters Exacted by Girard 376 Risks and Accidents Assured Against. . . 345 Rival Steamboat Lines 352 Rothschild's Omnibus Fare 873 Royal Schemers in Railways 861 Scale of Railway Politeness 376 Scene in an Express Office 359 Selling a Brig : the Ruling Passion 357 " Soaking " the Old Coach 884 Southern Accommodation Trains 381 Squelching a Director's Impertinence.... 37l Stage Coach Experience of Two Merchants 869 Stephenson, the Pioneer in Railroad Con- struction S80 Strange Terminus to a Railroad 384 Superseding Steam 345 Telegraph vs. Express 351 Telegraph Capers 367 Telegraphing against Time 366 The First Steamboat Passage Money^ever Paid 377 The Ladder of Gold ,. 349 CONTENTS. XXV PAGE Thomas Gray, the Originator of Railways 354 Thompson's Travels in California 381 Universal Salvage Company .'. 346 Unparalleled Railway Damages 347 Unsociable Travelling Companion 3(38 Up Trains and Down Trains 348 PAGE Usefulness of Steamboats in Reducing the Population 356 Waghorn's Great Scheme 374 Working a Hand Car 383 Yankee Calculation of Railroad Speed. . . 365 " Your Ticket, Sir." 381 PART VIII. ANECDOTES OF COMMERCE AND TRAFFIC IN TEEIB LEGAL AND JUDICIAL ASPECTS. Partnership, Bankruptcy, Debtor and Creditor, Bonds and Mortgages, Dunning, Peculiar Cases op Mercantile Litigation; Pleasantries and Perplexities, Lights and Shades. PAGE A Bankrupt on his Legs Again 401 Addison's Loan of Five Hundred Pounds to Stanyan 428 Advantage of being a Large Debtor 399 Advantage of Prison Life to a French Debtor 410 Afraid of the Sheriff's Hat 451 Aid in the Nick of Time : Jacob Barker and John Wells 436 An Lisolvent Tradesman in the Clutches of Old Audley 406 An Unsettled Commercial Question 405 Artifice to Escape Bankruptcy 453 Audubon, John J., and John J. Astor.... 454 Backing up his Recommendation 438 " Bankrupt " 407 Bankruptcy and Barbarism in Court 396 Bankruptcy of a Dealer in "Women's Blacks" 425 Bankrupts in Batavia 397 Benefit of a Doubt 419 Bonfire of a Debtor's Papers 424 Borrowers and Lenders — a Melange 435 Borrowing Money, or Doing Business on Credit: Peter C. Brooks's Idea 416 Borrowing of Rich Relatives 428 Breach of the Bond 445 Brooks, Peter C, the Boston Millionnaire, in Court 404 Business, Bankruptcy and Literature: John Pierpont and John Neal 443 Business Value of a Name 416 Buying a Pianoforte Establishment , 450 Cabinet of Debtors' Autographs 452 Celebrated Law Suits among Rival Crafts 433 Certificates of Solvency 456 PAGE Changes in Mercantile Standing 442 Collecting a Draft 431 Colloquy in a Dry Goods' Jobbing Store 416 Comfort for Scotch Debtors 403 Commercial Justice in Morocco 413 Confidence in a Debtor's Promise 455 Convenient Substitute for Money 407 Cool Operation 425 " Credit " 449 Crinkles in the Credit System 454 Curious Financiering 394 Curious Suit against a Bank Agent 418 Day and Martin — New and Old 448 Dealing with a Bankrupt in Hamburg — " Execution " on the Bourse 397 Death of an Old Business Favorite 450 Debt, and the Contribution Box 426 Debtors' Complaint in Court 423 Debts of Honor 401 Debts Owing and Balances Due 391 Deciding a Case in Botany before a Dutch Magistrate 457 "Died of a Street Debt!" 417 Dishonest Grocer Punished by his Son. . . 412 Disreputable for a Broker to be Honest toward his Creditors 410 Drawing an Inference 401 "Dun" 407 Dunning as a Profession 393 Dump's Distressing Failure 424 Easy Creditors 411 English Booksellers and American Cus- tomers : Daniel Appleton 454 English Stockbrokers' Blackboard 420 Erskine Sifting an Auctioneer's Character 421 Example of Spanish Mercantile Credit,, . 423 XXVI CONTENTS. PAGE Failure of the Governor of the Bank of England 459 Failures in Business 426 Forgiving a Debt and Giving a Wife.... 398 Fortunate Debtor : AVashington as a Creditor 429 Found Goods 430 French Mode of Paying Bills 399 Friuli, the Florentine Merchant, and his Lost Purse 451 Frodsham's Watch Cheat 430 Gave his Note 430 General Jackson's Indorsement among Boston Capitalists 427 German Delicacy in Paying and Receiving Money 414 German Financial Operation 437 Getting an Injunction Dissolved 432 Giving Credit "To-morrow" 430 Grandest Instance of Debt 427 Grant Thorburn's Bankruptcy 438 Granting an Extension 445 Great Failures in Hamburg, in 1799.... 408 Happy End to a Debt 391 Hard Old Creditor 411 Helping Girard to Collect a Debt 453 Honest Quaker Bankrupt 452 Hotel Keeper's Advice to his Son 405 Hypothecating One's Person for a Loan. . 442 " Immediate Relief" 421 Imperial Affection for a Banker 444 Important to Dunners and Debtors 412 Indian's Idea of Imprisonment for Debt. . 429 Is it Lawful to Dun a Debtor ? 415 James G. King, the Banker, and Lord Ashburton : Cause of Merchants Fail- ing 453 Jewish Traders, and Straw Bail 444 Jobbing in Debtors' Shop Leases 452 Jury Deliberations on a Railroad Case. . . 455 Kentucky Banker who Kept Resuming. . . 408 Kindness to Debtors: Chickering, Pea- body, Lorillard 443 King, James G., and Lord Ashburton 453 Lafayette's Loan to Mathew Carey 459 Lawsuits of Girard 438 Legal Damages and Interest in Africa. . . . 439 Legal Eccentricities of Commerce 427 Longworth's Celebrated Fee. 396 Lord Mansfield's Mercantile Cases in Court 418 Losses Among Russian Merchants 420 Louis the Sixteenth and the Saddler's Bill 426 Lucrative Deed of Trust 393 Merchantlike 423 Merchant's Wit on the Stand 421 Narrow Escape from Bankruptcy 430 Nice Snare for a French Creditor 395 PAGK Nine Days in the Life of a Merchant 422 No Trust for Merchants in Small Clothes 429 No Use for Pistols 449 " Not Down on the Bill " 422 Notes with and without Security 433 Novel Trade Case before a Prussian Magis- trate 419 Obtaining a Certificate of Bankruptcy .. . 44T Old Scores Wiped Out 414 On the Forgiven List 440 One of the Causes of Bankruptcy 419 Ouvrard's Profitable Imprisonment 392 *' Parsons on Promissory Notes " 40O Pay, or Charge 445 Paying " a Balance " 392 Paying an Old Debt 400 Pecuniary Anxiety of the Greatest Mer- chant in the World 439 Peddler Mulcting a Sheriff 413 Peter C. Brooks, the Boston Millionnaire, in Court 404 Philanthropic Debtor 444 Politeness in Dunning 415 Presenting a Frivolous Bill to Girard. . . . 411 Profitable and Unprofitable Bankrupt- cy f 423 Quaker Merchant's Thousand-Dollar Fee to Mr. Webster 409 Quaker's Reply to Fordyce, the Bankrupt Banker 427 Rare Magnanimity of a French Creditor 434 Reply to a Dunning Epistle 417' Response to a Tax Commissioner's Dun. . 414 Rough Treatment of Insolvents 444 Royal Promissory Note 406 Salting.an Invoice 409 Saving the Credit of a City : Theodore Payne 450 Selling One's Body to a Creditor : Marshal Radetzky 420 "Settling" an Account 437 Sharp Hit at Repudiation 446 Sheridan's Treatment of a Creditor 448 Shopkeepers going to Law 395 Singular Suit against Mr. Appleton, of Boston 395 Small Debts 405 Soliloquy of a Debtor. 410 "Something or Nothing, and that v^ry Quick!" 418 Sprot, the Banker, and the Patrician Debtor 415 Staying his Own Debt 455 Stealing Goods at the Retail Price 456 Stratagem to Collect a Debt 394 Subduing a Creditor's Fury 407 Subscriptions for the Government by Philadelphia Merchants 459 Suit against a Railroad Company 457 CONTENTS. XXVU PAGE Swan, the Millionnaire, Voluntarily in Prison over Twenty Years for Debt,, 392 Tailors' Bills 405 Talleyrand's Promise to Pay 432 Taxing Bills and Receipts 432 Tender in Payment 4U0 The " Model Debtor " Described 402 Thorburn's, Grant, Bankruptcy 438 " Tick " '. . 401 Trading for Ready Money 416 Treatment of Chinese Bankrupts 446 Treatment of Insolvents by the Bank of England 434 PAGE Two Aspects of Trade ' 416 Unexpected Judgment against Bank Di- rectors 457 "Washington Irving's Commercial Bank- ruptcy 444 Western Method of Collecting a Debt. . . . 397 *' What is Sauce for the Goose is," &c 449 What the word " Pay " Signifies 407 Wine Merchant at his Debtor's Table 451 Wiping out an Old Score 453 Won't Look at Him 448 "Wouldn't Steal Indiana Money at Par" 452 PAET IX. ANECDOTES OF MERCHANTS, TBADERS, BANKERS AND MILLIONN AIRES ^ IN THEIR DOMESTIC RELATIONS. Personal Appearance, Manners, Conversation, Tastes, Social Traits and IIabits, Peculiar Experiences ; Genial Jests, Sallies, and Jocularities ; Last Hours, Wills, etc. A Banker's Love of Birds — Girard's Little Songsters 510 A Millionnaire on Giving Away Money: Peter C. Brooks 489 Amos Lawrence's Opinion of Marriage. . . 484 An Old Merchant's Style and Equipage. . 486 Anselm Rothschild's Will 472 Aster's Appearance and Manner 465 Banker vs Musician 505 Baring, Francis, at the Virginia Inn 467 Baring's Daughter and M. Labouchere. . . 463 Barker Jacob, under Medical Treatment. 482 Baron Rothschild Defending Himself with a Big Ledger 466 Bleeding a Banker by the Job 479 Boston Merchant's Reason for not Marry- ing 470 Business and Beauty 511 Business and Something Else 486 Colston, the Benevolent Millionnaire Mer- chant 499 Commercial Advantage of a Blind Eye. . . 505 Cope, the Quaker Merchant, mistaken for a Major-General 473 Costly Banquet by a Merchant to Charles the Fifth 504 Coutts, the Great Banker, Choosing a Partner 464 Deathbed Surroundings of the New Or- leans Croesus 492 PAGE De Medici, " the Magnificent Merchant," when a Child 466 Disinterested Feat of a Merchant, and its Reward 508 Disposing of One's Surplus Income 494 Doctrine of Benevolence held by Girard. . 499 Domestic Advantage of Commercial Decay 517 Domestic Trouble of Rothschild 463 Down on the Doctors 518 Dress and Personal Peculiarities of Long- worth 477 Ebenezer, Francis, and the Student's Table 485 Edinburgh Merchant Finding a Purse 497 English Merchant's Wife Priced by a Mandarin 507 Executorship of Mr. Astor's Will 518 Experience of a Levantine Merchant 474 Extravagance of French Bankers in Pri- vate Life 478 Female Members of the Rothschild Family 516 Francis Baring at the Virginia Inn 467 Freaks of Wealthy Merchants 513 Friend Coate's Management of Girard. .. 483 Garden of a French Stock Broker 508 Gastronomic Feats of a Merchant 472 German Merchant of One Hundred Houses 475 Gideon, the Jew Broker, Catechising his Child 511 Gideon Lee and his Library 480 Girard and the Beggar 489 XXVlll CONTENTS. Girard's Reception of Mr. Baring 474 Girard's Treatment of " Splendid Church " Projects 494 Girard's Will — the Item about Ministers 515 Glut in the Market 471 Going to get Acquainted with his Family 474 Goldschmid's Comforting Sort of Hoax. , 506 Grand Scheme Disclosed in McDonogh's Will 506 Groceries and Literature 511 Halifax, the English Banker's Opinion of " Lending to the Lord ;" with a Personal Application 516 Hancock, the Patriot Merchant 483 Home Luxuries of Ancient Merchants .... 507 Hospitality of Stephen Girard 502 Household Magnificence of Partinqua, the Great Chinese Merchant . 498 Household Peculiarities of Girard 510 Incidents of William Bingham's Domestic Life 519 Italian Banker's Bargain for a Fish 477 Jewish Banker's Free Table 481 John J. Astor's Board and Clothes 483 John McDonogh's Personal Appearance.. 491 Judah Touro and Dr. Clapp 490 Last Days of Business and Financial Cele- brities 495 Lawrence's, Amos, Opinion of Marriage.. 484 Looks and Manners of Rothschild 492 Lorillard and the Load of Wood 499 Louis d'Ors and Ruxors; or, BanT^ers and Barbers 479 M. Rothschild at Home 503 Magnificent Residence of Rothschild in Paris 479 Making a Will— Samuel Appleton 471 Mansion of Morris, the Philadelphia Fi- nancier 488 Marriage Suit by Colston, the Millionnaire 480 Matrimonial and Financial "Bonds" in John Law's Time 517 " Merely a Family Dinner" 468 Mr. Girard and the Baptist Clergyman... 489 Mr. Vanderbilt's Holiday 503 New Orleans Broker Renouncing a For- tune 4S4 Nicholas Longworth*s Bread 514 "Old Ben Russell" 488 Old-school Merchant's Offering to his Country : John Langdon, of New Hampshire 512 One Among Ten Thousand 487 Out of Fashion 515 Palace of Lafitte, the French Banker 467 Parlor Talk between James Rothschild, the Banker, and the Poet Heine 504 Personal Appearance of Stephen Girard. . 464 Philanthropic Courage of Girard 512 Pleasant Parlor Voyages 481 PAGE Polly Kenton and Girard's Doctc rs 476 Practical Eloquence of a Boston Merchant 512 Rekindling of the Old Spaik 497 Religious Bearing of Judaism on Stock Operations: the Perieres 515 Religious Opinions of Girard 490 Reminiscences of Mr. Astor's Library Be- quest 516 Retiring from Business — "Melting Day" 515 Returning a Favor 500 Robert Barclay becoming a Banker in- stead of a Courtier 502 Rothschild's Purchase of a Painting 481 Samuel Appleton's Disposition of his In- come 489 Samuel Slater on Extravagance in Living 513 Scene at a Banker's Dejeuner: Robert • Morris and his Father 469 Settling a Knotty Account— Quaker Philo- sophy 500 Seventy- five Thousand Dollars at One Draught 484 Signora Almonastre and John McDonogh 493 Sir Thomas F. Buxton's Conversations with Rothschild 501 Slightly Personal 466 Sportive Death of the French Banker, M. Dange 514 Stephen Girard's Treatment of " Splendid Church " Projects 494 Stock Broker and his Family in the Studio of Hoppner 475 Sturgis, William, in the Legislature 473 Suspected Religious Fidelity of Roths- child : Remarkable Scene 490 Taking Care of his Umbrella 492 Tavern Waiter and his Banker 487 That Little Child in the Counting Room. . 514 The Merchant and his Distinguished Valet, John Philpot Curran 476 The Merchant Family of Medici, Reaurgum 498 "The Stone that was Rejected : " Judah Touro's Benefactions 482 Thirty Thousand Dollars' Worth of Sleep by a Boston Merchant 470 Thomas Gresham's Curious Armorial or Crest 508 Too Much Money 478~ Under Medical Treatment — Jacob Barker as a Patient 482 Unfortunate Polly Lum, the Wife of Girard 469 Unparalleled Will of Thelluson, the Lon- don Banker 485 W. B. Astor and his Clerical Classmate. . 471 Wealthy Men Imagining Themselves Poor 492 Wedding Gift of Rothschild to his Niece 509 Why Guy, the Millionnaire, never Married 501 Will ofGuyot, the French Millionnaire.. 472 William Sturgis in the Legislature 473 CONTENTS. XXIX PAET X. ANECDOTES OF CHANCE DEALINGS AND VENTURES. Auctions, Fancy Stocks, Share Companies, Lotteries, and Quixotic Speculations; WITH Sketches op Wonderful Commercial Delusions, Financial Manias, Bub- bles, Panics — their Causes, Abettors, Incidents, Victims, and Results. page A Trade, and a Wager Won 555 Allaying a Panic 537 Atkinson the Eccentric Speculator 542 Auction Sale of Old Furniture, &c., Extra- ordinary 570 Auctioneering in England and America. . 537 Bacon by the Shilling's Worth 560 Bargain Hunters at Pawnbrokers and Auctions.... 567 Bank Notes at Ten Cents a Yard 531 Bidding on Girard's Old Chaise 536 Bold but Calamitous Speculation of John Guest 580 Burlesque on Modern Business Utopias.. 528 Buying his own Goods at Auction 530 " Candle " Auctions 552 Caricature of Commercial Speculations. . . 551 Character displayed in Auction Dealings 557 Chronicles of " the Black Day " in London 541 Cigars at Public Sale 577 " Crack Horses " at Auction 572 " Down with Your Dust ! " 525 Dutch Tulip-Mania of the Seventeenth Century 567 Dutchman's Gold in a Safe Place at Last 551 Earliest American Sale of Books, by Catalogue, at Auction 652 Early Stock Jobbing and Lotteries 558 English Railway Mania of 1845 562 Fancy Hen Fever 564 Female Strategy to obtain Bubble Stock. 527 Financial Use of Saints 528 First Book Auction in England 531 Foundation of the Friendship between Coates and Girard 582 Furor for Chartered Companies 541 Getting-up a Money Panic 566 Globe Permits 670 " Going— Going— Gone ! " 539 Gold-making and Silver-mining Compa- nies 664 Good Speculation Lost in Chicago Lands 550 Grand United Gold and Diamond Dust Company 660 "Great Spec" on the Tapis .624 Hogarth's Plan of Selling Pictures by Auction 531 FAOB Jack, and the Dutch Tulip Speculator. . . 623 Jacob Keen, of Wall Street 665 John Law's Notorious Bubble 655 Jonathan Hunt's Land Speculations 534 Keen Auction Dodge by Rembrandt 557 Last Resort for Petroleum Companies. . . 576 Last Word at an Auction : a Lady in the Case 535 Lessons of an Auctioneer's Hammer. .... 561 Lord Castlereagh and the Ruined Broker 568 Lotteries Vindicated by Scripture 666 Lottery Vagaries in the Sixteenth Cen- tury 559 Marking a Lottery Ticket 633 Memorable Auction Sale in New Orleans 656 Merino-Sheep Bubble 568 Missing a Good Chance 581 Mock- Auction " Capitalists," 650 Mr. Barker's Auction Watch, and What it Brought Him 643 Mr. Hume's Anxiety to avoid a Pecuniary Loss * 533 New York Pawnbroker's Customer 626 Old Digby at an Auction Sale 548 Old Martin, the Scotch Auctioneer, among the Languages 571 One of the Sufferers 663 Origin of Auctions 660 Our American Land Fever 646 " Our Lady of Hope " 634 Panic Blunders — Wrong Certificate at the Bank 524 Parisian Auctions : How Conducted 657 Paterson and his Darien Expedition 647 Perils of Stock Gambling : William Abbott 537 Peruvian Loan Infatuation 546 Pleasantries of Keese, the Book Auctioneer 572 Proposed Ice Speculation 564 Quite Professional 667 Reasons given by Thomas H. Perkins for Declining a proposed Coffee Specula- tion 578 Red Herrings and Dutch Onions 678 Rival Blacking Companies 563 Rise and Reminiscences of the Trade Sales 579 Satire on Speculation 646 Scenes at a Turkish Auction 648 XXX CONTENTS. PAGE Scraps of Auction Wit 574 Selling a Bjiug Horse under the Hammer 588 Selling the Gem of the Collection 554 Share Sellers and Rope Dancers 577 South Sea Schemers 545 Speculative Frenzy of the French in John Law's Time 524 Stock- Jobbing Bubbles — Commercial Lu- nacy 545 Stray Leaf from a Speculator's History.. 553 Syrian Auctioneers — Harage ! Harage ! Harage ! 554 " Tattersall's " 534 The Wateiioo of Auction Battles 525 PAGB Tonti's Money Raising Projects 558 Trade between Flywheel and Singecat... 549 Universal Bed and Bolster Mart 570 Very Hopeful Investment 540 Virtue of One-Pound Notes in Stopping a Bank Run 565 Virtuous and Touching Appeal of an Auc- tioneer 532 Wager between a Stockbroker and a Cap- italist 536 Warranty of Perfect Soundness 562 Weathering the Storm of 1828. 573 Winking and Bidding at Auctions 552 Winners and Losers in Grant's Bubble. . . 534 PAET XI ANUCDOTES OF CURIOUS TRADES AND OBJECTS OF TRAFFIC. Novel Business Transactions; Buying, Selling, Bartering and Shopkeeping, Chae- ACTERISTIC OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES; BLUSES, JeUX D'EsPRITS, AND DROLLERIES. PAGE Adam and Eve Leading on in Trade COl American Customer at a Turkish Bazaar 598 Bad Operation in Leather 586 Bargaining by Pantomime — Trade in Camels 603 Barnum Buying the American Museum with Brass 689 Batavian Trade in Birds' Nests 627 Before and Behind the Counter 585 Boy Traders in Moscow 590 Chartier, the Leech Merchant 592 Chatham Street Clo' Dealers . . . , 618 " Cheap " and " Dear " 596 Chiffonniers, or " Rag Merchants," of Paris 589 Chinese Shopkeepers 619 Coleridge and the " Ogh Clo' " Man 590 Commercial Dignity at the Apple Stand 619 Commercial Value of Insects 593 Day & Martin's Precursors 591 Dealing in " Orrd Things " 601 Eastern Trade in Ostrich and Bird-of-Par- adise Feathers 588 Egyptian Mummy Trade 592 English Idol Manufacturers 587 Exportation of Scotch Periwinkles 602 Fancy Stoves and Imaginative Customers 626 Florentine Flower Girls 626 Flutesw Pistols 618 •* Four-and-twenty Self-sealing Envelopes, Fo-oo-ur Cents " 608 French Toads an Article of Commerce. . . 600 PAGE Funny Commercial Transaction All Round 604 Genoese Merchants and French Peddlers 610 " Glass-pteen !" 619 Goods for a *' Private Venture " 615 Great " Shaving" Operation in a Banker's Office 612 Grindstones by the Fraction 625 Grocers and Bank Presidents 624 Human Hair as an Article of Merchandise 620 Italian Marriage Brokers 591 Itinerant Traders in Rio Janeiro 615 Jew Traders in Holywell Street 611 Jolly Sign Painters: Rich Professional Tragedy 605 Logan, the Fan Painter 605 Losing a Good Customer 621 Making the Best of a Bad Article 624 Matrimonial Export 599 Men Manteau Makers 611 Mengin, the French Pencil Seller 5S6 Mercantile Agency Managerpent Illus- trated 608 " Mighty Monarch, Let Me send a Shop !" 623 Mike Schnapps, the Fiddle Dealer 600 National Characteristics of Money Getters — French, Irish, Scotch, German.... 595 Native Traders in Guinea 622 New Material for Sausage Stuffing; the '.'Sauciesse d'Or" 612 Nothing Like Sarsaparilla 612 Nothing Lost in a Good Market 617 CONTENTS. XXXI PAGE Odd Purchase at a Grocer's 617 Old Women's Trades in London 593 One of the Branches of the Tea Trade. . . 623 Orthography behind the Counter 626 Paris •' Gratteurs " 607 Parrot and Monkey Market 616 Patent Medicine Makers— Morrison, Bran- dreth, Tovvnsend, &c 609 Paying by the Clock instead of the Thing 598 Peculiarities of the Northwest Fur Trad- ers 599 Poor Kind of Ice 593 Portuguese Diamond Merchant's Bargain with Philip the Second 587 Praying and Trading Simultaneously. . . . 621 Puzzling an Apothecary 624 Queer Bartering in Northern Africa 601 Kealizing a Profit 598 Eemarkable Customs of Oriental Shop- keepers 597 Kichardson, the Eccentric Showman 620 Russian Shop Customs 606 PAGE Saint Shops 607 Scale of Prices for London Civilities 597 Settling a Question of Trade 603 Shipments of Butcher Birds 696 Shop Architecture, Old and New 616 Shopkeepers of Bagdat 610 Snow Trade of Sicily 599 Song-Bird Shops in New York 623 St. Petersburg Trade in Frozen Articles. 622 Street Merchants 594 Tea Shops in China 602 The Miller and his Portrait 605 Tong-Chow Traders in Dogs and Cats 618 Traffic in Beautiful Circassian Girls 588 Traits of the Shop in Havana.' 586 Trials of Egg Merchants 617 Turkilb Fez bops ; Stationers, Tailors, and Jewellers 602 Viper Merchants 588 Vocation Peculiar to China; Gossip at Fifty Cents per Hour 607 Wigs by the Cargo 597 PAET XII. ANECDOTES AND CEBONICLES OF mSEBANCE. Its Pioneers, Varieties, Curious Rates, Terms, Subjects; Humors, Fancies, and Excesses; Notable Cases op Loss and Adjustment; Caricatures, Puns, Rail- lery, ETC. PAGE Adjusting an Insurance Loss 648 Angerstein, the Great English Under- writer 632 Apt Illustration of a Principle 638 Assessments in Old Times 645 Companies for Insuring Female Chastity, Children's Fortunes, «&c 633 Curious Inconsistencies in Insuring Life 643 Daniel Webster's Insurance Anecdote... 646 Examining an Applicant 643 Exciting Life of an Underwriter 641 German Idea of the Thing 649 High Compliment to W. R. Jones as an Underwriter 662 Insurance for Husbands 635 Insuring Dr. Lieb's Life 631 Introduction of Marine Insurance 632 Jacob Barker's Insurance Case — Redivivus 636 Juvenile Evidence in an Insurance Case 652 Leaving a Case Out 642 B PAGE Life Insurance Obituary Announcements. 644 Life and Death Brokers and their "Humble Servant " 637 Lively Operations 650 Marriage and Baptism Insurance 644 Oddities of a Former Period 638 One of the Companies 634 Origin of Fire Insurance Companies 640 Pitt, the Insolvent Premier, Insured by his Coacbmakers 637 Playing a Bold Game 649 Policies and Tragedies 642 " Poor Tim Rooney " 643 Porcelain Jars and Low Premiums 631 Protective Tariffs and the "Genesee Mutual " 653 Romance and Reality of Insurance 635 Taking his Own Risk 651 Terrible Mode of Rendering an Insurance Policy Void 638 XXXll CONTENTS. The TJnited-Glass-and-Crockery Insurance Company 635 Traffickers in Insurance Bun Mad— As- tounding Policies on the Chevalier d'Eon's Sex ! 645 j Underwriters and Napoleon's Life 637 PAET XIII. ANECD TE8 OF B USIJVESS EMPL TES. Cashiers, Clerks, Salesmen, etc. ; Bookkeeping, Accounts, Prices and Yalijes, Cor- respondence, Shop Talk— Trials and Miseries, Blunders, FacetiuE, Waifs and Strays. PAGE Advantage of Skilful Bookkeeping 695 Amos Lawrence when a Clerk. , 661 Apprehended Embezzlements 676 Bank Clerks and their " Friends " 684 Ben Lippincott, Girard's Clerk 689 Best Part of a Grocer's Business 694 Betty Starkey and Coutts's Clerk 694 Bookkeeping in Former Times 685 Brief Biographical Sketch of a Banker's Clerk 662 Broadway Clerks— Japonicas and Sweet- hearts 658 Bubble Bank Bookkeeping Taught in Six Lessons 665 Caledonian Adroitness 659 Charles Latnb, as a Clerk 691 Charming Customer in a Bank : Perils of a Cashier 680 Chickering and his Employes, on " Blue " Day 681 Commercial " Drummers," or Travelling Clerks 678 Correcting an Erroneous Entry 698 Cost of a Nap on the Ledger 687 Countryman and Clerk 668 Dexterity of Specie Clerks 677 " Done Brown " 697 English Bank Clerk's Finesse 658 Fancy Costume among the Ledgers 662 Filling a Grocer's Order 677 First Set of Double-Entry Books Opened in Boston 663 Fitz Greene Halleck's Clerkship with Ja- cob Barker 657 French Female Plot against a Clerk 682 George Simpson's High Reputation as a Cashier 700 Getting Rich by Bookkeeping 672 Good Supply in Prospect 667 Hitting the Nail on the Head 677 How a Drygoods Clerk Lost His Place. . . 670 Humors of Partnership in Reference to Names 695 Identifying a Clerk 696 Improving a Banker's Broth 676 In Business for Themselves 697 In Pursuit of an Agreeable Business 661 Introducing a New System of Accounts. . 698 Irving and the English Salesman 697 Jacob Barker's Clerks at Dinner 663 Keeping Accounts in Guinea 686 Keeping Score by Double Entry 679 Lady's Portrait of a Drygoods Clerk 690 Lafitte's Wasteful Clerk 681 Language and Business Letters of Roths- child 669 London Trade Report 675 Misfortune Tending to Liberality 684 Moustaches in the Bank 667 Nice Lesson for Retail Salesmen 665 Obtaining a Clerkship in a Banking House 687 Oiling the Joints of Business 671 <* Old Salles," the Silk Buyer, and Mr. Bayard's Clerks 693 One of his " Little Specs," 668 «* One Thing Needful" in a Clerk 664 Overpaying a Clerk 664 Pen Portrait by an Old Master 659 Perplexities of Mercantile Correspondence 698 Philadelphia Clerk and his Bible 670 Pictorial Bookkeeping 671 Placing the Pen behind the Ear 686 Playing Even 666 Precision in Keeping Accounts 657 Quaker Investigation of Accounts 692 Railway Clerks — a Burlesque 666 Ready for a Trade 696 Reason for Trusting a Clerk 683 Reforming instead of Destroying 672 CONTENTS. XXXlll PAGE Refusal to become Girard's Clerk : Telling Him the Reason Why 683 Remarkable Discernment of Mercantile Character 692 Remarkable Sacrifice for Principle 658 Reward of Business Fidelity 691 Reward of Promptness in a Merchant's Clerk 671 Rich Enough to Retire : Abraham New- land, Cashier of the Bank of England 700 Rich Reward of Integrity 667 Ruin Produced by Bad Reckoning 677 Sample Clerk Wanted in a Drug Store... 689 Saying of an Old Merchant 609 Scissors 1)8. Shears 687 Serious Bargain for a Clerkship 682 Shipping Goods by Ticket 698 PAGE Shocking Ignorance of City Clerks Illus- trated 684 Simple Entries and Calculations — Jacob Barker's Method 660 Singular Mode of Keeping Accounts in a Pair of Boots 692 Squaring Accounts among the Celestials 669 That Bottle of Wine among " Old Fuller's" Cleiks 694 The Prose of Shopkeeping set to Poetry 687 Too Conscientious an Accountant 683 Trying his Hand at the Accounts 699 Two Clerks in a Quarrel 674 Unexpected Promotion 696 Waste Book and Ledger — their Meaning 686 What is a " Flemish " Account ? 662 Wife of a Merchant's Clerk 688 PAET xiy. ANECDOTES OF SOME OF THE OCCUPATIOm AUXILIARY TO COM- MERCE AND MERCHANDISE, Editors, Publishers, Booksellers, the Manual of Industrial Trades, etc. ; with Unique Incidents of Bargain and Sale, Ludicrous Adventures, Haps and Mis- haps — Business Freaks, Genius, Aptitude, Novelty and Renown, Etc., Etc. PAGE «A Roland for an Oliver" 714 A Tailor for Many Years 734 Affidavit by an Apothecary 742 Almanac Making: Fortunate Wit 711 America's First Printed Book 723 An Emperor Blowing a Blacksmith's Bel- lows 743 Answering a Tailor's Dun 714 Apt Speech by a Carpenter 737 Archaeological Tailor's Measures 713 Attempt to Print a Perfect Book 747 Austen, the Famous Metal Founder 748 Balance of Trade ; or, Beauties of Compe- tition 719 Barbers' Chairs 730 Ben Russell, the Printer : Exciting Scene 737 Benjamin Franklin as a Bookseller 727 Billingsgate Market Dealers 723 Bookmaking a Trade 736 Books and Music 755 Books and Newspapers in China 705 Breaking and Waxing the " Thread " . . . . 753 Breeches without a Body 755 Business Mistakes of Publishers 729 Butchers' Blue Blouse or Frock 712 Buying a Saddle , 734 PAGE Buying Shoes and Sermons 751 Byron's Genoese Tailor 714 Canine Newsdealer. 715 Chinese Barbers 730 Classification of N ewspaper Readers 724 Commercial Value of Dramatic Litera- ture 715 Compliment to Wharfingers 742 " Concerned in Trade" , .^709 Copy of a Painter's Bill .* 707 Country Bankers 735 Derivation of Names of Trades 711 Dignity Conferred by the Blacking Busi- ness 755 Dowse, the "Literary Leather Dresser" 751 Dr. Johnson in the Capacity of a Reporter 726 Dry den Describing his Publisher 749 Earliest Newspaper in the English Lan- guage 750 Editors in a Hard Fix 741 Eminent Shoemakers 752 English Almanacs — First Issue 739 English Perruquiers before the King 708 Errors of the Press 744 Explaining the Philosophy of Trade 756 " Extras," &c 724 XXXI V CONTENTS. PAGE Facetiae for Shoemakers 750 First Newspaper in America 721 First Newspaper in the World 749 Forfeits in a Barber's Shop 730 Franklin and the London Printer 717 Freaks of the Hairdressing Trade in France 718 German Book Fairs 738 Greatest Reportorial Feat 745 Hatter's Present to a Judge 742 Hitting his Trade 712 "Honor and Fame from no Condition Rise" 712 " Hopping " from Obscurity 742 Humors of a Reporter 740 Button's Success as a Bookseller 735 Incorrect Editions of the Bible 732 Iron Merchant and the Blacksmith 711 Johnson and his Dictionary 726 Johnson and the Butcher 707 Juvenile Bookseller's Wit 711 Knight's, Charles, Reminiscences of the Book Trade 753 Lawyers and Barbers 725 Learning the Saddler's Trade 720 Lee, the Learned Carpenter, in England.. 736 « Letting Out " Clothes 713 Lord Eardley's "Gentleman" Applicant 757 Ludwick, the Baker-General, in the Revo- lutionary War 759 Millionnaire Butcher of London 724 Miners' Commandments 748 Modern Newspaper Oflfice 744 Moses as an Engraver 731 Mr. Gales Reporting Mr. Webster 722 Musicseller's Customers 705 Napoleon's Opinion of a Journalist 708 Need of Reference for a Tailor 717 Newspaper Publisher Described 715 Nothing like Leather 717 Obtaining a Copyright 726 Old English Ticker 743 OldAt Daily Newspaper 721 One of the largest Book Establishments in the World 753 "Our Editor"Sixty Years Ago 709 Partridge's Almanac making 718 Patriotic Hatter 720 Paying a Newspaper Bill 732 Paying the Diver 756 Payment for News 713 Peculiar Custom of a Tailor 713 Penny Newspapers in America 708 Perils of Reporting the Parliamentary Debates 725 Placard Printing in Vienna 717 PA6B Price of Akenside's " Pleasures of the Imagination " 727 Printed Books; or, the Devil and Dr. Faustus 732 Printers and Editors at Midnight 720 Prize Won by Stephenson for his Famous Locomotive 758 Proby, the Reporter 716 Professional Use of Books 749 Profitable Book Job 747 Profits ofa Stall 724 Property in Books 739 Publisher's Generosity to an Author 729 Pun on a Cooper 742 Pushing Business 730 Quaker Hatter and his Journeyman 710 Queer Phases of the Butcher Trade 707 Rare Editorial Philosophy 741 Rather a Puzzling Occupation 739 Reason why Pitt's Great Speech was not Reported 745 Report of a Lord's Speech 71G Reporting from Memory 741 Rising in the World 7lG Rival Publishers 727 Rivalry in Business Beneficial 710 Roman Saint Making Shoes 751 Sale of Noted Works and Plays 719 Samuel Wheeler, the Iron Smith, and General Washington 759 Scotch Cabinetmaker's Appi'entice 723 "Shall I Cut?" 714 Shipbuilding in Ancient Times 743 Shoemaker Benefiting the World 712 Shoes and Shoemakers — Facetiae 746 Shooting a Bookseller 747 Showing Up Tailors 722 Sir Robert Peel's Factory Operative 727 Son of an Eminent Turkey Merchant.... 749 " Spanish " 734 Sticking to the Contract 737 Tailor Turned Prophet 733 The First Color Shop 706 The Learned Blacksmith 731 Theatrical Debut of a Barber 708 Tonson, the Literary Trader 706 Too Awkward to be a Watchmaker 743 Trades and Genealogies 760 Trading in News 733 Ungrateful Publisher 722 Verbatim Reporters 745 Wholesale Joke upon Shoemakers 738 Willing to Swallow the Joke 756 Wimprecht, the Blind Bookseller 706 Wit of a Gravestone Maker 781 Would not Stoop 757 ^xxxv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PORTEAITS ON STEEL. GEORGE PEABODY. SAMUEL SLATER. ABBOTT LAWRENCE. ALBERT GALLATIN. JOHN JACOB ASTOR. T. DOWSE. CORNELIUS W. LAWRENCE. STEPHEN GIRARD. ROBERT FULTON. NATHANIEL BOWDITCH. ROBERT MORRIS. ERASTUS CORNING. PHILIP , HONE. HENRY GRINNELL. WILLIAM APPLETON. DAVID LEAVITT. R. G. SHAW. JOHN GRIGG. CORNELIUS VANDERBILT. THOMAS ROBERT L. STEVENS. WALTER R. JONES. FITZ GREENE HALLECK. CHARLES LAMB. NATHAN MEYER ROTHSCHILD. WASHINGTON IRVING. PETER COOPER. W. F. HARNDEN. T. W. PERKINS. NICHOLAS BIDDLE. JAMES G. KING. JACOB BARKER. PETER C. BROOKS. THOMAS P. COPE. JEEJEEBIIOY DADABHOY. LORENZO DE MEDICL WILLIAM B. ASTOR. NICHOLAS LONGWORTH. J. CHICKERING. TILESTON. XXXVi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. WOOD ENGRAVmGS. PAQB MODERN BANK DIRECTORS' PARLOR, ... . . 97 NEAPOLITAN MONEY CHANGER, ... . . 104 MUTATIONS OF A MERCHANT'S LIFE. THE NEW ORLEANS SOCK SELLER, . , ,*, ^ ^ ^ ^ 229 GRESHAM'S FORTUNATE LETTER, .... .174 PETER FUNK, .213 INTERIOR YIEW OF THE LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, . . 288 SCENE IN AN ORIENTAL CUSTOM HOUSE, . . . . . 291 HIDE DEALER'S SIGN, . , .... 325 PAYING ROBERT FULTON THE FIRST PASSAGE MONEY, . .377 BONFIRE OF A DEBTOR'S PAPERS, 424 AFRAID OF THE SHERIFF'S HAT, 451 THAT LITTLE CHILD IN THE COUNTING HOUSE, . . .614 BURLESQUE ON MODERN BUSINESS UTOPIAS, . , . .629 TATTERSALL'S RENOWNED AUCTION MART, .... 634 GOING— GOING— GONE ! 639 SYRIAN AUCTION AND AUCTIONEERS, 654 CHRISTIE'S CELEBRATED AUCTION ROOM, .... 661 STREET MERCHANTS, 69^ COMMERCIAL DIGNITY AT THE APPLE STAND, . . . .619 EXAMINING AN APPLICANT, 644 IMPROVING A BANKER'S BROTH, 676 THAT BOTTLE OF WINE AMONG "OLD FULLER'S" CLERKS, . 694 BILLINGSGATE MARKET DEALERS, '^23 WHOLESALE JOKE UPON SHOEMAKERS, '738 PROFESSIONAL USE OF BOOKS, Y49 PART FIRST. A.NEGDOTES AND BeMAEKABLE BeMINISGENCES OF TEE Early Career of Business Celebrities in all Ages and Countries. / PAET FIEST. Anecdotes and Eemarkable Eeminiscences of the Early Career of Business Celebrities in all Ages and Countries. ASTOR, ROTHSCHILD, OUVRARD, BATES, BARKER, TOTJRO, MCdONOGH, HOWQUA, GOLDSCHMID, HOPE, HOTTINGUER, COUTTS, MORRISON, DE MEDICIS, GIRARD, BIDDLE, LABOUCIIERE, LA- EITTE, APPLETON, COOPER, GRESHAM, PEABODY, NOLTE, GRAY, BRUCK, BEATTY, STEWART, LAWRENCE, LOWELL, WHITNEY, GIDEON, DEXTER, BARING, MORRIS, LORILLARD, STEIGLITZ, PERKINS, LONGWORTH, ETC., ETC., ETC. That captivating art which consists in the delineation of individual traits and achieve- ments.— Edin. Rfa-ibw. The man who has not anything to hoast of but hia illustrious ancestors, is like a potato— the only good belonging to him is under the ground. — Sir T. Overbxtrt. Let not those blush who have, but those who have not, a lawful calling. — Tattler. Still let the mind be bent, still plotting where, And when, and how, the business may be done.— Herbert. Robert Morris, the Financier, of Phil- adelphia. This eminent financier was born in Liverpool, Eng., in 1734, Of his fam- ily, very little is known, except that his father was a respectable English mer- chant, and for a long time held the agency of a very considerable tobacco house in that place. The nature and extent of his concerns required his frequent visits to this country ; and it was in one of these trips that his son Robert, at the age of thirteen, became the companion of his voyage, and re- ceived an introduction to the scene of his future greatness. His father, by a melancholy accident, lost his life about two years after he had established him- self in this country as a merchant. Soon after this sad event, Robert was received into the counting house of Charles Willing, at that time the most distinguished merchant in Philadel- phia, to whom lie appears to have been indentured ; and, after remaining in this subordinate station the usual term of years, he was established in business by his patron, in conjunction with his son, Thomas Willing. Embarked in an extensive and profit- able West India business, Mr. Morris made several voyages as supercargo in the ships belonging to the company, in one of which he was unfortunately cap- tured by the French, and, during a close imprisonment for some time, suf- fered cruelty of treatment not justified by the laws of war, nor the usages of civilized nations. In this state of dis- tress, without a shilling, by exercising his ingenuity, and repairing the watch of a Frenchman, he raised the means of his own liberation, and enabled him- self to return to Philadelphia and re- sume his mercantile life. Under his active superintendence, the house of Willing and Morris rapidly rose to the summit of commercial repu- tation. Their foreign freightage em- ployed an incredible number of ships ; COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. while the able management of their finances at home, procured them the confidence and credit of the world. At the , age of thirty six, he married the ' ^Vghter Ox Colonel "White ; she was t^e, s?^t^r. ' o^ ; the venerable Bishop ■Waite.; ' A-t the close of 1775, he was sent to Congress, and, after rendering important services during the war, he was, in 1781, unanimously elected, by Congress, superintendent of national finance. He still continued his commercial business, having formed a connection with the Messrs. Hazlehurst. In 1786 he was elected a member of the Con- vention which framed the Federal Con- stitution, and in 1788 was appointed United States senator. His public duties, however, caused that inattention to his private affairs, which finally re- sulted in those great embarrassments of mind and circumstances which weighed upon his declining years. In his old age, Mr. Morris embarked in vast land speculations, which proved fatal to his fortune. The man to whose financial operations our country has been said to owe as much as to the negotiations of Franklin, or even the arm of Washing- ton, passed the latter years of his life in prison, confined for debt. He died on the 8th ,of May, 1806, in the seventy- third year of his age. Mr. Morris was of large frame, with a fine, open, bland countenance, and simple manners ; for nearly half a cen- tury, until the period of his imprison- ment, his house was a scene of the most liberal hospitality. P. C. Labouchere, the Youthful Prince Merchant. In his youth, Laboucheke com- menced his commercial training in Nantes, but subsequently engaged to become a clerk, for a period of three years, to take charge of the commercial correspondence of Hope & Co., the world-renowned bankers of Amster- dam. Shortly before the close of this term young Labouchere gave his prin- cipal a hint that a moderate increase of salary was desirable. An answer was promised for the next morning. When he went at the appointed time to receive the anticipated reply, old Mr. Hope laid before him for his signature, a contract already drawn up, in which he named him as his partner, with a suitable share in the profits, and in- trusted him with the signature of that vast and princely house. Labouchere was at that time only twenty-two years of age, yet ere long assumed the emi- nent position of head of the firm — one of the fii'st in the world, and studied the manners of a French courtier pre- vious to the Revolution ; these manners he soon made so thoroughly his own, that they seemed to be a part of his own nature. He made a point of dis- tinguishing himself in everything he undertook by a certain perfection, and carried this feeling so far, that, on ac- count of the untractable lack of elasti- city in his body, and a want of ear for music, which nature had denied him, he for eighteen years deemed it neces- sary to take dancing lessons, because he saw that others surpassed him in that graceful accomplishment. He married a daughter of the Barings : his whole career, both public and private, was one of almost unexampled brilliancy. Howqua, the senior Hong Merchant. This immensely wealthy and power- ful Chinese merchant, whose mercantile fame was so extensive in both hemi- spheres as long as he lived, was de- scended from a respectable Fo-kien family, long resident in the principal black-tea district, and his grandfather was one of the Amoy Hong, who, with the progenitors of the Canton Hong merchants, Poon-ke-qua, Chunc-qua, and Minqua, were ordered by the emperor to remove to Canton, when all intercourse was forbidden with the English and Dutch at the port of Amoy. EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. HowQUA had attained liis seventy- fifth year when he died, at Canton. For a long time he had been in a feeble state of health, with extremely attenuated frame, but with an unimpaired intel- lectual vigor up to his last illness. His fortune was variously estimated, ])ut his investments in the British and foreign funds were very great, and it was the belief of those who were most person- ally intimate with him, that his wealth did not fall short of twenty-five million dollars. With a very small exception, all his riches were the result of his own industry and enterprise. The war with the English involved him in a loss of two million dollars, and his proportion of the Canton ransom was eight hun- dred thousand dollars. One of the peculiar characteristics of How qua was an inveterate aversion to new customs and modern fashions, — clinging with the most conservative tenacity to the old, corrupt system, by which his vast wealth was mainly ac- cumulated. He was the organ of com- munication between the government and the foreign merchants, possessed great power and influence among his countrymen, was a large landed pro- prietor, and had founded and endowed a temple to Buddha, in the suburbs of Canton. It seems almost incredible, but it is not the less true, that, to the last, he directed his vast and complicated trade, which almost encircled the globe, alone. His knowledge, and even familiarity with mercantile details connected with the trade of foreign ports, was truly astonishing. Sound judgment, true prudence, wary circumspection, and a wise economy, were distinguishing traits of his mercantile character. By Englishmen, Howqua was not liked. His predilections were American — and justly so, seeing that he was indebted, in an early stage of his career, to an American citizen, for information he sought in vain from the English, James Wood, the Gloucester Million- naire. James Wood, the celebrated shop- keeping millionnaire and sole proprie- tor of the Old Gloucester (Eng.) Bank, — the oldest private bank, with the exception of Childs', in England — amassed a property of five million of dollars. From the earliest period in his business career to the day of his death, he kept a shop such as comes within the description of a chandler's shop, in which he sold almost every- thing, from a mousetrap to a carriage ; not that his premises were large enough to contain all the various stores in which he dwelt, nor indeed was it re- quisite that they should — for his wealth was sufficiently known to all the large manufacturers and traders, so that they were at all times ready to supply him with goods to any amount. At one end of this motley shop, the business of the 'Old Gloucester Bank,' as it was fa- miliarly called, was transacted; and the whole establishment was managed by himself and two clerks or assistants. He was very penurious, and never mar- ried, entertained no company, visited no one, spent his whole time in his bank or shop, and his Sundays in a long walk in the country. His will involved much litigation, and, as a consequence, proved a prolific source of employment to the gentlemen of the greenbag. Coutts, the Engrlish Banker. The father of Mr. Coutts, the founder of the celebrated English banking house which bears his name, was a merchant of some eminence in the city of Edin- burgh. He had four sons ; the two youngest, James and Thomas, were brought up in their father's office. James, at the age of twenty-five, w^ent to London, and settled in St. Mary Axe, as a Scotch merchant, and subsequently started as a banker on the same spot, and it is believed in the same house where the business of the bank is now carried on. Some few years after, COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. Thomas joined his brother as a partner in the establishment, under the firm of * James and Thomas Coutts, Bankers.' On the death of James, Thomas was left sole proprietor of the bank. Mr. Coutts, the founder of this eminent house, was plain in his person, sedate in his deportment, punctual to an extreme nicety in the discharge of all the duties of his immense and success- ful business, frugal and sparing in his personal expenditure, singularly calm and clear in his judgment, careful of his health — and still more of his repu- tation. To these traits the great pros- perity and wealth to which Mr. Coutts attained are due. It is related, as an illustration of Mr. Coutts' character, that one day, while sitting at dinner with a company of bankers whom he had invited to his hospitable board, he was informed by one of his guests, that a certain noble- man had applied to his house for a loan of thirty thousand pounds, and had been refused. Mr. Coutts took no particular notice of this at the time, but the moment his guests had retired, which was about ten o'clock, he started off to the house of his lordship, and inquiring for the steward told him his business, adding, " Tell Ms lordship, that if he calls on me in the morning, he may have what he requires." On the following morn- ing, the nobleman went to the bank. Mr. Coutts received him with great politeness, and taking thirty one-thous- and pound notes from a drawer, pre- sented them to his lordship, who was most agreeably surprised, and asked, "What security am I to give you?" "I shall be satisfied with your lord- ship's note of hand," was the reply. This was instantly given. The noble- man then said, " I find I shall only require, for the present, ten thousand pounds of the money ; I therefore return you twenty thousand pounds, with which you will be pleased to open an account in my name," This handsome act of Mr. Coutts was not lost upon his lordship, who, in addition to paying in, within a few months, two hundred thousand pounds to his account, being the amount of the sale of an estate, recommended several of the nobility to patronize Mr. Coutts ; and further, his lordship related the interesting circumstance to King George the Third, who also patronized him by keeping a large amount of money in Mr. Coutts' bank. The king, however, afterward closed his account with Mr. Coutts, it having come to his knowledge that the latter advanced the sum of one hundred thousand pounds toward Sir Francis Burdett's election to parliament. In place of IVIr. Coutts, the king opened an account with a banker at Windsor, but this banker, to the great mortification of the king, subsequently failed, considerably in his majesty's debt. Tattersall, the Auctioneer, London. The present noted auctioneer in Lon- don, known as Tattersall, is a son of the founder of the great establishment, who died while enjoying the sumjituous surroundings in w^hich his princely for- tune enabled him to indulge. Nobody who sees Mr. Tattersall pre- siding in his rostrum during the sale of horses, can resist the conviction that Nature intended him for an auctioneer of those noble animals. In the rostrum, he is obviously in his proper business sphere. He enters on his vocation with heart and soul, each succeeding day. He has no idea of happiness be- yond the auction yard. The very sight of the hammer, or rather of himself wielding the hammer, is to him an en- joyment of the first magnitude. His own voice, when expatiating in praise of any horse that " is to be sold," has inexpressible charms to his ear. There is not a sound in the world that he will acknowledge to be half so musical to him, — except it be the sound of some voice w^hose proprietor is making a EARLY CAREER OF EUSIXESS CELEBRITIES. " handsome bidding" for the animal in the market. Mr. Tattersall, though a man of few words compared with the voluble school of auctioneers in general, is a very adroit and successful knight of the hammer. He is dexterous in dis- covering who among all that surround him are the parties really intending to buy, and to them in succession he addresses himself. His very look, unaccompanied by a single word, has, in innumerable cases, appealed so forci- bly to some bystander, as to draw out "another guinea for the horse," even when the person had fully resolved in his own mind not to advance, on any earthly consideration, a single six- pence more. He holds in contempt all bombastical diction, as in poor taste, a waste of time, and a positive insult to the persons assembled. Be- sides, he is convinced that by his own plain and homely, but expressive style, he " fetches " a far better price for his " fine animals," than he would by the most high-sounding clap-trap sentences that could be strung together. He usually contents himself with mention- ing the pedigree of the horse, praising him as one of the finest ever known ; affecting to be quite shocked at the idea of selling him at the price offered ; assuring the company that it would be positively giving him away, which of course neither he nor the proprietor can afford to do ; and regretting that he cannot bid himself. When an extra quality of horse is " up," Mr. Tattersall's art of winning upon the good graces of the company is inimitable ; an example of which is furnished among the Auction anecdotes in this volume. By all his acquaintance, Mr. Tatter- sall has the reputation of being an ex- cellent-hearted man, and is a great favorite, personally, with all who visit his premises, or have occasion to do business with him. He is a dark-com- plexioned man, with a rather full face, and wears a reserved expression. He is slightly under medium size, of some- what stout build, and very lame. The number of horses he sometimes sells in one day is one hundred to one hundred and eighty. Jacques Lafitte, the French. Banker. Important results often follow from the most trifling incidents. A remark- able instance of this kind is that afforded in the history of Lafitte, one of the most memorable among the names of French bankers, and which was the foundation of the colossal fortune he afterward accumulated, and of the scarcely less than imperial position which he at one time held in the councils of the realm. When he came to Paris, in 1798, the extent of his ambition was to find a situation in a banking house ; and to attain this object, he called on M. Perregeaux, the rich Swiss banker, to whom he had a letter of introduction. This gentleman had just taken posses- sion of the hotel of Mademoiselle Gurmard, w^hich had been put up in a lottery by that lady, and won by the fortunate banker. It was to this most charming habitation, which has since been demolished, that M. Lafitte paid his first visit in Paris, and, as it were, took his first step in the brilliant Paris- ian world. The young provincial — poor and modest, timid and anxious — entered by that gateway which had witnessed so many convivialities in the last century. He was introduced into the boudoir of the danseuse, which had become the cabinet of the banker, and there modest- ly stated the object of his visit. " It is impossible for me to admit you into my establishment, at least for the present," replied the banker ; " all my offices have their full complement. If I require any one at a future time, I will see what can be done; but, in the mean time, I advise you to seek elsewhere, for I do not expect a vacancy for a long while." With a disappointed heart, the young 6 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. aspirant for employment left the office ; and while, with a dejected air, he traver- sed the stately courtyard, he stooped to pick up a pin which lay in his path, and which he carefully stuck in the lappel of his coat. Little did he think that this trivial action was to decide his future fate and open up so famous a destiny to him ; but so it was. From the windows of his cabinet, M. Perre- geaux had observed the movement of the young man. The Swiss banker was one of those keen observers and quick interpreters of human actions, who estimate the value of circum- stances apparently triiSing in them- selves, and which would pass unnoticed by the majority of mankind. He was delighted with the conduct of the young stranger. In this simple action, he saw the revelations of a character. It was a guarantee of a love of order and economy, a certain pledge of the qualities in especial which should be possessed by a good financier. A young man who would thus painstakingly pick up a pin, could not fail to make a good clerk, merit the confidence of his employer, and reach a high degree of prosperity. In the evening of the same day, M. Lafitte received the follow- ing note from M. Perregeaux : — " A place is made for you in my office, which you may take possession of to- morrow morning." The anticipations of the banker were not disappointed. The young Lafitte possessed every desirable quality, and even more than was at first expected. From a simple clerk, he soon rose to be cashier, then partner, then head of the first banking house in Paris ; and after- wards, in rapid succession, a Deputy, and President of the Council of Minis- ters — the highest point to which a citizen could aspire. Earely have riches been placed in better hands — rarely has banker or prince made a more noble use of them. In 1836, M. Lafitte founded the joint-stock bank which goes by his name, and of which he was the head and principal partner. His fortunes changed materially, for the worse, after the Revolution. He died in May, 1844, and was buried with great magnificence in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise. He left one daughter, who married the pi-ince of Moskowa, the son of Marshal Ney. William Forlies, Scotcli Banker. The private banking house once uni- versally known in Scotland under the lead of SiK William Forbes, had a somewhat peculiar genealogy, reaching far back into the last century, and even faintly gleaming through the obscurities of the one before it, when mercantile efforts and speculations were taking their birth amidst the embers of scarcely extinct civil wars and all kinds of pri- vate barbarisms. The genealogy is traced to the fiiTQ of John Coutts & Co., of Edinburgh, in 1742, and the concern appears to be the main stock from which branched off the eminent London banking firms of Coutts & Co. and Herries & Co. It was the first banking house in Edinburgh. Born in 1734, and fatherless when four years of age, Sir William had but little other means of help than the usual Scotch thrift. He rose, however, to be the head of the house which he had entered as an apprentice, without a capital, at fifteen ; recovered the lost fortunes of his family, aided materially in establishing those of his country on a solid basis, and even became the. sole preserver of much of her literary history which must otherwise have perished. Originally confined to commercial dealing and general business traffic, the sole transactions of the house finally came to be those of banking. It sub- sequently yielded, once or twice, to the temptation of mercantile or merchan- dize speculation, but suffered from it, and ever afterv^ard refused to engage, directly or indirectly, in anything but banking. ^Ir. Forbes died, in 1806, at EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. the age of sixty-seven, and to his vir- tues Scott has paid a merited tribute in the dedication of one of the cantos of Marmion. M. Steiglitz, Bicliest of Russian Mer- chants. Y/hat the name of Rothschild is in other countries, and that of Astor in America, the name of Steiglitz is in Russia, and has been for half a century. It would doubtless still continue to hold this pre-eminence, but for the voluntary retirement of the proprietor, two or three years since, with a fortune computed, by Russian authorities, at scores of millions of dollars, — acquired by his connection with all the great financial concerns of the empire, and the numerous and extensive manufac- tories, sugar refineries, etc., which he carried on. M. Steiglitz, senior, arrived in Russia about the commencement of the present century ; he came from Hamburgh, and was a Jew by birth, but subsequently abandoned that faith and identified himself with Christianity. Immediately after his arrival in Russia he entered into business, and founded the great commercial and banking house which he bequeathed to his son, with the title of Baron, and a prodigious fortune. M. Steiglitz, junior, subsequently man- aged the house, and with such ability and success as to be able to retire with an estate valued at little short o^ fifty millions of dollars. This vast fortune consists in capital deposited in the im- perial banks, in shares in the best Rus- sian companies, and in landed estates, both in the south of Russia, in Livonia, and in Germany. He has the rank of Councillor of State, and is decorated with the grand cordon of the Order of St. Stanislaus. He married a Mdlle. Muller, belonging to a highly respect- able, though not wealthy family, and has no children. Solomon, the Merchant Sovereign. King Solomon was at once monarch and merchant ; and it may easily be inferred, that no j^rivate merchant could safely compete with a prince so regal, who had assumed the mer- cantile character. By his intimate commercial union with the Tyrians, he was put into the most favorable of all positions for disposing of his goods. That energetic nation, possessing so small a strip of territory, had much need of various raw produce for their own wants. Another large demand was made by them for the raw materials of manufactures, and for articles which they could with advantage sell again ; and as they were able, in turn, to sell so many acceptable luxmies to the court of Solomon, a most active exchange soon commenced. The carrying trade, which was shared between Solomon and the Tyrians, was probably the most lucrative part of the southern and east- ern commerce. From Egypt, Solomon imported not only linen yarn, but even horses and chariots, which were sold again to ihe princes of Syria and of the Hittites ; the light, strong, and elegant structure of the chariots rendering them very salable. Wine being abundant in Palestine, and wholly wanting in Egypt, was, no doubt, a principal means of re- payment. That Solomon's trading cor- respondence also extended to Babylon, may be fairly inferred. He is said to have realized from a single voyage four hundred and fifty talents of gold, that is, upwards of one Tiundred and twenty millions of dollars ! Tlie business trans- actions of Solomon, it thus appears, were enormously large and lucrative; yet it does not appear that any fault was found with him on that account — particularly by his own subjects. M. Bruck, Austria's Great Merchant Sanker. Some considerable number of years back, when the Greeks were in arms to 8 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. assert their independence, a young man with a staff in his hand and a travelling knapsack on his back, presented him- self at the office of a Greek merchant at Trieste, to whom he had a letter of introduction. Filled with youthful enthusiasm for the once glorious name of Greece, he was on his way to the Morea with the intention of joining the Greek insurgents. The merchant, pleased with the youth's appearance, and perhaps influ- enced by the letter of introduction, thought it a pity that so much intelli- gence should be employed in warlike rather than in peaceful pursuits, and en- deavored to dissuade him from his pur- pose. To give his argument its desired effect, he offered the adventurer a clerk- ship in his office. The offer was imme- diately accepted. The young man's n ame was Bruck. He doubtless devoted him- self with much zeal to the interests of his patron, for in a few years he became the head-clerk and manager of his busi- ness. A courtship shortly afterwards took place between him and the mer- chant's daughter, which ended in mar- riage with her and a partnership in business with her father. This man became one of the ruling spirits in European commerce and finance, the extent of his business operations comporting with the high repute of the house with which he was identified. M. Bruck devoted himself to the formation of the Austrian Navi- gation Company; and he it was who established that well known commer- cial institution, the Austrian Lloyd's — for which he was indebted for a name to the mercantile phraseology of Eng- land, — and which he founded on prin- ciples similar to those by which the English Lloyd's is conducted. It is also due to his energy that railroads have been introduced and extended in Austria. And in addition to all this, his great financial and business talents caused him to be appointed Mnister of Finance of the Empire, — ^like La- bouchere in England, and Lafitte in France. Jones Lloyd, London Banker. The firm of Jones Llotd & Co., consisting of two partners — father and son — has long held rank in London with those of the Coutts, Glyns, Deni- sons. Smiths, Barclays, Paynes, Wil- lisses, and others, for immense extent of business and honorable dealing. Tlie father has been mentioned as the only great banker in London who has made a fortune by banking, without having been bred to it. Banking sought him. He preserves, it is said, to this day, in his bedroom, a little table which used to stand many years ago in his shop at Manchester, and upon which, as people used to bring their money to him, his first accounts were kept. His wealth has been estimated at ten to twelve million dollars in ready money, the whole amount being kept floating in convertible securities for immediate use. Mr. Lewis Lloyd, according to his own account, began business in 1792, at Manchester, where having spent a year, he removed to London, where he concluded to remain, with a partnership in the Manchester firm. According to report, he was originally a Unitarian clergyman, but soon became tired of that vocation — finding it, as he is said to have sometimes confessed after dinner, " much more profitable and agreeable to spend his time in turning over bank notes, than in turning up the whites of his eyes." Mr. Lloyd seems to have been somewhat partial to this style of remark. Thus, when Frys and Chapman, the Quaker bankers, failed, a member of the society took his ac- count to Mr. Lloyd : " We think you are right, friend," said the senior part- ner ; " it is wiser to put thy money with a rich sinner than a poor saint." James Lenox, Merchant, of New York. The name of Lenox appears among some of the early Scotch emigrants, EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 9 such as the Irvings, Masons, Douglasses, Grahams, &c. Robert Lenox became a distinguished New York merchant. His profits were wisely invested in land, and this became very valuable. His only son, James, inherited the larger portion of this estate, whose increasing value made him a million- naire. In his benefactions, Mr. Lenox is said to exercise close discrimination, and in this way has for years refused personal applications. This measure, indeed, was necessary, in order to escape a perpetual siege, which would soon have driven any man to distraction. He has been in the habit of considering written applications, and of selecting such as seemed worthy of his patron- age. Mr. Lenox annually disburses, it is stated, an enormous sum in a most useful as well as most quiet manner. Indeed, his mansion has been described as one of the benevolent institntions of the day — its occupant being, to all intents and purposes, but an actuary, driven by perpetual duties and working with assiduity to fulfil an important trust. He is a thoroughly practical man, posted on all the details of business, and, inheriting the peculiar abilities and energy of his father, puts them to the best of use. Mr. Lenox is a man of fine taste, and finds recreation in gathering rare books, of which he has a valuable collection, and he possesses, in addition, a splendid gallery of pictures, among these being two of Turner's landscapes. Daniel Callagrhan, the Irish Mercantile Celebrity. One of the ablest and most accom- plished merchants that Ireland ever produced was Daniel Callaghan, the elder, — shooting ahead of all the mer- chants in Ireland, by his native abili- ties, his shrewdness, enterprise, and tact. He set up, when but a stripling, in the butter trade, but was refused credit for the small amount of £400 at Tonson & Warren's bank, as his first ex- perience. He, however, finally obtained the aid he was in need of, and from that time pursued his "business with great success. A great London mer- chant took the whole provision contract at that time, and the Cork merchants combined to engross the market. This was the moment chosen by Callaghan to reap the reward of the study he had bestowed, so inquiringly and systemati- cally, upon the business of his choice. Alarmed at their position, one of the Londoners came over, and was still more dismayed when he reached Cork. Young Callaghan introduced himself, and, what was then thought a most presuming thing on his part, he gave a dinner to the Londoner, to which, however, he had some difiiculty in getting guests. He soon showed the London firm the game it should play, and expounded all the resources in their power, to their enlightenment. A share of the contract was immediately given him, and, before the year expired, the same firm handed Callaghan £10,- 000, on his own word, after having hesitated, only nine months before, to take his bond with security for a few hundreds. There have been a few Irish merchants who have realized greater fortunes than Mr. C, who, at his cul- minating point, was rated at con- siderably above a million ; but it was the splendid style in which he trans- acted his aff'airs, his off'-hand deal- ing, his liberality and contempt for peddling, and his complete mercan- tile accomplishments, that placed him at the head of the Irish commercial world. Henry Engelbert Haase, Banker, of Bremen. Among those who have reached and passed through the " golden gate " of commercial success, is Henry Engel- BERT Haase, of Bremen, widely known at home and abroad, but whose career terminated so disastrously. By trade 10 COMMERCIAL AXD BUSINESS ANECDOTES. lie amassed a large property, and was one of tlie most Ligbly respected busi- ness men in Bremen — ^holding several public offices, was trustee of various funds, administrator of many estates, and guardian of a large number of or- phan children. In fact, he abounded in both jDublic and private charities, and he was always the one above all others to w^hom his friends intrusted their obli- gations when they were absent from the city. A certain coxcombry — for instance, he wore jewels and lace, which w^as not usual, and took every measure to conceal his age — was for- given him, on account of the high esteem which ht3 universally enjoyed.^ No one ever ventured in the slightest degree to ridicule Alderman Haase — in the opinion of eveiy one, he stood higher than any other man in Bremen. He was remarkably hospitable ; enter- taining every week a distinguished company, and a degree of luxury was exhibited at his dinners, excusable only in a rich man vn.thout childi'en. In his annual statement of the different trust funds he had in charge, he warmly solicited the inspection of the books, and often pretended that the value of the property had increased by advan- tageous purchase and sale of stocks, and frequently offered to show the overseers the certificates in various closets and oaken chests; but it was naturally deemed a gross imputation on such a wealthy trustee and sternly particular accountant, as well as a downright waste of time, to accept the offer. But at last, in one of the ways peculiar in such cases, an explosion took place, and his defalcations, squan- dered in luxury and " charity," were found to be immense. His house fell, and " great was the fall of it." Preserved Fish, Merchant, of New York. No name was better known in the mercantile community of New York than this, during the advanced life- time of its owner. Mr. Fish was born in Rhode Island, July 3, 1766, of parents in obscure circumstances. He was at an early age apprenticed to the j blacksmith business, but becoming dis- satisfied with his employment and em- I)loyers, he ran away, and shipped as a cabin boy in a whaling vessel. In this trade he made several voyages, grad- ually rising until he became master of a small w^haling craft, and finally by his economy and industry accumula- ting a little cai)ital. In 1810, he quit his seafaring life and settled in New York, forming a business co]Dartnership with his cousin, Mr. Joseph Grinnell, under the style of Fish & Grinnell, and which lasted until 1825, w^hen Mr. Fish went to Europe and established a house in Liverpool, under the name of Fish, Cairns & Crary. He soon after returned to New York, forming a copartnership with Mr. Saul Alley and Joseph Lawrence, under the style of Fish, Alley & Law- rence, but which only continued for two or three years. As j^resident of the Tradesmen's bank, to which posi- tion he was elected in 1829, his manage- ment was vei-y successful, as the high dividends and large contingent fund of that institution, under his adminis- tration, show. Mr. Fish was remarkable for great energy and decision of character, pur- suing with ardor anything he under- took, and, like most men of this char- acter, he was rather opinionative, and always firm in maintaining his own notions — ^possessing but little of the suaviter in modo, that oily process of operating which distinguishes the more polished man. Perhaps this trait which characterized Mr. Fish may be said to have been illustrated in the remark made by a certain eminent man, that " whenever I issue an order to a servant, I say if you please, and if he clmi^t please. I male Mm please^'' Still, in busi- ness qualifications, Mr. Fish Bad few superiors, and enjoyed the universal EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 11 confidence of the mercantile commu- nity. It may be said of him, that he was temperate in his habits, moderate in his desires, and neither parsimonious nor prodigal in his expenses ; while his industry, economy and good judgment, enabled him to realize a fortune from which he derived an abundant income. He was three times married, but left no children. The story that he was picked up at sea, on a plank or in an open boat, and in that way acquired the name Preserved^ was unfounded in truth; but its peculiarity probably added notoriety to a character already distinguished for consistency, a discrim- inating judgment and stern integrity. The name of David Leavitt may also be here cited as that of one who exhibits in his habits of industry and his busmess judgment, as well as financial success, a parallel case with that of Mr. Fish. And to these distinguishing qualities as a business m.an, Mr. Leavitt unites the personal bearing of a bland and high-toned gentleman of the old school. Few names stand out brighter on the roll of illustrious American merchants, — attaining to wealth and distinction by every honorable means perseveringly ap- plied, — than that of David Leavitt. Amos Lawrence, Merchant, Boston. According to the usual custom in Kew England, the first experience of Amos Lawrence, in the sphere of busi- ness, was that of shop boy, and subse- quently that of clerk. The firm by whom he was thus employed having, in course of time, become insolvent, Mr. L. con- ceived the idea of commencing business on his own account, and accordingly rented a shop on Cornhill, Boston. He was then, he says, in the matter of property. Hot worth a dollar. His father was comfortably off as a farmer, somewhat in debt, with perhaps four thousand dollars. His brother Luther was in the practice of law, getting for- ward, but not worth two thousand dol- lars ; William had nothing ; AblDott, a lad just fifteen years old, at school ; and Samuel was a child of only seven years. Some four months before, Mr. Law- rence's father mortgaged his farm for the sum of one thousand dollars, and placed the proceeds in the hands of Amos, for his use in business. Although the latter was deeply affected by this act, which had been effected without consultation with any human being, he did not the less deeply regret it. He had no desire for aid that might cause others to suffer through their affording it. His own ideas on this point will be interesting : " My honored father brought to me one thousand dollars, and asked me to give him my note for it. I told him he did wrong to place himself in a situation to be made unhappy, if I lost the money. He told me he guessed I would'' nt Jose it, and I gave him my note. The first thing I did was to take four per cent, premium on my Boston bills — the dif- ference then between passable and Bos- ton money — and send a thousand dol- lars in bills of the Hillsborough Bank to Amherst, N. H., by my father, to my brother Luther, to carry to the bank and get specie, principally in silver change, for the bills, and he returned it to me in a few days. In the mean time, or shortly after, the bank had been sued, the bills discredited, and, in the end, prove.d nearly worthless. I deter- mined not to use the money except in the safest way, and therefore loaned it to the Messrs. Parkman, in whom I had entire confidence. After I had been in business, and had made more than a thousand dollars, I felt that I could repay the money, come what would of it— being insured against fire, and trusting no one for goods. I used it in my business, but took care to pay off the mortgage as soon as it would be received." Mr. Lawrence cleared fifteen hundred dollars the first year, and four thousand the second. Excessive credit he re- garded as the rock upon which so many 12 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. business men are broken. He there- fore, at the commencement of his own business, adopted the plan of keeping an accurate account of merchandise bought and sold each day, with the profit, as far as practicable. This plan he pursued for a number of years ; and he never found his merchandise fall short in taking an account of stock, which he did as often at least as once in each year. He was thus enabled to form an opinion of his actual state as a business man. He adopted also the rule always to have property, after the second year's business, to represent forty per cent, at least more than he owed — that is, never to be in debt more than two and one-half times his capital, a plan which saved him from ever get- ting embarrassed. The splendid for- tune which Amos Lawrence amassed, during his business career, was thus founded in the most careful and up- right regulations, and to these he rigidly adhered. He used his vast wealth for the best good of his fellow creatures ; and his style of living, though elegant, as became one occupying so high a posi- tion, was marked by no extravagance. What his distinguished namesake, Cor- nelius W. Lawrence, has so long been in the commercial circles of the Empire State, — or its metropolis, — Amos Law- rence was in New England and its thriving capital. The history of both of these men is luminous with those traits and characteristics which lie at the foundation of prosperous commerce and individual renown. Lorenzo de Medicis, "the Magiaificent Merchant." The Medici family is universally acknowledged to be the most splendid instance of commercial greatness which the world affords. The true source of the wealth and renown of the Medici was their superior talents, and the application of those talents to mercan- tile enterprise. Cosmo de Medici and his grandson. " the Magnificent Lorenzo," were prac- tised and operative merchants, who by combining personal enterprise with the most exalted patriotism, and a love of trade with a devotion to science and literature, raised the city of Florence to an unexampled height of glory, and made themselves the first citizens of the world. The high character of Lorenzo, as a statesman and man of letters, was the means of obtaining from other countries privileges and advantages which ren- dered Florence the envy of the civilized world. The glory of the republic appeared at a distance to be concentred in himself He seems to have arrived at proficiency in everything he under- took, and his individual success was made subservient to his country's good, his private gains being freely devoted to the defense of the state and the preservation of its honor. Under the auspices of this family of merchants, literature, science, and the arts, flourished side by side with com- merce. The Medicean Library, founded by Cosmo, and supported by his grand- son, still exists in Florence, presenting the noblest of the many monuments of their glory, the most authentic deposi- tory of their magnificent fame. Historians, poets, and philosoiDhers, have combined to swell the notes of praise in honor of the merchant to whom posterity has awarded the title of " Magnificent." Thus, Voltaire says : " What a curious sight it is to see the same person with one hand sell the commodities of the Levant, and with the other support the burden of a state, maintaining factors and receiving am- bassadors, making war and peace, op- posing the pope, and giving his ad- vice and mediation to the princes of his time, cultivating and encouraging learning, exhibiting shows to the peo- ple, and giving an asylum to the learned Greeks that fled from Constantinople ! Such was Lorenzo de Medicis; and when to these particular distinctions, EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 13 the glorious names of the father of his country and the mediator of Italy are appended, who seems more entitled to the notice and admiration of posterity than this illustrious citizen of Flor- ence ? " This eulogy is as beautifully as it is wisely and truthfully penned. The death of this great man, whose splendid career terminated at the early age of forty-four years, called forth from his townsman and contemporary, the wise but profligate Machiavelli, the fol- lowing encomium : "No man ever died in Florence, or in the whole extent of Italy, with a higher reputation, or more lamented by his country. Not "only his fellow citizens, but all the princes of Italy, were so sensibly affect- ed by his death, that there was not one of them who did not send ambassadors to Florence, to testify their grief, and to condole with the republic on so great a loss." The busts and portraits of this illustrious merchant adorn almost every art-collection and gallery in the capitals of Europe. — » — Henry Hope, tlie Amsterdam Banker. The great Amsterdam banking house of Hope & Co., was established in the- seventeenth century by Henry Hope, a Scottish gentleman, a descendant of John de Hope, who came in 1537 from France to Scotland, in the train of Madeleine, queen of James V. Mr. Hope was one of the most exalted of his class. It was he who opened the way for the autocratic power of Eussia, under the empress Catharine II., to the confidence of the then wealthiest cap- italists in Europe, the Dutch, and there- by laid the foundation of Russian credit. Always treated by the empress with great distinction, he was honored with the gift from her own hand, of her portrait, the full size of life. This pic- ture occupied the place of honor in the superb gallery of paintings, fitted up by Mr. Hope in his palace " t'Huys ten Bosch," now a royal pleasure-place, which he had built in the domain of Harlem. Upon his emigration to Eng- land, he took this splendid gallery, entirely composed of cabinet i^ieces, with him, having it at his residence in Cavendish Square. To the tone of a refined gentleman and man of the world, he united a cer- tain amiable affability, which w^on upon all who were numbered among his associates. The trouble of his heart, however, was the notorious relations of his niece. Madam Williams Hope, with a Dutch officer of dragoons, by the name of Dopff. The larger part of Hope's fortune, which he had bequeath- ed to Henry, the eldest son of this niece, and who died unmarried, passed, at the decease of the latter, to Adrian, the second son, who left no male heirs, but from whom it descended to Francis, the third son, born several years afterward, — this third inheritor being the rich and well known Mr. Hope, of Paris, the last member of that branch of the whole family. One of the leading members of this vast establishment, in the early part of the present century, was Mr. Henry Hope, who was born in this country, being the son of a Scotch loy- alist who had settled in Boston, Mass. This Henry Hope lived some time in the town of Quincy, Mass., and was a poor youth when he emigrated from that place to England, at the close of the last century. Mr. John Williams, an Englishman, who married his niece, and who assumed the name of John Williams Hope, and afterward that of John Hope, was the manager of the establishment. Among the silent part- ners of the house were Adrian Hope, Henry Philip Hope, and Thomas Hope, the author of " Anastasius." The oldest active member of the firm was Mr. Peter Caesar Labouchere, the interesting cir- cumstances relating to whom, in his elevation to this high position, are narrated on another page of this work. The governments with whom this house entertain the most intimate 14 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. financial relations, are those of Hol- land, Russia, and Spain. The Hope certificates, as the stocks are called, which the Russian government has given to the Dutch bankers, in ac- knowledgment of its debt, amount to about twenty-five millions of dollars. Although much less powerful in its monetary sway than the Rothschilds, the Hopes hold in some respects a posi- tion superior to the Jewish bankers. Sir Archibald Hope, and the Earl of Hope- toun (John Alexander Hope), are the present representatives of the English and elder branch of the Hope family. Some of the great financial transac- tions of this eminent house, as given in other parts of this volume, will be found to possess scarcely less interest than a romance. Francis Child, the Founder of English Banking Houses. The celebrity of the first London banking house belongs, by common consent, to Mr. Francis Child. This gentleman, who was the father of his profession, and possessed a large pro- perty, began business shortly after the Restoration. He was, originally, ap- prenticed to William Wheeler, pawn- broker and banker, whose shop was on the site of the present world- renowned banking house. The foun- dation of his importance arose from the good old fashion of marrying his master's daughter, and through this he succeeded to his estate and business. The latter he subsequently confined entirely to the banking department. The principles on which he founded it, and the remarkable clauses in his will, by which he regulated its future conduct, show him to have been a man of the highest business character. It has maintained to the present day, amid all the chances and changes of banking, the same position and the same respectability which he beqjaeath- ed to it. Stephen Whitney, Merchant, of New York. Stephen Whitney was so long an habitue of Wall street. Front street, and Coenties slip, that even now (says a writer in the " Continental Magazine ") we almost momentarily expect to meet him. His office was held for years in the second story of a warehouse in Front street, a spot in whose vicinity he had passed nearly threescore years. Thither he had come, in his boyhood, a poor, friendless, New Jersey lad, had found friends and employment, had at last got to be a grocer, and had gradually accumulated a large capital by the closest economy. At this time, the war of 1812 broke out, and cotton became very low, in consequence of the difficulty of shipping it to England. Mr. Whitney had at that time a vast amount of outstanding accounts in the Southern States, and his debtors were glad to pay him in this depreciated article. We have been informed that Jackson's cotton defenses of New Orleans were of his property. As neutral ships were iDcrmitted to sail between the belligerent ports, Mr. Whitney exported large quantities of cotton to England, and held the balance of his stock until the close of the war, when it advanced enormously. This advance, together with the proceeds of his exports, at once made him a mil- lionnaire, and the capital thus acquired never lost a chance of increase. Giving up the details of trade, Mr. Whitney bought large quantities of real estate, on which he erected warehouses and obtained a princely rental. Francis Ca"bot Lowell, Merchant, of Boston. This distinguished merchant was a native of Newburyport, Mass., where he was born in 1775, and died in Bos- ton in 1817. In 1810, Mr. Lowell visited England, on account of the state of his health ; and on his return home, shortly after the commencement of the EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 15 war of 1812, lie became so strongly- con vinced of the practicability of intro- ducing tlie cotton manufacture into the United States, that he proposed to his kinsman, Patrick T, Jackson, to make the experiment on an ample scale. The result of his project was the establishment of manufactures at Wal- tham, and the foundation of the city of Lowell, which Avas named after himself. He visited Washington in 1816, and his personal influence with Mr. Lowndes, Mr. Calhoun, and other leading members of Congress, contri- buted largely to the introduction into the tariff act of that year of the protec- tive clause which gave such an impetus to the cotton manufacture in the United States. Johannes Fug-ger, and the Great Com- mercial Family of Fuggers. The origin of the proverb " as rich as a Fugger " is in the name of a Ger- man fixmily of immensely wealthy mer- chants. Its founder was Johannes FuGGEK, a weaver of Graben, near Augsburg, who lived in the first half of the fourteenth century, and acquired a large property in lands by commerce in cloths. His son, of the same name, continued the occupation of weaver, to which he also added that of cloth mer- chant. Andreas, eldest son of the latter, lived about 1400, and was widely known as " Fugger the Rich.'''' The nephews of the last, Ulrich, Georg, and Jakob, born about the middle of the fifteenth century, covered the Baltic with their commerce, which extended also to Hungary, Italy, and even to India, and were able to influence the affairs of the empire by lending money to the princes, and were in course of time created nobles. After attaining to high political dignities, they continued their commerce, built in the Tyrol the splendid castle of Fug- gerau, greatly embellished the city of Augsburg, and found a new source of wealth by working the mines of laathal, Falkenstein, and Schwartz. The only heirs of these three brothers were two sons of Ulrich, Raimund and Anton. The latter raised the family to its high- est degree of j)rosperity and power. The emperor Charles V. resorted to them both when pressed for money, yielded to them the privilege of coining, and made them counts and princes of the empire, and was lodged in the splendid mansion of Anton when he attended the diet of Augsburg. So wealthy were they, through the success attending their commercial enterprise, that " as rich as a Fugger " became a proverb. The most important branches of this family at present are the princely houses of Kirchberg and Babenhausen. Benjamin Bussey, Merchant, of Boston. Benjamin Bussey was for a long period known as one of the old school merchants of Boston — only a few of whom now remain as representatives of that highly honored and most worthy class. He was in the early part of his life engaged in the occupation of a silver- smith, and on going into business on his own account he had only a very small amount of paper money, which his father gave him, accompanied with the characteristic advice of that day, to be always diligent, — to spend less than he earned, — and never to deceive or dis- appoint any one. From his grandfather he also obtained the additional sum, at this time, of fifty dollars in silver money. Having purchased the neces- sary tools, he had only ten dollars left as his whole capital, and owed fifty dollars borrowed money. But he pos- sessed an iron constitution, principles of strict integrity, and a spirit of per- severance which nothing could subdue or tire. In one year he made himself acquainted with all the details of a silversmith's art ; he had by his good business management acquired some capital, and his success had been equal to his expectations. Ajiicles of gold 16 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. and silver wrought by his own hand — and well wrought, too, — may still be met with in and near Boston. In two years he purchased the real estate on which was his store. He subsequently engaged in trade, in Dedham, and afterward in Boston, soon reaching a high position as a merchant. His business rapidly increased, he became deeply concerned in commerce, dealt largely with England, France, and Holland, owned several large vessels, and was engaged in heavy and distant mercantile adventures— though aU of them were legitimate business transac- tions, for he never speculated. He seldom gave or took credit. The immense fortune which he left ulti- mately goes, by his will, to Harvard University. — ♦ Peter Cooper, Merchant, of New York. It is an interesting fact, that the first idea of Peter Cooper's great Univer- sity of Science, or " Institute," arose in his mind when he was young and thirst- ing for knowledge, which at that time he could not buy in New York, even with the money which he earned in his trade. One day, a friend told him of a visit he had lately made to Paris, where he had been able to learn whatever he wished, without money and without price, at the University endowed by the first Napoleon. Peter Cooper, with all the ardor of his aspiring mind, wished that there was such an opportu- nity in America, and this idea he said never left him afterward. When he began to be very successful, this idea began to take shape, till at last it has built that monumental palace of Science for " whosoever will " — the Coo- per Institute, involving the munificent individual appropriation of six hundred thousand dollars, and which bids fair to rival, at some future day, the most magnificent universities of Euroj^e. The successful glue-maker has always in a measure " stuck to his glue," and now not merely sits in the palace due to his opulence and high position as a merchant, but is besides an intellectual noble of the first class. George Peabody, American Merchant and Banker, of London. George Peabody was born in Dan- vers, Mass., Feb. 18, 1795, of parents in humble circumstances, though in- dustrious and respectable. His father, however, died when George was in his teens, and, from the first, he was aware that in the battle of life before him he ' must depend on himself alone. Fortu- nately for himself and many others, he very early found that he could thus depend on his unaided efibrts. Incidents strongly displaying ambition, energy, and perseverance, marked the whole course of his youth. The hard earnings of his boyhood were cheerfully devoted to the comfort of his mother, his broth- ers, and sisters; and he subsequently charged himself with their entire sup- port, and cheerfully practised eveiy self-denial that he might serve them. It is always safe to say, that the son and brother who has shown himself true to the claims of kindred, will be found wanting in none of the relations of life; and George Peabody is an eminent illustration of the truth of this saying. At the age of thirteen he became clerk for a grocer, and remained with him about three years. Afterward, he went with an uncle to Georgetown, and in course of time he attracted the atten- tion of Mr. Riggs, the capitalist, with whom he finally went into business — Riggs furnishing the money and Pea- body the brains. The house was re- moved to Baltimore, and prospered so well that branches were established in New York and Philadelphia. In 1837 he went to England to buy goods, and formed many acquaintances with its leading merchants and politicians. He now took up his permanent residence in England, and severed his connection with Peabody, Riggs & Co., in 1839. EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 17 He rendered important service in pre- venting tlie complete prostration of American securities, and particularly those of Maryland, in London, in 1837, but refused all compensation for what he did. While he has lived in Eng- land, his establishment has been a head- quarters for Americans, whom he has always welcomed with a generous hos- pitality. The princely gift of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars was made a short time ago to the destitute of London, but was not the first in- stance of his public spirited generosity. In 1852, he sent a toast to a semi-cen- tennial festival at his native town, Danvers, which was to be opened at the table. It was: "Education, a debt to future generations;" and to pay his share of that debt, he inclosed twenty thousand dollars, to be ex- pended in establishing an institute, library and lyceum for the town. The sum has since been increased to sixty thousand, with ten thousand dollars additional for a branch library at No. Danvers. Mr. Peabody subscribed ten thousand dollars toward the first Grin- nell expedition to the Arctic sent in search of Franklin. In 1856, he gave three hundred thousand dollars, with a pledge to make it five hundred thousand, for the establishment of an institute in Baltimore, to be devoted to science, literature and art. A record of colossal munificence is that of George Peabody. John McDonogrh, Millionnaire, of New- Orleans. John McDoisroGH was born in Balti- more, Md., in 1779. The only incidents of his youth that are known are, that he was a clerk in a mercantile store in an inland town of Maryland ; that he was noted then for eccentricities, and for an excess of imagination, which led to the apprehension that he was not entirely of sound mind. Still, his energy and intelligence secured him 2 employment and the confidence of his employers. About the year 1800 he was sent out to New Orleans by a house in Balti- more, with a letter of credit and con- siderable resources. He then engaged largely in business, but soon renounced his position as agent, and starting on his own account, became a leading and prosperous merchant. In a few years he accumulated a large fortune, say at least three hundred thousand clollars. He was one of the nabobs of the city, and his style of living, and his habits, conformed to his position and resources. His mansion was one of the most showy and luxurious in the city. He kept his carriages and horses, his cellar of costly wines, and entertained on a scale of great extravagance and sumptuousness. He was, in fact, the centre of fashion, frivolity, sociability, and even of the fashi onable dissipations of the day. His person, which even in extreme old age was remarkable for dignity, erectness, and courtliness, was at this period con- spicuous for all the graces of manhood. Owing to some peculiar experiences of a private nature — an account of which will be found in our Anecdotes of Merchants in theib Domestic Rela- tions, — Mr. McDonogh eventually be- came secluded and morose, though prosecuting his acquisition of property with augmented vigor, his peculiar passion being that of accumulating countless acres of waste and suburban land. All his views regarded the dis- tant future. The present value and pro- ductiveness of land were but little re- garded by him. His only recreation and pleasure were in estimating the value of his swamp and waste land fifty, a hundred, and even a thousand years to come. This passion at last gained such an ascendency over him, that he seemed to court and luxuriate in waste and desolation. He would buy cultivated places, and let them go to ruin. He would build on his lots in the city miserable shanties and rookeries, which 18 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. would absolutely taint the neighbor- hood, and thus enable him to buy out his neighbors at low rates. He could not be induced, by any offer or consideration, to alienate any of the property he had once acquired. Abstemious to a fault, and withholding himself from all the enjoyments and associations of the world, he devoted his time to the care of his large estate, to the suits in which such acquisitions constfintly involved him, working for seventeen hours out of the twenty-four, the greater part of which labor con- sisted in writing the necessary docu- ments relating to his titles, and in corresponding with his lawyers and his overseers. For the fifty years of his residence in New Orleans, he never left the State, and rarely, if ever, passed beyond the limits of the corporation. He was not a usurer, a money lender, nor a speculator. He acquired by legitimate purchase, by entries on public lands. He dealt altogether in land. Stocks, merchandise, and other per- sonal securities, were eschewed by him. The wonder is, how, with a compara- tively small revenue, his property not being productive, and his favorite policy being to render his lands wild and unsuited for cultivation, he was able to go on every year expanding the area of his vast possessions. » Sampson Gideon, the Rival of Roths- child. Sampson Gideon, the great Jew banker, as he was commonly called — and the rival and enemy of Rothschild — was the financial support of the illus- trious Sir Robert Walpole, the oracle and leader in all monetary matters, and his name was as familiar in the last century as those of Goldschmid and Rothschild. A shrewd, sarcastic man, possessing a rich vein of humor, the anecdotes and reminiscences preserved of him are, unhappily, few and far be- tween. " Never grant a life annuity to an old woman," he would say ; " they wither, but they never die." And if the proposed annuitant coughed with a violent asthmatic cough on apiDroach- ing the room door, Gideon would call out, " Aye, aye, you may cough, but it shan't save you six months' purchase ! " In one of his dealings with Mr. Snow, the banker — immortalized by Dean Swift— the latter lent Gideon £20,000. Shortly afterward, the "forty-five" broke out ; the success of the Pretender seemed certain ; and Mr. Snow, alarmed for his cherished property, addressed a piteous epistle to the Jew. A run upon his office, a stoppage, and a bankrupt- cy, were the least phenomena the bank- er's imagination pictured; and the whole concluded with an earnest re- quest for his money. Gideon went to the bank, procured twenty notes, sent for a vial of hartshorn, rolled the vial in the notes, and thus grotesquely IMj*. Snow received the money he had lent. The greatest hit Gideon ever made was when the rebel army aj^proached London ; when the king was trem- bling ; when the prime minister was undetermined, and stocks were sold at any price. Unhesitatingly he went to Jonathan's, bought all in the market, advanced every guinea he possessed, pledged his name and rej)utation for more, and held as much as the remainder of the members held together. When the Pretender retreated and stocks rose, the Jew experienced the advantage of his foresight, in immense gains. Khan, the Great Persian Merchant. When Georgia was invaded by Mo- hammed, the founder of the present Per- sian dynasty, the only one of the Khoras- sanian chiefs who was not obliged to give hostages of fidelity was Isaac Khan, chief of Turbet-e-Hyderee, a man of low birth, who, by the pursuits of commerce, had been able, like the Medici family in Italy, to obtain a territory of two hundred miles in EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 19 length, and to raise himself from being oyerseer of a caravansary, to the rank of an independent sovereign and the most eminent merchant and trader in the wl^ole realm. His revenue was reckoned at one million dollars, two hundred thousand of which was realized from the merchandise in which he traded, and the rest from his land property, etc., which he had come in possession of by means of his vast and successful mercantile transactions. He had six thousand troops in his pay, but chiefly trusted to his policy for the maintenance of his power; nor did ever prince more securely reign in the hearts of his subjects, and of the mer- chants whom he had attracted to his , new emporium. To these, as well as to pilgrims and beggars of every country and religion, his hall was always open ; and it was his principal relaxation from the fatigues of public affairs and commercial traffic, to dine in company with the motley multitude, — conversing on equal terms with all, acquiring an accurate knowledge of everything which concerned the welfare of the people, and admired by his guests for his affability. Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, the Great Parsee Merchant. One of the most remarkable East India merchants, a native of the Par- see race and faith, and ranking with the highest and the most enlightened among Europeans of the same business calling, was Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy. He was born at Bombay in 1783, and his father was so poor that he followed the profession of a " bottly-wallah," that is, a bottle-fellow, buying and selling old bottles. At the age of nineteen, Jamsetjee entered into partnership with his father-in-law, Framjee Nusserwan- jee, and in the following years made several successful voyages, to China. Possessing those qualities most desir- able in a merchant, integrity, judg- ment, and enterprise, he gradually extended his dealings to other coun- tries, and drew in a rich harvest of gains. His ships, built by the excellent Parsee shipwrights of Bombay, traded with all parts of the East, and now and then sailed even round the Cape. Year after year he prospered, and when he had been twenty years in business, he had acquired a large and still increas- ing fortune. He did not, however, in winning his fortune, forget or mistake how to spend it. In the course of a few years, Jeejeeb- hoy's benefactions amounted to some $300,000. The East India Government made a report of his enlightened munifi- cence to the Home Government, and the latter conferred upon him the rare and distinguished honor of knighthood. It was the first instance, indeed, of any royal title being bestowed by the Eng- lish government upon a native of India. The ceremony of presentation took place at the Governor's House. The circumstance was one not only highly gratifying to Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy himself, but to the native community in general, who are accustomed to attach an extravagant value to any such marks of honor. It was conse- quently determined by some of the most influential natives to offer him a testimonial at once of their respect for his character, and their gratification at the distinction he had obtained. A sum of fifteen thousand rupees was consequently raised, and invested — not in a silver service, a bust, or a statue, but — in a fund, the interest of which should be devoted to procuring translations of popular and important works from other languages into Guze- ratte, the language chiefly in use among the Parsees. Vincent Nolte, the Wandering: Mer- chant. YiNCENT Nolte has been termed " the wandering merchant." He was born at Leghorn, in Italy, and lived, successively, in Leghorn, Hamburg, 20 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. Trieste, Venice, Nantes, Paris, Amster- dam, London, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. He began his life as a clerk in the house of Otto Frank & Co., at Leghorn, in 1795 ; while drawing cari- catures, the theatres, dress, and flirta- tion, formed his real occupation. His tailor's bill, at the end of a year, pre- sented the not inconsiderable sum total of twelve coats of all colors, and twenty- two pairs of hose and pantaloons, which were just then coming into fashion, — rather fast life for a youth of sixteen. He saw Bonaparte at Leghorn, in 1796 ; saw Wellington and the allies at Paris, in 1815 ; fought under Jackson, at New Orleans, in 1814, and was with Lafay- ette, in Paris, during the revolution of 1830. How many times he crossed the Atlantic it would be difficult to say. Mr. Nolte was termed " the giant of cotton speculation " at New Orleans ; he was also a contractor for supplying the French army with muskets; the mercantile agent in Cuba and the United States of the house of Hope & Co., of Amsterdam ; and agent of the Barings ; an operator in stocks ; a trans- lator of manuscripts at Venice ; a Tresor de Numismatique et de Glyptique; a writer on finance ; and an editor. He stood in business and social relations with most of the great men of " high finance " of the last century — with the Barings, Labouch&re, Hottinguer, La- fitte, Ouvrard, etc. " liord Timothy Dexter," the Eccentric Merchant, of Newburyport, Mass. According to his own account, Tim- othy Dexter was bom in Maiden, Mass., Jan. 22, 1747. After having served as an apprentice to a leather dresser, he commenced business in Newburyport, where he also married a widow, who owned a house and a small piece of land, part of which, soon after the nuptials, was converted by him into a shop and tanyard for his own use. By application to his business, his property increased, and the jDurchase of a large tract of land near Penobscot, together with an interest which he bought in the Ohio Company's pur- chase, eventually afforded him so much profit as to induce him to buy up pub- lic securities at forty cents for the pound, which securities soon after became worth twenty shillings on the pound. By these and other fortunate business trans- actions,^ he prospered so greatly, that property now was no longer the sole object of his pursuit ; he exchanged this god of idolatry for that of popular- ity. He was charitable to the poor, gave liberal donations to religious so- cieties, and handsomely rewarded those who wrote in his praise. His lordship — a self-conferred title — about this time, acquired his peculiar taste for style and splendor, set up an elegant equipage, and, at great cost, adorned the front of his mansion with numerous figures of il- lustrious personages. Some of his lordship's speculations in trade have become quite as celebrat- ed for their oddity as those of Roths- child for their unscrupulous cunning. He once anxiously inquired of some merchants, whom he knew, how he should dispose of a few hundred dol- lars. Wishing to hoax him, they an- swered, " Why, buy a cargo of warm- ing pans, and send them to the West Indies, to be sure." Not suspecting the trick, he at once bought all the warming pans he could find, and sent them to a climate where — there was every reason to suppose — ice would be far more acceptable. But " Providence sometimes shows his contempt of wealth, by giving it to fools." The warming pans met with a ready sale — the tops being used for strainers, and the lower parts for dippers, in the man- ufacture of molasses. With the proceeds of his cargo of warming pans. Dexter built a fine ves- sel ; and being informed by the carpen- ter that wales were wanting, he called on an acquaintance, and said, "My EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 21 head workman sends me word that he wants ' wales ' for the vessel. What does he mean ? " " Why, whalebones, to be sure," answered the man, who, like everybody else, was tempted to im- prove the opportunity of imposing upon Dexter's stupidity. Whalebones were accordingly bought ; but, finding that Boston could not furnish enough, he emptied New York and Philadel- phia. The ship-carpenters, of course, had a hearty laugh at his expense ; but, by a singular turn of fortune, this blun- der was also the means of increasing his wealth. It soon after became fash- ionable for ladies to wear stays com- pletely lined with whalebone ; and as none was to be found in the country, on account of his having thus so complete- ly swept the market, it brought a gold- en price. Thus his coffers were a sec- ond time filled by his odd transactions. Joshua Bates, of the House of Baring: & Co. An honored member of the great firm of Baring Brothers & Co., London, is Joshua Bates. Mr. Bates is a native of Weymouth, Mass., where he was born in 1788, being the only son of Col. Joshua Bates, of that place. He received his early education under Rev. Jacob Norton, and at the age of fifteen entered the counting-room of William R. Gray, of Boston, an accom- plished man of business. Young Bates showed a remarkable aptitude for commercial knowledge and a commercial career, on which account he was intrusted with the extensive business concerns not only of his first employer, but of the latter's father also, the elder Mr. Gray, for a long time the leading merchant in New England and exceeded by but a few in the world, in respect to extent of shipping. The war with England proving disas- trous to mercantile pursuits, Mr. Bates was despatched to Europe, to look after Mr. Gray's extensive maritime interests in that quarter. This, of course, brought him into relations with ^zme of the leading commercial and banking houses of Europe, especially of the Hopes and the Barings, who were greatly im- pressed with his remarkable talent and judgment in respect to whatever con- cerned the commerce of the world. In the year 1826, through the influence of Messrs. Baring Brothers & Co., he formed a house in London, in connec- tion with Mr. John Baring, son of Sir Francis Baring, under the firm of Bates & Baring. On the death of the late Mr. Holland, these gentlemen were both made partners in the house of Baring Brothers & Co., and of which Mr. Bates has ever since been an active and efficient member, giving to it much of that commanding influence which it enjoys both in Europe and America. Mr. Bates has long been noted for his large-hearted charities on both sides of the Atlantic. His most munificent donations to the Boston Public Library are well known; but his benevolence has by no means been confined to that object alone. Mr. Bates was married, in 1813, to Lucretia Augusta, of the Boston branch of the Sturgis family, by whom he has only one surviving child, Madame Van de Wyer, wife of the eminent states- man who has more than once been called to administer the government of Belgium, and more recently officia- ting as its diplomatic representative at the court of St. James. James Morrison, " of twenty millions.'* James Morrison, who well deserved the title given him of a " modern Croe- sus," was until his death one of the extremely rich men of London. In mental character, and with boundless wealth entirely self-acquired, this great millionnaire was certainly remarkable as a man and a merchant He was of common parents, originally of Scotch descent. Early transplanted to the English metropolis, at the end of the 22 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. last century, the country boy first set foot in London unaided, in search of his fortunes. After the close of the great Continental wars, and the conse- quent rapid extension of population and wealth, Mr. Morrison was one of the first English traders who reversed his system of management, by an entire departure from the old plan of exact- ing the highest prices. His new prin- ciple was the substitution of the lowest remunerative scale of profit and a more rapid circulation of capital ; the success of this experiment was soon seen in his enormously augmented trade. " Small profits and quick re- turns " was his motto, and he therefore became widely known as the " Cheap Merchant." From his earliest settle- ment in London, he was associated with the liberal party in politics, — even in the worst of times, — nor did his later gains of immense wealth ever vary his political principles. As a member of Parliament, he devoted himself to questions and measures re- lating to trade, foreign commerce, the currency, and railways. His accumula- tions amounted to the prodigious sum of twenty millions of dollars. Mr. Morrison retired from active business several years since, but with- out withdrawing his capital from the mercantile house ; and though man- aging his vast funds himself up to the time of his death (which recently oc- curred) with all the sagacity of earlier days, he became haunted with the idea that he should come to want. He finally commenced doing day labor on a farm held by one of his tenants, for which labor he was regularly paid twelve shillings a week, and this he continued up to the time of his last ill- ness. For eighteen months before his death he was an habitual applicant for relief to the parish, assembling twice a week with the town pauj)ers, and receiving with each one of them his two shillings and a quartern loaf. His friends indulged him in these fancies, on the ground that it was the best choice of two evils. And yet he made a most judicious will, and his invest- ments up to the last were characterized by great good sense. The probate duty on Mr. Morrison's will exceeded five hundred thousand dollars. Among his possessions was his seat at Basildon Park, which cost over six hundred thousand dollars, and the furniture four hunded and fifty thousand. The mansion on this estate was left to his widow, with an annuity of fifty thousand dollars yearly. The estate itself was left to his son Charles, as well as the Islay estate in Scotland, which latter cost about two and a-half millions of dollars. This is let to numerous tenants, and from its extent and vastness may be termed a princi- pality. His son Charles was likewise bequeathed the round sum of |5,000,000 under the will. Besides being possessed of Fonthill Abbey, Hone Park, Sussex, and his town palace in Harley street, Mr. Monison had shares amomiting to four hundred thousand dollars in the Victoria Docks, and large acquisitions in the United States. Jacob Little, " of Wall Street." The name of Jacob Little has l,ong been so largely and universally asso- ciated with the financial operations of which Wall street, New York, is the especial theatre, that that locale may with more appropriateness perhaps than any other be connected with his name and reminiscences. Mr. Little was bom in Newburyport, Mass., and, when twenty years of age, he went to New York to seek his fortune and give play to the business faculties and ajDtitude with which nature had endowed him. His means were small, but his intelligence was quick and made readily available to his circum- stances and purposes. He became, in a short time, a clerk in the employment of Jacob Barker, and, under such tui- EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 23 tion and example, it must indeed have been his own fault, if he did not find himself, at the close of his five years' service, prepared to follow sojne calling with shrewdness and success. His ca- reer shows that the opportunities thus enjoyed were not lost upon him. On leaving Mr. Barker, IVIr. Little com- menced the business of exchange and specie broker, on his own account, and in this sphere left nothing undone that could contribute to an energetic and successful pursuit of his business, and to securing the confidence of those who intrusted to him their orders and funds. His activity, decision, and good judg- ment, gave him a high place in mone- tary circles, wealth and favor rolled in upon him, and though he has more than once had to yield to the revulsions in the stock and money market, he has shown the rare quality of being as faithful to his creditors as to himself. Mr. Little has been humorously written of as equally the hero and the dupe of the American stock exchange — the heir of Ouvrard — the confidant of bank presidents — the untiring pro- jector of time bargains — and every now and then he becomes so jaded and out of breath, that he himself cannot be "called to time." He has for some forty years thrown an air of enchant- ment about speculation; has devised more pitfiills for the credulous, as well as for the cautious, than any man of his time — repeatedly losing or impair- ing his financial power, and as often regaining it. He was made to wrestle with fortune, and to fall with a laugh- ing face. Hundreds of satellites revolve about him, set when he sets, and rise when he rises. If fate should compel him to a period of inaction, his condi- tion would be most miserable. The Rothschilds, "Wealthiest Bankers in the "World. The house of Rothschild is the im- personation of that money power which governs the world. For nearly half a century their influence has been con- tinually on the increase ; and to them, more than to any monarch or minister of state, however potential, Europe is indebted for the preservation of peace between the great powers. To give even an outline of the immense and successful operations which have placed a German Jew, his sons, and grandsons, at the head of the moneyed interests of the world, it would be necessary to embrace the history of European finance since the year 1813. Meyer Anselm Rothschild was the founder of this house, about the year 1740; he was a money-changer and exchange broker, a man of fair char- acter, and in easy circumstances. After the battle of Jena, October, 1806, Napo- leon decreed the forfeiture of their states by the sovereigns of Brunswick and of Hesse-Cassel, and a French army was put in march to enforce the decree. Too feeble to resist, the landgrave prepared for flight. But in the vaults of his palace he had twelve million flo- rins—about $5,000,000— in silver. To save this great and bulky amount ftf money from the hands of the French was a matter of extreme difficulty, as it could not be carried away, and the landgrave had so little confidence in his subjects that he could not bring himself to confide his case to their keeping, especially as the French would inflict severe punishment on him or them who might undertake the trust. In his utmost need, the landgrave be- thought himself of Meyer Anselm Rothschild, sent for him to Cassel, and entreated him to take charge of the money ; and by way of compensa- tion for the dangers to which Mr. Rothschild exposed himself, the land- grave offered him the free use of the entire sum, without interest. On these terms, Mr. Rothschild undertook the trust, and by the assistance of some friends, Jewish bankers at Cassel, the money was so carefully stowed away, that when the French, after a hurried 24 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. marcli, arrived in the city, they found the old landgrave gone, and his treasure vanished. At the time this large sum of money was placed in M. A. Rothschild's hands, he had five sons, of whom three, An- selm, Nathan, and Solomon, had arrived at man's estate. These he associated with himself. By their skilful manage- ment, the large sum of ready money at their disposal increased and multiplied with astonishing rapidity. The fall of Napoleon enabled the old landgrave to return to Cassel, and he gave the Roths- childs notice that he should withdraw the money he had confided to them ; but before the notice expired, Napo- leon's return from the isle of Elba so greatly alarmed the landgrave that he urged the Rothschilds to keep the money at the low rate of two per cent, per annum, which they did until his death, in 1823, when the Rothschilds refused to keep it any longer. At the period of Meyer Anselm Roths- child's death, which occurred so unex- pectedly, he saw his five sons placed respectively at the head of five immense establishments — at Frankfort, London, Paris, Vienna, and Naples, all united in a copartnership which is universally allowed to be the most wealthy and extensive the world has ever seen. And, whatever exceptions may be made to the manner in which the business of these houses has been conducted, in some operations which have marked their career, it must be admitted that rarely does a family furnish so many members who are competent, individu- ally, to be intrasted with such vast financial concerns. Although Mr. Rothschild was com- monly termed a merchant, his most im- portant transactions were in connection with stocks, loans, etc. It was here that his great decision, his skilful combina- tions, and his unequalled energy, made him remarkable. At a time when the funds were constantly varying, the temp- tation was too great for a capitalist likfe Mr. Rothschild to withstand. His ope- rations were soon noticed ; and when the money market was left without an acknowledged head, by the deaths of Sir Francis Baring and Abraham Gold- schmid — for the afiairs of the latter were wound up, and the successors of the former did not then aim at the autocracy of the money market, — the name of Nathan Meyer Rothschild was in the mouths of all financial dealers as a prodigy of success. Cautiously, however, did the great banker proceed, until he had made a fortune as great as his future reputation. He revived all the arts of an older period. He em- ployed bankers to depress or raise the market for his benefit, and is said to have purchased in one day to the ex- tent of four million pounds. His trans- actions soon pervaded the entire globe. The old and the new world alike bore witness to his skill ; and with the prof- its on a single loan he purchased an estate which cost seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Minor capital- ists, like parasitical plants, clung to him, and were always ready to advance their money in speculations at his bid- ding. Nothing seemed too gigantic for his grasp — nothing too minute for his notice. His mind was as capable of contracting a loan for tens of millions, as of calculating the lowest possible amount on which a clerk could exist. Like too many great merchants and bankers, whose profits are counted by thousands and millions, he paid his assistants the smallest amount for which he could j)rocure them. Rothschild in London knew the result of the battle of Waterloo eight hours before the British Government, and the value of this knowledge was no less than one million dollars, gained in one forenoon. No bad loan was ever taken in hand by the Rothschilds ; no good loan ever fell into other hands. Any financial operation on which they frowned, was sure to fail. And so conscious were they of their influence, EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 25 that after the July revolution in 1830, Anselm Rothschild, of Frankfort, de- clared, — and the declaration was made to sound in imperial ears, — " The house of Austria desires war, but the house of Rothschild requires peace." In addition to their five principal establishments, they have agencies of their own in several of the large cities, both of the old and the new world. As dealers in money and bills, they may be said to have no rivals, and as the magnitude of their opera- tions enables them to regulate the course of exchange throughout the world, their profits are great, while their risks are comparatively small by the perfect manner in which their busi- ness is managed. Indeed, the only Tieavy loss they may be said to have experienced as yet — that is, heavy for them^ — was through the February revo- lution of 1848, when it is said that, owing to the sudden depreciation of all funded and railroad property throughout Europe, their losses from March till December of that year reached the enormous figure of $40,- 000,000. But great as their losses were, they did not affect the credit of the Rothschilds, and do not appear in any degree to have impaired their means. The members of the firm are numerous, as the third generation has been re- ceived into the copartnership, and, as the cousins mostly intermarry, their immense wealth will, for a length of time, remain in comparatively few hands. The affairs of this firm in the United States have for a long time been under the direction of August Belmont, of New York, by whom they have been managed with distinguished success. G. J. Ouvrard, the " Napoleon of Fi- nance." M. Gabkiel Julien Ouvraed's name has been associated with the most gigantic financial operations, in Europe, during tlie last half century, and numberless interesting incidents have marked the chequered career of him who has been most appropriately designated the " Napoleon of Finance ; " and when the vastness and novelty of his plans, the extraordinary quickness of his perception, the fertility of his resources, his masterly combinations, and the vigor and perseverance with which he wove out the brilliant but eminently practical conceptions of his genius, are considered, the epithet thus given him seems most happy. That he has claims to universal celebrity as a financier, it is sufficient to say that he figured prominently in the great events of the French Repub- lic — ^the Consulate — the Empire — the Restoration — and the Revolution of 1830; that, after having witnessed the horrors of the Reign of Terror, and aided in the downfall of Robespierre, he became the Banker of the Bepiiblic^ with power to issue a paper currency of his own, admissible as a legal tender in payment of the taxes of the state — the associate of Barras, Cambac^rSs, and Talleyrand — a worshipper at the feet of " Notre Dame de Bon Secours " — the votary of " Notre Dame des Yictoires " — the creditor of Bernadotte — the con- fidential agent of Charles IV. of Spain — the honored guest of Pozzo di Borgo, Mettemich, and Louis XVIII. — the inti- mate friend of Chateaubriand— the Commissary-General of Napoleon at the Passage of the St. Bernard, the Camp of Boulogne, and on the decisive field of Waterloo— and the host of Wellington at Paris ! By a special contract with Charles IV. of Spain, M. Ouvrard became the business partner of his Majesty in the exclusive commerce of the Spanish pos- sessions in the new world during the war with Great Britain. It was in reference to this contract, and while crumpling the document in his hand, that Napoleon observed to M. Ouvrard, in presence of the council of ministers, " You have lowered royalty to the level 26 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. of commerce." Whereupon M. Ouv- rard, to the surprise of all present, replied, in a firm but respectful tone, " Sire, commerce is the life-blood of states; sovereigns cannot do without commerce, but it can very well do without sovereigns." M. Ouvrard lived to a very advanced age, using moderately the bounties and luxuries of affluence mth which he was sun-ounded. The philosophical equani- mity of his mind, and the iron frame in which it was cast, served him in all his varied experiences. His elegance of maimer, dignified serenity of coun- tenance, and the graceful charm of his advanced years, rendered his presence both illustrious and attractive. He was naturally indulgent, kind-hearted, condescending, and, like all thorough men of the world, inclined to treat with lenity the inexperience and errors of his fellows, and especially of his juniors. His memory was wonderfully retentive ; and his conversation, founded on a vast experience of men and things, was rich in information and sparkling with wit, and without any afiectation. Some of his transactions, however, cast a cloud upon the integrity of his busi- ness dealings — at least during one por- tion of his remarkable career. Thomas Gresham, the Boyal Hierchant and Financier. Sir Thomas Gresham's name stands out prominently in England's mercan- tile annals, as the founder of the Royal Exchange, and as a distinguished finan- cier. His father had amassed great wealth and attained great eminence as a merchant and bill broker in the reign of Henry YIH., and he resolved to train his son to succeed him in the business so successfully pursued by himself. After a thorough collegiate education, young Gresham was apprenticed to. his uncle, a knight, and a distinguished member of the " Merchants' Company." Under Edward VI., Gresham was em- ployed on the same services as his father had performed for that king's father, and in the course of Edward's short reign, he made no fewer than forty voyages to Antwerp, on the royal business. By his financial skill and foresight, he rendered great service to the revenues of the English crown, which he rescued from the extortions of Dutch and Jewish capitalists, and introduced with great effect the prac- tice of raising money from native money lenders, in preference to foreigners, who exacted a ruinous rate of interest. Mary and Elizabeth continued him in his employment, and the latter knight- ed him in 1559. He had now accumu- lated an immense fortune and built himself a palatial dwelling — which, after his wife's death, was used as Gresham College, and the site of which is now occupied by the excise office. He lived there in great state, and, by command of Elizabeth, he often enter- tained the ambassadors and visitors of rank that thronged her court. To these circumstances Gresham owed his familiar title of the " Boyal Merchant and Financier^ Nicholas Biddle, the Financier, of Philadelphia. The eminent financier, Nicholas Biddle, was born in Philadelphia, Jan. 8, 1786, and died there Feb. 27, 1844. On graduating at Princeton col- lege, he studied for the legal profes- sion, but being too young for admis- sion to the bar, he accepted the post of secretary to Gen. Armstrong, Minis- ter to France, and afterward filled the same position under Mr. Monroe, Minis- ter to England. He afterward travelled much in Europe, and in 1807 returned to Philadelphia, and commenced his career as a lawyer. He edited the "Portfolio," compiled a Commercial Digest, and prepared the popular narrative of Lewis and Clark's Explora- tion. He was at different times a representative and senator in the Penn- sylvania legislature, where he ably EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 27 supported various educational meas- ures. He was a candidate for Congress in 1817, but was defeated by the Fed- eral party. In 1819, President Monroe appointed him a government director of the United States Bank, and in 1833 he became its president. This bank continued until the expiration of its charter, in 1836, when Congress re- newed the charter, but President Jack- son vetoed it. The Pennsylvania legis- lature then created a State Bank, giving to it the name of the United States Bank. Mr. Biddle, then at his zenith as a financier, was urged to accept the presidency of this institu- tion, which he finally though reluc- tantly did, serving until 1836, when he resigned on account of ill health. Two years afterward, the bank, after many struggles, ceased payment, and became insolvent. Whether this was the result of measures pursued during the admin- istration of Mr. Biddle, or after it, or of general causes affecting the condi- tion of the whole country, were points of vehement controversy still fresh in the minds of business men. Mr. Biddle, besides his career as a financier, was a writer of considerable ability, an agriculturist, and quite an adept in the fine arts. He was president of the trustees of Girard College, and deter- mined the plan of the building in accordance with his fine classic taste ; also the beautiful structure, the United States custom-house. The Barings, Merchants and Bankers, of London. Various origins are attributed to the members of the house and family of Baring. It has been stated, and is gen- erally believed to be the most authen- tic account concerning them, that they were originally German weavers who came over to London ; and, being suc- cessful in business, were, through the interest of William Bingham, of Phila- delphia, appointed agents to the Amer- ican government. During the loyal- ty loan in 1797, the head of the house made one hundred thousand pounds for three consecutive days ; and in 1806, somebody sarcastically said, " Sir Fran- cis Baring is extending his purchases so largely in Hampshire, that he soon expects to be able to inclose the coun- try with his own park paling." Near- ly sixty years ago, this gentleman, the first algebraist of the day, retired from business with a regal fortune, and died shortly after his retirement. But the great commercial house which he had raised to so proud a position was con- tinued by his sons, and may be con- sidered the most important mercantile establishment in the British empire; and as an instance of the fortune and capacity of its members, it may be mentioned that the late Lord Ash- burton, when bearing, as Sir Robert Peel exj)ressed it, " the honored name of Alexander Baring," realized £170,- 000 in two years by his combinations in French rentes. Peter Baring seems to have been one of the remotest ancestors of the Barings. He lived in the years from 1660 to 1670 at Groningen, in the Dutch province of Overyssel. One of his ancestors, under the name of Francis Baring, was pastor of the Lutheran church at Bremen, and in that capacity was called to London, where, among others, he had a son named John. The latter, well ac- quainted with cloth-making, settled at I^arkbeer, in Devonshire, and there put up an establishment for the manufac- ture of that article. He had five chil- dren — four sons, John, Thomas, Fran- cis, Charles, and a daughter called Elizabeth. Two of those sons, John and Francis, established themselves, under the firm of John and Francis Baring, at London, originally with a view of facilitating their father's trade, in disposing of his goods, and so as to be in a position to import the raw material to be required, such as wool, dye stuffs, &c., directly from abroad. Thus was established the house which, 28 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. after the withdrawal of the elder broth- er, John, who retired to Exeter, — grad- ually under the firm-name of Francis Baring & Co., and eventually under that of Baring Brothers & Co., rose to world-wide eminence in commerce. Isaac De Buirette, tlie Illustrious German Merchant. The German mercantile house of De BuiEETTE was, in the seventeenth cen- tury, as also in the beginning of the eighteenth, one of the most extensive and renowned on the continent of Europe. Its name, its influence, ex- tended over the whole commercial world, and its credit was unlimited. In his time, Isaac De Buirette was con- sidered the most accomplished mer- chant in all Germany. Under the firm of Blumai-t & De Buirette, he carried on the most important exchange busi- ness, and entered largely into great commercial undertakings and bold speculations. A second house was in the course of time established at Vienna, which acquired in a short period a great reputation, and was the most cele- brated ware-emporium of that famed commercial metropolis. The king of Prussia made him Ms financial coun- sellor. His learning was ripe and varied. His correspondence was im- mense — extending to all places of trade in his part of the world, and also be- yond, in all of which his high reputa- tion was a proverb, and an unlimited confidence and credit in the mercantile world were his reward. The firm, in its later stages, and after the decease of Daniel De Buirette, consisted of his three sons, and existed for many years. It was a house w^hose fame will never be blotted out in the annals of German commerce. James Beatty, Merchant, of Baltimore. The name of Jaaies Beatty will long be known in the mercantile annals of Baltimore, as that of an unblemished merchant, who reaped the rewards of his good judgment and uprightness. An anecdote which he himself used to relate will be appropriate here as illus- trating the secret of his success : At the time of the approach of the British forces toward Baltimore, the United States navy agent, Mr. Beatty, was placed in a somewhat unpleasant situa- tion by repeated threats from the sol- diers in the regular army, that unless they received, within a stated period, all the wages due them, they had determined to revolt. The amount of funds in his hands was far short of what was required, and the banks of the city were called upon to aid in making it up ; but after this request had been complied with, there was still not enough to satisfy the demand. At this juncture, Mr. Beatty happening one day to meet Mr. James Wilson, the latter gentleman made inquiry as to how matters stood with him in relation to the raising of the funds. Mr. Beatty related the circumstances, upon which Mr. Wilson requested him to step to his counting-room, and he would give him a check for the sum yet wanting, which was over $50,000. Mr. Beatty went to the bank, and the check was duly cashed — the soldiers returning to duty — the battle of North Point was fought shortly aftei*ward — the war was closed — and Government again became ena- bled to discharge all its minor debts in that section. Mr. Beatty made out a statement of the indebtedness of the Government to Mr. Wilson for his appro- val. " Mr. Beatty," said the patriotic merchant, " you have allowed me in- terest on the sum loaned ; sir, I want no interest — the money was lying idle, and it was just as well that Government should have the use of it." It was doubtless Mr. Beatty's method to put himself in contact with men of this stamp, and his own probity and judg- ment secured their confidence as well as cooperation. EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 29 P. T. Barnum, the " Prince of Show- men." Though only in his youth, and then but for a brief period and in a subordi- nate capacity, engaged in mercantile trade, the career of Mr. Barnum, dating from his humble beginning, affords one of the most notable instances of business enterprise, perseverance, originality, tact and success. Indeed, the history of the American business world during the last quarter of a century would fail of one of its most piquant pages, with- out some reminiscences of the " Great Showman." He started in his business career without a cent, and was compelled to carry on the struggle alone. He com- menced life as a clerk in a country store, and married at the age of nineteen. He published a newspaper several years in his native town, where he was fined and imprisoned for publishing his opinions too freely. Afterward he tried mercantile business on his own account, in both Connecticut and New York, with indifferent success. In 1835 he became engaged in a strolling exhibi- tion ; afterward in a circus, &c. ; and in 1842, bought the American Museum in New York. This establishment began to thrive immensely under his management. In 1843 he picked up "Gen." Tom Thumb; exhibited him in his museum a year, then took him to Europe, where he remained three years, appearing before all the prin- cipal courts and monarchs of the old world, and returned with a fortune to his native country. In 1850, he en- gaged Jenny Lind, and with her made the most triumphant and successful musical tour ever known, clearing, it is said, some half a million dollars in nine months, after paying that lady over three hundred thousand dollars. Stephen Girard, Merchant and Banker, of Philadelphia. Stephen Girard was bom in the environs of Bordeaux, May 24, 1750. Little or nothing is known respecting the condition of his parents. He is supposed to have left his native coun- try at the age of ten or twelve years, in the capacity of cabin boy in a vessel bound for the West Indies. He soon after came to New York, as cabin boy and apprentice in the employment of Captain J. Randall. "While with the latter, his deportment was distinguished by such fidelity, industry and temper- ance, that he won the attachment and confidence of his master, who generally bestowed on him the appellation of " my Stephen ; " and when he gave up business, he promoted Girard from the situation of mate to the command of a small vessel, in which he made several voyages to New Orleans, always apply- ing himself with great soberness and diligence to the accomplishment of his ends. Girard was self-taught, and the world was his school. His intuitive quick- ness of conception and his powers of combination were such as would cause a very little instruction to go a great way. It was a favorite theme with him, when he afterward grew rich, to relate that he commenced life with a sixpence, and to insist that the best capital a man can have is his personal industry. The "Water-Witch, or, at least, the captain of the Water- Witch, was al- ways fortunate, and he soon became part owner. Such was his confidence in his *' lucky star," as almost to amount to superstition. He first vis- ited Philadelphia in 1769. He soon established himself in business, and was reputed a thriving man. In part- nership with Isaac Hazelhurst, he pur- chased two brigs, in 1771, to trade to St. Domingo. Of one of them he took command himself. Both were captured and sent to Jamaica. For once his "lucky star" forsook him. All pro- fessions and all occupations, which afforded a just reward for labor, were alike honorable in his estimation. He was never too proud to work, even 30 COMMERCIAL AND. BUSINESS ANECDOTES. when lie was tlie ricliest inillionnaire in the land. During the revolutionary war, he bottled and sold cider and claret. In 1780, he was engaged in trade to St. Domingo and New Orleans. In 1790, on the dissolution of a partner- ship which had some time existed be- tween himself and his brother, John Girard, he was found by their mutual umpire to be worth thirty thousand dollars. At the time of the insurrection of the blacks in St. Domingo, he had a brig and schooner in port, in which many of the inhabitants deposited their most valuable goods, but were prevented by a violent death from returning to claim them. It is, however, not supposed that he received in this manner more than fifty thousand dollars. In the time of the fever, in 1793, when con- sternation had seized the whole popula- tion of the city, Girard, then an opulent merchant, offered his services as a nurse in the hospital ; his offers were accept- ed, and, in the performance of the most loathsome duties, he walked unharmed in the midst of the pestilence. He used to say to his Mends, " When you are sick, or anything ails you, do not go to the doctor, but come to me. I will cure you." The terms of a bargain were to him a law, which he never violated; but in his breast there was no chancery jurisdiction for the decision of causes in equity. The misfortunes of a bank- rupt, in his view, were follies, which excited no commiseration. Having been successful in his com- mercial speculations, and by that means made immense additions to Ms proper- ty, in 1811, in expectation of a renewal of the charter of the old Bank of the United States, he purchased a large amount of the stock of that institution. The charter was not renewed, and the banking house coming into his hands by purchase, at a reduced price, the Bank of the United States became Stephen Girard's Bank. It was emi- nently convenient to the public at the time it was established, and during the war was particularly useful to the government, supplying, in fact, the want of a national institution, at a^ time when it was especially needed. On the establishment of the last nation- al bank, Mr. Girard, just at the close of the subscription, took the balance of the stock, namely, three million and one hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Girard did much to ornament the city of Philadelphia, and his ambi- tion during his long and untiring busi- ness career, seems to have been to die the richest man in the country and be remembered as the patron of learning and the benefactor of the poor. He died December 26, 1881, in the eighty- second year of his age, the Girard College and the city of Philadelphia being his principal devisees. Alexander T. Stewart, Merchant, of ' New York. In his early years, Mr. Stewart was engaged in teaching, but soon changed his employment for a small mercantile business. He commenced with but a limited capital, and opened a store on Broadway, in 1827. This little concern, in which he then was salesman, buyer, financier, and sole manager, has gradually increased in importance, until it has become the present splendid establishment, whose name and fame are heard every^^here. The marble block which the firm now occupies was built nearly twenty years ago. It had been the site of an old-fashioned hotel called the " Wash- ington," which was destroyed by fire. Mr. Stewart bought the plot at auction for seventy thousand dollars, — a small sum in comparison with its present value. To this was subsequently added adjacent lots in Broadway, Reade, and Chambers streets, and the present mag- nificent pile was reared. This estab- lishment, large as it is, proved too small for the increasing business ; hence EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 31 another mercantile palace has been erected by Mr. Stewart, in Broadway and Tenth street. This is intended for the retail trade, and is, no doubt, the most splendid structure of the kind in the world. The down-town store is devoted to the wholesale trade. The firm of A. T. Stewart & Co. consists of Mr. Stewart and two partners, one of whom, Mr. Fox, resides in Manchester, and the other, Mr. Warton, in Paris. These gentlemen, together with agents in the principal cities of Europe, are constantly engaged in furnishing the house with supplies of goods. The amount of annual sales is estimated at from ten to twenty millions. In the retail department, the proceeds of which are included in this estimate, the daily sales vary, according to the weather and the season, from three thousand to twelve thousand dollars. Mr, Stewart has attained his present position by patient toil and forty years of close application to business. His remarkably fine taste in the selection of dress articles, by means of which he was always able to have superior goods, probably led to his first success. He has everything reduced to a perfect sys- tem. Each branch of his trade is under a special manager, who is selected with a view to his qualifications for that de- partment. The numerous failures which take place among the business men of New York give him his choice among them for his managers, so that he is always able to find the kind of men he needs and whom he can trust. He is an accurate judge of character, posses- sing a penetration which enables him to read men at a glance ; so that it is rarely, if ever, that he is deceived. He sits close in his office, is seldom seen in the salesrooms^ or among his clerks, yet seems to know everything that is going on throughout the establishment. Mr. Stewart is a native of Ireland. Edwin D. Morgan, Merchant, of New York. Mr. Morgan is widely known both as a successful merchant and able states- man. His father, Jasper Morgan, an old and highly respected citizen of Connecticut, formerly lived in Berk- shire county, Mass., and there it was that his son Edwin was born, in Feb- ruary, 1811. He received a fair educa- tion before he was seventeen, without going to college, and at about that age commenced his mercantile experience in a store in Hartford, Conn., at a salary of sixty dollars for the first, seventy-five for the second, and one hundred for the third year's service. A trip to the great city was not then made with the facility that it is now; but as he had served for two or three years in the store, and acquired the confidence of his em- ployer, he was permitted to go to New York, and, to combine business with pleasure, was intrusted to make sundry purchases of tea, sugar, etc., and also corn, which was then becoming an ar- ticle of import, instead of export. The visit was made, and Edwin returned in due time, by the old stage route. After being greeted and welcomed, his employer inquired as to the corn. The price was very satisfactory ; but his employer doubted if the article would be of good quality at so low a rate. Edwin immediately drew a handful, first from one pocket and then from another, as samples, and the old gentleman expressed his approba- tion. It had been usual for the dealers to purchase two or three hundred bushels at a time, and he then inquired of Edwin as to the quantity, but was nonplussed by the answer that he had bought two cargoes, and that the ves- sels were probably in the river. " Why, Edwin," said the astonished old gentleman, " what are we to do with two cargoes of corn ? Where can we put it ? Where can we dispose of it ?" " Oh ! " replied Edwin, " I have dis- posed of all that you don't want, at an 32 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. advance ; I have sliown the samples to Messrs. A. & B., who vdsh. three hun- dred bushels ; C. & Co., three hundred, &c., &c. I could have disposed of three cargoes, if I had had them. I stopped into the stores as I came along, and made sales." This was a new phase, and out of the old routine ; but the gains and results were not to be questioned. The fol- lowing morning, Edwin was at the store, as always, in season, and had taken the broom to sweep out the counting room, when his employer entered. " I think," said he, " you had better put aside the broom ; we will find some one else to do the sweeping. " A man who can go to New York, and on his own responsibility purchase two cargoes and make sales of them with- out counselling with his principal, can be otherwise more advantageously em- ployed. It is best that he should be- come a partner in the firm for which he is doing so much," — and he did, though not yet of age. When he had just attained to his ma- jority, Mr. Morgan was elected to the city council of Hartford ; and at twenty- two he married Miss Waterman, of that city, by whom he has but one surviving child — a son. He removed to the city of New York in 1836, establishing him- self as a wholesale grocer, upon a small capital of four thousand dollars, but which his business qualities afterward greatly enlarged, and his fortune in- creased, until now the house of Edwin D. Morgan & Co. is one of the richest of the metropolis. In 1849, Mr. Mor- gan was elected a member of the then Board of Assistant Aldermen ; in 1852, a member of the State Senate ; in 1858, to the high position of Governor of the State ; and he now fills the honored post of United States Senator. Such a career of combined mercantile success and politioal honors is rare indeed. Nathan Appleton, Mercliant, of Boston. Mr. Appleton was born in New Ips- wich, N. H., in 1779, and was the seventh son of Isaac Appleton. At fif- teen years of age he was examined and admitted into Dartmouth College. It was decided, however, that he should proceed no further in his collegiate studies. His brother Samuel, who had been in trade in New Ipswich, and was about to remove to Boston, j)ro- posed that he should accompany him. This was accepted, and, as he after- ward said, " It was determined that I should become a merchant rather than a scholar." His brother commenced business in a small shop on Cornhill, Boston ; it consisted mostly in purchas- ing goods at auction and selling them again to country dealers for cash and short credit, at a small profit. In 1799, his brother made a short visit to Eu- rope, and left his business in the charge of Nathan. On the return of the for- mer, he removed to a warehouse in State street, and proposed to the latter, who had become of age, to be a partner. This was accepted, and Nathan now had at hand opportunities for enlarging his observation and experience. He was sent out to England to purchase goods. Europe was in a state of war. The news of peace reached him, how- ever, on landing, and changed the whole current and condition of trade. He postponed his purchases and trav- elled on the Continent; shortly after- ward returning to America and resum- ing his mercantile career. In 1806 he married Maria Theresa Gold, eldest daughter of Thomas Gold, of Pittsfield, and for the health of his wife soon crossed the ocean again. In Edinburgh he met Mr. Francis C. Lowell, at the moment the latter was first conceiving the policy to which the cotton manu- facture of New England owes its origin ; with him he held an earnest and en- couraging consultation in r^aM to it. As capital accumulated in his hands, EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 33 he took an active part in connection with Mr. Lowell, Patrick T. Jackson, Paul Moody, and others, in establishing the cotton factory at Waltham, Mass. He says: "When the first loom was ready for trial, many little matters were to be adjusted or overcome before it would work perfectly. Mr. Lowell said to me that he did not wish me to see it until it was complete, of which he would give me notice. At length the time arrived, and he invited me to go out with him to see the loom oper- ate. I well recollect the state of satis- faction and admiration with which we sat by the hour watching the beautiful movement of this new and wonderful machine, destined, as it evidently was, to change the character of all textile industry." Mr. Appleton was also one of the chief associates in the company which made the first purchases for a like purpose in Lowell. On different occasions he was elected a member of the Massachusetts legislature, and in 1830 was chosen a member of Congress. In 1843 he was again sent, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Robert C. Winthrop. In this sphere, his mind naturally turned to the finan- cial and commercial view of questions. He was a member of the American Academy of Science and Arts, and of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Mr. Appleton died in Boston, July 14, 1861, and left a very large fortune. The name of William Appleton is justly entitled to a place in the records of this eminent commercial family. Few names, indeed, shine out with such conspicuous and unsullied lustre in the annals of American mercantile fame as this. For their enterprise, in- tegrity, benevolence, and public spirit, they have never been surpassed by any of the " solid men of Boston," whose character reflects such honor upon American commerce, at home and abroad. David Ricardo, Eng-lish. Financier. David Ricabdo, celebrated alike as a merchant, banker, and financial writer, was bom in London, of a Jewish family, in 1773. His father, a native of Hol- land, was for several years a prominent banker in London, and, designing his son for the same occupation, he sent him to Holland, where he might obtain the best commercial education. Soon after his return to England, he was taken into his father's oflice as a clerk, and, when of age, he was associated with him in business. He subsequently formed a matrimonial alliance with a lady of the Christian faith, which union was displeasing to his father, by reason of the latter's religious scruples, — the elder Mr. Ricardo having been born of Jewish parents, and continuing in that faith until his death. This breach between the father and the son, — which, however, was afterwards en- tirely healed, — necessarily caused the dissolution of their business copartner- ship. But the character of the son, for industry, talent, and fair dealing, early secured to him the confidence of busi- ness men as well as that of the commu- nity, and he thus accumulated a mag- nificent fortune. He amassed his im- mense wealth by a scrupulous attention to what he called his own three golden rules, and the observance of which he used to press on his private business friends. These were : " I^ever refuse an option icTien you can get it,'''' — " Cut short your losses,^'' — " Let your profits run on^ By cutting short one's losses, Mr. Ri- cardo meant, that when a broker had made a purchase of stock, and prices were falling, he ought to re-sell imme- diately. And by letting one's profits run on, he meant, that when a broker possessed stock, and prices were rising, he ought not to sell until prices had reached their highest, and were begin- ning to fall. Besides being an eminent banker, 34 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. Mr. Ricardo was a most profuse writer on finance and currency, and his works on these subjects gained for him a high repute. He was also of quite a specu- lative turn of mind — and in some res- pects strangely so — on religious themes. He is stated to have adopted the Uni- tarian system of belief, though usually attending the established or Episcopal church. On the other hand, he is said to have suggested, as an "improve- ment," a sort of intermediate faith be- tween Judaism and Christianity ; hold- ing that Jesus Christ was a worthy man and an excellent teacher, whose pre- cepts should therefore be regarded with great respect, — but that "he assumed too much in his claim to be the son of God, and therefore that the blame of his unhappy catastrophe was to be divided between his enemies and himself." The number of adherents to Mr. Eicar- do's faith were very few, and his wri- tings on this subject were far less bril- liant in their results than those which constituted the staple of his counting- house ledgers. Judah Touro, Merchant, of New Or- leans. A well written life of this remarkable man would make a volume of peculiar interest, especially to the mercantile class, of which he was long so honor- able as well as successful a member. At fii'st, he opened a small shop on St. Louis street, near the levee, where he began a brisk and profitable trade in soap, candles, codfish, and other exports of Kew England, making prompt re- turns to his friends in Boston. His fidelity, integrity, and good manage- ment, soon secured him a large New England trade, every vessel from that section bringing him large consign- ments, and many ships being placed at his disposal, as agent, to obtain cargoes and collect freight. His business was prosperous, his funds accumulated. He invested his surplus means very judi- ciously in ships and in real estate, which rapidly advanced in value. His career, guided by certain principles to which he steadfastly adhered, was one of honest, methodical labor, and stern fidelity to the legitimate practices of trade, never embarking in any hazard- ous ventures or speculations, never turning aside from his chosen sphere of business, and adhering rigidly to the cash system. Mr. Touro was as methodical and reg- ular as a clock. His neighbors were in the habit of judging- of the time of day by his movements. In his business he rarely employed more than one clerk, and even this one was generally a lad. It was his custom to open his store himself at sunrise and close it at sunset. He attended to all his afiairs himself, and had them so well arranged that there was no possibility of any misunderstanding. He engaged in no lawsuits, though he lived in one of the most litigious communities in the world. He could not bear a disputa- tious, nor even a very earnest, discus- sion. On one occasion his friend, Dr. Clapp, became involved in a very warm discussion on a theological question with some clergymen of the city. Mr. Touro was greatly annoyed at the war- fare of words and logic thus carried on, and begged Dr. Clapp to desist from a controversy which was so unpleasant to him. Mr. Touro's hard experience of the discomforts attending voyages by sea, though it determined him to remain on land for the remainder of his life, could not eradicate from him that natural passion of a New Englander-^as he was — to own ships. He had conse- quently invested largely of his means in this business, and ovmed some of the largest and best built ships that came into the port of New Orleans. It was rather an amusing peculiarity of his, that though he took great pleasure and pride in walking along the wharves and surveying the gi'and and symme- trical proportions of his noble ships, he EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 35 could never be persuaded to go aboard and examine and admire tlieir interior. Mr. Touro's career was perhaps not so eventful as tliat of liis townsmen John McDonogh and Jacob Barker, and yet, as an upright, enterj)rising, and success- ful merchant, there are few whose names can be placed in advance of his. " Old Billy Gray," Merchant, of Bos- ton. Among the successful and honorable merchants of America, few have stood higher than William Gray — " Old Billy Gray," as he came to be univer- sally called. He was born in Lynn, Mass., in 1751, and when quite a small boy was apprenticed to a merchant in Salem. He finished his commercial education with Richard Derby, of that port ; and such was his character for enterprise and strict integrity during his apprenticeship, that when, soon after its close, he commenced business for himself, he had the entire confidence and good will of the whole community. Prosperity waited upon him in all his transactions, and in less than twenty- five years after he commenced business, he was taxed as the wealthiest man in Salem, notwithstanding some of the largest fortunes in the United States belonged to that town. His enterprise and industry were wonderful ; and at one time he had more than sixty sail of square-rigged vessels on the ocean. For more than fifty years, he arose at dawn, and was ready for the business of the day before others had finished their last nap. Although he had mil- lions of dollars afloat on the sea of business, he was careful of small expen- ditures—those leaks which endanger the ship— and his whole life was a lesson of prudent economy, without penuriousness. During the embargo, Mr. Gray took sides with Jefferson, notwithstanding New England was all in a blaze against the president, and it was an injury to the amount of tens of thousands of dollars to the great merchant's busi- ness. In the midst of the commercial distress, he removed to Boston, and having pleased the people while a State senator, he was chosen lieutenant- governor of the commonwealth. He freely used his immense riches for the wants of Government, and it is said never took advantage of the exigencies of the times, to speculate in government securities. After the war of 1812-15, he engaged largely in business again, but he lost often and heavily. Yet he died a rich man, and universally re- spected, at his elegant mansion in Bos- ton, Nov. 4, 1825, aged about seventy- four years. It has been stated that at one period in his early career, Mr. Gray was a poor shoemaker; but, notwith- standing his subsequent great wealth, and the magnificence of his dwelling, the old cobbler's bench which he for- merly used long remained intact in a separate room, and was shown with pride to his visitors as the sign of what he once was. •'Rich Spencer," Merchant and Bank- er, of London. John Spencer — afterward Sir John, and, in 1594, Lord Mayor of London — died possessed of property valued at several round millions, acquired by his tact and shrewdness in the pursuits of commerce. There is much that might be written respecting the humors and caprices of this noted representative of the commerce of that period, — one who rose to such eminence in the an- nals of wealth amassed by sharp deal- ing and still closer saving. In a curi- ous pamphlet printed in 1651, and en- titled " The Vanity of the Lives and Passions of Men," there is the follow- ing singular anecdote respecting this " Rich Spencer " — for so Sir John was usually called: In Queen Elizabeth's days, a private of Dunkirk laid a plot with twelve of his mates, to carry Spencer away, and which, if he had 36 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. done, fifty thousand pounds, it is stated, would not have redeemed him. This private come over the seas in a shallop, with twelve musketeers, and in the night came into Baring Creek, and left the shallop in the custody of six of his men, and with the other six came as far as Islington, and there hid them- selves in ditches, near the path in which Sir John came to his house (Canonbury House) ; but, as good for- tune would have it. Sir John was forced, by some unusual demands of busi- ness, to stay in London that night. But for this, he would have been taken away and rigidly dealt with. The kid nappers, fearing they should be dis- covered, returned in the night time to their shallop, and went back to Dun- kirk, minus their anticipated booty. JacQLues Coeur, French Merchant in the Middle Ag-es. Jacques Cceur was the great French merchant and financier of the middle ages. He sprung from the people, and raised himself, by successful commer- cial enterprise, to a level with the princes of his age. He found French commerce behind that of every other nation, and left it prosperous and in- creasing. Direct and speedy commu- nication with the East seems to have been his great idea. Modem Europe is still striving for it. He had, at one time, in his employment, three hundred factors ; and the rest of the merchants of France, with the whole of those of Italy, are not supposed to have equalled this one man, in the extent of their commercial dealings. "As rich as Jacques Cceur," became a proverb. It was even believed, by some, that he had found the philosopher's stone; and popular tradition asserts that so great was the profusion of the precious metals possessed by him, that his horses were shod with silver — a common repu- tation, even at the present day, enjoyed by persons of singular wealth. He showed himself worthy of his great mercantile eminence, by giving his wealth, thus acquired, freely for noble objects. He raised three armies for king Charles at his own cost ; and he repaired and reestablished, in his office of Argentier, the deranged finan- ces of the kingdom. It was his money which enabled the French to profit by the genius and enthusiasm of Joan of Arc ; and it was his honest sympathy, and steady, manly counsel, which seems to have sustained the tender and brave heart of the noblest of royal mistresses, in her efforts to save the king. On her death bed, she selected Jacques Coeur for her executor. Jacques CcGur had, in the course of twenty years, more commercial pow- er than all the rest of the merchants of the Mediterranean put together. Everywhere his vessels were respected as though he had been a sovereign prince ; they covered the seas wherever commerce was to be cultivated, and, from farthest Asia, they brought back cloths of gold and silk, furs, arms, spi- ces, and ingots of gold and silver, still swelling his mighty stores, and filling Europe with surprise at his adventurous daring and his unparalleled persever- ance. Like his great prototype, Cos- mo de Medicis, who, from a simple mer- chant, became a supreme ruler, Jacques Coeur, the Medicis of Bourges, became illustrious and wealthy, and sailed long in the favorable breezes of fortune, admired, envied, feared, and courted by all. But his weakness seems to have lain in the direction of personal magnificence and splendor, and to this may be traced his fall. He did not allow sufficiently for the prejudices of his age, and at last armed them for his ruin. He is de- scribed to have far transcended, in his personal attendance and equipments, the chiefs of the most illustrious families of France ; and when Charles made his triumphal entry into Rouen, the mer- chant Jacques Coeur was seen by the side of Dunois, with arms and tunic EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 37 precisely the same as Ms. His destruc- tion was planned by a party of the nobles, and an indictment of all sorts of crimes preferred against him — among them, the charge of having poisoned Agnes Sorel. He narrowly escaped torture and death ; and only this by confiscation of his treasures (which his judges divided among them), and per- petual banishment. This latter re- solved itself ultimately into a sort of strict surveillance in a French convent, from which he at last escaped by the fidelity of one of his agents, who had married his niece. He was again char- acteristically engaging in active pur- suits, and beginning life anew, on the coast of Asia Minor, when illness seized him in the island of Scio. Peletiali Perit, Merchant, of New York. The name of Peletiah Peeit has been familiar in the business circles of New York for about half a century, and is one of the most honored. He was at one time a member of the firm of Perit & Lathrop, and in 1819 he became a partner in the house of Good- hue & Co. Mr. Perit (says the author of the " Old Merchants of New York ") was born in Norwich, Conn., and re- ceived a collegiate education at Yale College. In the first partnership of Mr. Perit with Mr. Lathrop, his brother- in-law, he was not successful, and dur- ing the war he was connected with an artillery company, and performed mili- tary service in the forts that protected the harbor. After he went with Mr. Goodhue, his commercial good fortunes returned, and their house coined mon- ey. In 1833 or 1834, the health of Mr. Perit declined, and he conceived the idea that it was necessary to take more active exercise, and in order to insure that daily, he purchased a piece of pro- perty on the North river, lying between Bumham's and the Orphan Asylum. It may have cost him perhaps ten thousand dollars. He sold it about two years ago, and it is now supposed to be worth half a million dollars. This is a comment on persevering mer- cantile life. By a mere accident Mr. Perit buys a small lot of land, and makes more money than Goodhue & Co. ever made in fifty-three years' hard work ! Probably no house has done a larger business with all parts of the world than Goodhue for the fifty-three years that it has existed in a continuous business. This house, so eminent, com- manding means to an extent that an outsider has no conception of, has made merely moderate earnings in compari- son with some lucky land hit, made by unknown and uncredited persons, that has realized millions. Since Mr. Perit sold his property in New York, he has removed to New Haven, Conn. He has done much for the benevolent enterprises of the day. He is unequalled as a merchant, and has been for many years honored with the presidency of the Chamber of Commerce. Jacob Ridg-way, Merchant, of Phil- adelphia. This wealthy Philadelphia celebrity came from New Jersey at an early age, and commenced the life of a busy, bold, and enterprising merchant. He com- menced on a small scale ; but by his industry, integrity, economy, and atten- tion to business, he rose rapidly. Dame Fortune smiled, and in course of time he took high rank among the shipping merchants of that period. He visited Europe, to superintend a branch of the house with which he was connected; and soon after, having the confidence of the merchants of his own country, Mr. RiDGWAY was appointed American consul at Antwerp, where he laid the foundation of his handsome fortune. He returned soon after, and retired from mercantile pursuits, settling him- self in Philadelphia, and engaging ex- tensively in plans for the improvement of it and the city of Camden, on the opposite side of the river Delaware. lu 38 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. proportion as his efforts and means were laid out in this direction, so did his fortune increase ; and from being the owner, in early life, of a single farm, he acquired possessions and wealth, the extent of which has perhaps never but once been equalled in Pennsylvania, and in all human probability never will be by any one man again. He was a plain man — his dress and deportment were plain, and his manners free from liau- teur. In his directorship of the Bank of Pennsylvania, in which he was a large stockholder, he exhibited much preju- dice against granting discounts and ac- commodation to the rich and extensive operators, preferring the humbler me- chanics, tradesmen, and merchants. Abraham and Benjamin Goldschmid, old English Bankers. For a long and important period, Abkaham and Benjamin Goldschmid were the magnates of the English money market. Of singular capacity, and, for a time, of equally singular good fortune, the firm of which they were the members rose from comparative obscurity to be the head and front of the financial circle of the world's metropolis. They were the first members of the Stock Exchange who competed with the bankers for the favors of the chancellor, and diverted from their bloated purses those profits which were scarcely a legitimate por- tion of banking business. The combi- nation of that powerful interest being thus broken up, the bargains for pub- lic loans became more open, and have continued so. The munificence of the Goldschmids was constant and wide spread. Natur- ally open hearted, the poor of all creeds found kindly benefactors in these Jew capitalists. On one day, the grandeur of an entertainment given by them to royalty was recorded in the papers, and on the next a few words related a visit of mercy on their part to a condemned cell. At one time, their mansion, vying in architectural beauty with those of regal occupants, was described ; at an- other, some great and gracious act of charity was narrated. Entertainments to princes and ambassadors, reviving the glories of oriental splendor, were frequent ; and galleries, with works of art worthy the magnificence of a Medici, graced their homes. They seemed, at least for a while, Fortune's chief and most special favorites. When, in 1793, the old aristocracy of England's traders fell, as in 1847, and the bank in one day discounted to the amount of more than twenty million dollars, the losses of this great firm amounted to only the trivial sum of fifty pounds sterling. Strange to relate, both of these brothers came to their death by violence at their own hands. Judah M. Lopez, Speculator in Annuities. The name of Judah Manasseh Lo- pez is handed down to this day, in Eng- land, as that of a Lombard and Jew of " the baser sort," and a usurer — one in whose business dealings the art of deception seemed to have fairly culmi- nated. Of the origin or the successive business steps in the career of this man we know little. His business consisted in the purchase and sale of annuities. He lent to merchants when their vessels failed to bring them returns in time to meet their engagements ; and he ad- vanced cash on the jewels of those whom a disturbed period involved in conspiracies which required the sinews of war. But annuities were his favor- ite investment ; and to him, therefore, resorted all who were in difficulties and were able to deal with him. With the highest and the lowest he trafficked. He was feared by most, and respected by none. One remarkable feature in this man's dealings was, that no one found it easy to recover the property once pledged, if it chanced to much exceed the amount advanced. In an extremity, Bucking- ham, the favorite of Charles, apjilied EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 39 to and received assistance from the Jew on the deposit of some deeds of value. "When the time approached for repay- ment, Lopez appeared before the Duke in an agony of grief, declaring that his strongroom had been broken into, his property pilfered, and the Duke's deeds carried away. But Buckingham had dealt too, much with men of this class to believe the story on the mere word of Lopez. He therefore detained the usurer while he despatched messengers to the city, to search out the truth, placing the Hebrew at the same time under watch and ward, with an utter indifference to his comfort. When the messengers returned, they avouched that all Lombard street was in an uproar at the violation of its stronghold. Still the Duke was dis- satisfied, and resolutely refused to part with his prey until he had received full value for his deposit. In vain did the Hebrew demurely fall on his knees — in vain did he call on Father Abra- ham to attest his innocence ; for, in the midst of one of his most solemn assev- erations, Buckingham was informed that a scrivener urgently solicited an audience, and he saw at the same time that a cloud came over the face of Lo- pez. The request of the scrivener being granted, to the Duke's astonishment he produced the missing document, ex- plaining to his Grace that Lopez, be- lieving the scrivener too much in his power to betray him, had placed it in his charge until the storm should blow over, but that, fearing the Duke's pow- er and trusting to his protection, he had brought it to York House. On the in- stant, Buckingham confronted the two. The Jew's countenance betrayed his crime, and, fawning on the very hem of the Duke's garment, he begged for forgiveness, and crouched like a dog to procure it. It is intimated that from that time the Duke had his loans on more equitable terms and on smaller security, as he dismissed the Jew with a courtesy the latter did not de- William B. Astor, Millionnaire, of New York. Prince street, New Y'ork, is the lo- cality of Mr. William B. Astor's finan- cial operations. The street itself is of but a third-rate character, and the houses are but of a common stamp. Near Broadway, however, one may no- tice a small brick office, neatly built, of one story, with gable to the street, but with doors and windows closed, and the whole appearance one of se- curity. Near the door may be seen a little sign which reads thus: 'En- trance NEXT DOOR. Office hours FROM 9 TO 3." This " next door " to which we are referred is a plain three- story brick dwelling, with no name on the door, and might be taken for the residence of some well-to-do old-fash- ioned family. Hence one is quite star- tled to find that this is the headquarters of the chief capitalist of America. En- tering the street door, one will find himself' in a small vestibule, neatly floored with checkered oilcloth, and opening a door on his left, he will enter a well-lighted front room, destitute of any furniture but a counting-house desk and a few chairs. At this desk stands an accountant (or perhaps two) working " at a set of books, and evidently enjoy- ing an easy berth. He will answer all ordinary inquiries, will do the duty of refusing charitable demands, and will attend to an}i:hing in the ordinary run of business ; but if one has anything siDccial on hand, he will point to a door opening into a rear office. This apart- ment is of moderate size and of simple furniture. On the table are a few books, and on opening one of them, which appears well thumbed, it will be found to contain maps of jjlots of city property, carefully and elegantly exe- cuted, and embracing the boundaries of an enormous estate. Seated by the table may generally be seen a stout- 40 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. built man with large and unattractive features, and upon the whole an ordi- nary face. He is plainly dressed, and has a somewhat careworn look, and ap- pears to be fifty or sixty years of age. One naturally feels — that is, if he be a poor man — that it is quite a rare thing to address a capitalist, and especially when that capitalist is the representa- tive, say of twenty-five millions of dol- lars. His daily income has been esti- mated at six thousand dollars ! The care of Mr. Astor's estate — the largest in America — is a vast burden. His tenements, of all grades, number several hundreds, ranging from the dwelling at three hundred dollars per annum, to the magnificent warehouse or hotel at thirty thousand dollars. To relieve himself from the more vexatious features of his business, he has com- mitted his real estate collections to an agent, who does the work well, and who is, no doubt, largely paid. He, with his clerks, collects rents, and makes returns of a rent roll whose very recital would be wearisome. As a mat- ter of course, such a man must employ a small army of painters, carpenters, and other mechanics, in order to keep up suitable repairs ; and as Mr. Astor pays no insurance, the work of rebuilding after fires is in itself a large item. A large part of Mr. Astor's property con- sists of vacant lots, which are in con- tinual demand, and which he generally prefers to hold rather than sell ; hence he is much employed with architects and master builders, and always has several blocks in course of erection. This is a very heavy burden, and, were it not for the help derived from his family, would, doubtless, crush him. His son, John Jacob, is quite a busi- ness man, and bears his share of the load. In addition to this, Mr. Astor has the aid of a gentleman of business habits and character, once a member of one of the largest shipping houses in New York, who has become connected with the family by marriage. The la- bors of all these i^arties cannot be more than adequate to the requirements of so enormous a jDroperty. C. K. Garrison, Mercliant, of San Francisco. The financial and public position at- tained by Mr. Garrison, of San Fran- cisco, so well known as one of the mayors and leading merchants of that city, was due to his own perseverance, exhibited in a manner and to a degree rarely witnessed even in American mer- cantile character. Originating in New York, near West Point, his ancestors were among the regular " Knickerbock- ers " of that region — the Coverts, Kings- lands, Schuylers, and others. The pa- terfamilias was at one time considered quite wealthy, but from heavy indorse- ments he became involved at an early period in the life of the subject now under notice. The latter, having to look to his own resources, left home at the age of thirteen, in the capacity of a cabin boy in a sloop. It was not, however, without great difficulty, that young Garrison obtained from his pa- rents their consent that he might leave their home, and accept the situation he sought. " Wliat," said his mother, with characteristic feminine perception, " would the Van Buskirks, the Kings- lands, the Schuylers, the host of other respectable relatives, the thousand and one cousins, &c., &c., say, if it reached their ears that my son was a cabin boy ? " From this small beginning he worked his way up, until he finally found himself in California, where, shortly after, on account of his great business tact, he was offered the Nica- ragua Steamship Company agency, at a salary of $60,000 a year, for two years certain. In addition to this appoint- ment, he received at the same time the agency of two insurance companies, at a salary of $25,000 per annum. At the age of forty-five, he found himself the possessor of a princely fortune ; with a salary three or four times greater EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 41 tlian that of the President of the United States ; with a revenue besides, from other sources, of as much more ; and occupying the position of Mayor of the city of San Francisco. This is success that rarely falls to the lot of those, even, who are what may be called the " successful " ones in commercial life. "William Hog-gr, tlie Pennsylvania Millionnaire. More than seventy years ago, Wil- liam Hogg — ^who died at his residence in Brownsville, Pa., leaving an estate of more than a million dollars — crossed the Alleghany mountains with a small pack of goods, all he possessed, and which he bore upon his own back, and established himself at Brownsville, then called Red Stone. He soon after open- ed a small store, the first in that region of country, on the Monongahela river, transporting his goods from Phila- delphia by means of packhorses, and increasing his stock, from time to time, until he became the wealthiest mer- chant in Western Pennsylvania — a rank which he prominently occupied in the latter period of his life. He was remarkable for his accurate habits of business, his persevering and indefati- gable application, and his great sa- gacity in the management of his nu- merous and extensive establishments. Whether worth one dollar only, or a million, he held that frugality was the same virtue, and rigidly lived up to this principle. Herodotus a Merchant. The opinion — equally ingenious and probable — is advanced by Malte Brun, that the great father of history and geography, Herodotus, was a mer- chant. " At least," says he, " this suppo- sition affords the most natural solution of his long voyages and numerous con- nections with nations by no means friendly to the Greeks." His silence re- specting commerce is presumed to have arisen from the same motives which in- duced the Carthaginians to throw every voyager into the sea who approached Sardinia, lest the sources of their com- merce and riches should be discovered. Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy, Parsee Banker and Merchant. Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy, of Bombay, was a Parsee banker, merchant, agent, and broker, for more than forty years, and sustained important business rela- tions to many European mercantile houses. So extensive were his transac- tions, that his name was well known in all the commercial towns of England, Scotland, France, Germany, Austria, Egypt, India, China, Mauritius, &c. A few years before his death, which occurred in 1849, at the age of sixty- four years, he retired from the firm of Messrs. Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy, Sons & Co., but left his name by associating his sons, who have since carried on the business, the firm ranking among the first Parsee commercial houses in India. Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy was one of the most active among the native capi- talists in the establishment of the va- rious banks in Bombay ; and he served his time as director respectively in the Oriental and Commercial Banks. To him and to Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy the people of Western India are in- debted for the introduction of steam navigation for commercial and passen- ger traffic — the first, and by far the best paying of these steamers having been built by them. Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy, the manager of this company, so judi- ciously conducted the business, that in the course of six years he divided profits amounting to nearly the out- lay. He shared, indeed, in every enterprise which promised to promote public advantage, however little his personal interests might be benefited. Among the commercial joint-stock companies, he was a large shareholder in the fol- lowing : the Eailway Companies, Cot- ton Screw Companies, Steam Naviga- 42 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. tion Company, Colaba Land and Cot- ton Companies, most of the Bombay Marine and Life Insurance Companies, fhe Bengal India General Steam Navi- gation Company, several Calcutta In- surance Companies, &c. His capital was likewise engaged in advances on coffee, sugar, &c., &c. For nearly twenty years lie was a member of the Parsee Punchayet, a po- sition which frequently imposed im- portant duties upon him for the gen- eral benefit of the Parsee community. He was also constantly called upon to arbitrate and settle matters in dispute between members of his caste, and his straightforward judgment invariably gained for him the esteem of those who had submitted their difficulties to his decision. In matters of charity his purse was always open to the poor of his com- munity. His name was likewise to be found on almost all the lists of public subscriptions and private charities, both European and native. At the time of his death, forty-two schools, in various parts of the Bombay Presidency, were wholly supported by his bounty. He left a widow, four sons, three daughters, twenty-one grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren, to whom he bequeathed immense wealth. He likewise, by his will, left one hundred thousand dollars, to be invested in Gov- ernment securities in the names of eight trustees, four of these being his sons, the interest of this amount to be an- nually divided in charities for the re- lief of the suffering of his caste. Abbott liawrence, Merchant, of Boston. Abbott Lawiience, one of the most eminent of American merchants, was bom in Groton, Mass., in 1793. His ancestors were people in humble cir- cumstances, who had for one hundred and fifty years been settled in Groton as cultivators of the soil, and his father. Major Samuel Lawrence, served with credit in Prescott's regiment at Bunker Hill, and in many of the severest bat- tles of the war of Independence. For a brief period in his boyhood, he at- tended the district school and the acad- emy at Groton, and in his sixteenth year went to Boston, with less than three dollars in his pocket, and was bound an apprentice to his brother Amos, then recently established there in busi- ness. In 1814 he became one of the firm of A. & A. Lawrence, which for many years conducted a prosperous business in the sale of foreign cotton and woollen goods on commission. Sub- sequently to 1830, they were largely in- terested as selling agents for the manu- facturing companies of Lowell ; and, in the latter part of his life, Abbott Law- rence participated extensively in the China trade. In addition to his business pursuits, Mr. Lawrence took a deep interest in all matters of public concern, and was at an early period of his career a zeal- ous advocate of the protective system. In 1834, he was elected a representative in the twenty-fourth Congress, and was there a member of the important com- mittee of ways and means. He also served for a brief period in 1839-40. In 1842, he was appointed a commis- sioner, on the part of Massachusetts, on the subject of the northeastern boun- daiy, in the discharge of which trust he rendered the most important ser- vice. In the Whig Nominating Con- vention of 1848, he was a prominent candidate for Vice-President of the United States, lacking but six votes of a nomination — the choice falling upon Mr. Fillmore. On the accession of Gen- eral Taylor, whose election Mr. Law- rence had zealously advocated, a seat in the cabinet was offered to Mr. Law- rence, but declined by him. He was subsequently appointed the representa- tive of the United States at the court of Great Britain, a position which he occupied with credit until October, 1852, when he was recalled at his own EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 43 request. The remainder of his life was devoted to his private business. The benefactions of Mr. Lawrence, for private and public purposes, were numerous and wisely bestowed, al- though, from the nature of the circum- stances under which the greater part of his life was passed, the amount can- not, as in his brother Amos's case, be accurately estimated. In 1847, he gave to Harvard University fifty thousand dollars to found the Scientific School, bearing his name, connected with that institution ; and he bequeaijied a like sum in aid of the same object. He left a farther sum of fifty thousand dollars, for the purpose of erecting model lodg- ing houses, the income of the rents to be forever applied to certain public charities. He was greatly esteemed in private life for his benevolence of dis- position and genial manners, and in his public relations commanded the respect of all parties. Mr. Lawrence died in Boston, August 18th, 1855. Jacob Barker, Merchant, of New Orleans. Mr. Barker is descended from the same stock as Dr. Franklin, to whom he is proud to claim a certain family resemblance — and certainly in some of their personal characteristics there is a striking identity. He was brought up in the Quaker communion, to which, and to their unpretending costume, he long adhered. At the age of sixteen he was adrift in the world, and came to New York, where he got employment with Isaac Hicks, a commission merchant, and, beginning the trade on his own ac- count, in a small way, 'before Ids major- ity was in possession of four ships and a brig, and had his notes regularly dis- counted at the United States Bank. Sitting at his wedding dinner, August 27th, 1801 (he married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Hazard, of New York), with Mr. Henry Dewees, for whom he had heavily indorsed, news was brought him of the ruin of them both ; he passed the letter over to Mr. Dewees, drank wine with him, and took no further notice of the matter. For some transactions concerning the North River Bank, Mr. Barker was once openly insulted by one David Rogers, to whom he sent a note de- manding an explanation. No explana- tion came, but in place of it an indict- ment by the grand jury for sending a challenge. Mr. Barker defended him- self with infinite subtlety on the trial, denying the fact of the challenge ; but the jury would not be persuaded, nor the judges afterward, when he argued the question of law, and he was sen- tenced to be disfranchised of his politi- cal rights — from which sentence he was relieved by Governor Clinton. But at length, on the failure of the Life and Fire Insurance Company, he was in- dicted, with others, for conspiracy to defraud. The trial was long, the coun- sel wanted time to look over their notes, and it was suggested that Mr. Barker should begin his defence. He had no brief, and had taken no notes, but professed his readiness. "Yes," said Mr. Emmet, " if they were all to be hanged, Mr. Barker would say, hang me first ! " His defence was a prodigy of ability. At the first trial the jury disagreed, on the second he was con- victed, but a new trial granted. After the third the indictment was quashed. Some years since he ai)j)eared in his own defence in a suit brought in New Orleans, and obtained a verdict after a long personal address to the jury, wliich is said to have made a most vivid im- pression both upon them and a numer- ous auditory. In reciting the chequer- ed history of his life — his unrivalled commercial enterprise, — " that the can- vas of his ships had whitened every sea, and that the star-spangled banner of his country had floated from the mast head of his ships in every clime," — his aid in procuring a loan of five million dollars for the Government du- 44 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. ring the last war witli England — ^he said lie came to New Orleans poor, and in debt, that he had since made a great deal of money, and spent it in the sup- port of his family and the payment of his debts outstanding in New York; that all those debts were now settled, as was proved, and that he owed nothing in the world at present but one account (on a note, he believed) of about a thousand dollars. Dming the war, Nantucket was in want of supplies : Mr. Barker purchased the New York pilot boat Champlain, and caused her to be landed at Nor- folk with flour, and despatched for that place. "When near the island a heavy fog set in ; when it cleared away she was within a half gunshot of a British seventy-four, captured, and vessel and cargo lost. ♦ — Alexander Fordyce, the Shark of the Exchang'e. The career of this notorious broker — one of the shrewdest ever known on the roll of British financiers — furnishes a dark phase in the dealings of the ex- change. Bred a hosier at Aberdeen, he found the North too confined for such operations as he hoped at some future day to engage in ; and, repair- ing to London, as the only place worthy of his genius, obtained employment as clerk to a city banking house. Here he displayed great facility for figures, with great attention to busi- ness, and rose to the post of junior part- ner in the firm of Rofiey, Neale & Jaines. Scarcely was he thus estab- lished, ere he began to speculate, and generally with marked good fortune — and, thinking his good luck would be perpetual, ventured for sums which in- volved his own character and his part- ners' fortune. The game was with him ; the funds were constantly on the rise ; and, fortunate as daring, he was en- abled to purchase a large estate, to sup- port a grand appearance, to surpass nabobs in extravagance, and parvenus in folly. He marked " the marble with his name," upon a church which he os- tentatiously built. His ambition vied with his extravagance, and his extrava- gance rivalled his ambition. The Aber- deen hosier spent thousands of pounds in attempting to become a titled mag- nate, and openly avowed his hope of dying a peer. He married a woman of title ; made a fine settlement on her ladyship ; purchased estates in Scot- land at a fancy value ; built a hospital ; and founded charities in the place of which he hoped to become the repre- sentative. But a change came over his fortunes. Some political events first gave him a shake; then another blow followed, and he had recourse to his partners' private funds to supply his deficiencies. On being smartly remonstrated with, a cool and insolent contempt for their opinion, coupled with the remark that he was quite disposed to leave them to manage a concern to which they were utterly incompetent, startled them ; and when, with a cunning which provided for everything, an enormous amount of bank notes, which Fordyce had borrow- ed for the purpose, was shown them, their faith in his genius returned with the possession of the magic paper — ^it being somewhat doubtful whether the plausibility of his manner or the agree- able rustle of the notes decided them. HI fortune, however, still continued to cast its gaunt shadow on Mr. For- dyce's track — the price of the funds would not yield to his fine combina- tions and plans. But with all his great and continued losses, he retained to the last hour a cool and calm self-posses- sion. Utter bankruptcy finally follow- ed, and the public feeling was so vio- lent, as he detailed the tissue of his un- surpassed fraud and folly, that it was necessary to guard him from the popu- lace. He broke half the commercial town. Two gentlemen, ruined by the broker's extravagance, shot themselves dead, and many of the wealthiest fami- EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 45 lies were beggared. "Not is this sur- prising, wlien it is known that bills to the amount of twenty millions of dollars were in circulation, with the name of Fordyce attached to them — a name still synonymous with that of " the Shark of the Exchange." Nicholas Longworth, Millionnaire, of Cincinnati. Nicholas Longworth, who recently died in Cincinnati, at the age of eigh- ty years, was born in Newark, N. J., in the year 1783, and was brought up to the shoemaking business in his early life. His father, having been reduced to poverty, became a shoemaker, and had all his children educated to follow trades. It was intended that Nicholas should obtain his living as a regular shoemaker ; but at an early age he im- proved the opportunity offered him of going to the South with a brother, and became a clerk in the latter's store in Savannah. After being in mercantile business at the South about two and a half years, he removed in 1804 to Cincinnati, then only a scattered and sparsely populated village of about seven hundred and fifty inhabitants, adjoining to Fort Washington, on the banks of the Ohio, where the Federal Government maintained a garrison, the expenditure of which at that and earlier periods formed no small share of the business of Cincinnati. The beginning of Mr. Longworth's career in Cincinnati was a very curious one. He commenced the study of the law, under Judge Burnett, an eminent lawyer, and was admitted to the bar in advance of the ordinary period. Until 1819, he followed the law as his profes- sion. Meantime he had married a wid- ow of some means, and had devoted himself to speculations in lots, foresee- ing that the value of real estate must enhance immensely. In this way he laid the foundation of his gigantic for- tune. At that time, property was at a very low valuation, and many of Long- worth's lots cost him no more than ten dollars each, which in a few years mul- tiplied in value a hundredfold. His property increased so rapidly that in 1850 his taxes rated higher, perhaps, than those of any other man in the United States except William B. Astor, the taxes of the latter amounting to some twenty-three thousand, while those of Longworth were over seven- teen thousand. The ground occupied by the celebrated Observatory of Cin- cinnati was a free gift from Mr. Long- worth. He donated four acres of his land on Mount Adams for that purpose. Mr. Longworth devoted much of his time to agriculture and horticulture — the grape and the strawberry especially. Every one has heard of his Catawba wine, both still and sparkling cham- pagne. Indeed, Nicholas Longworth, Esq., the " fifteen millionnaire," is not half so well known as " old Nick Long- worth," who did so much for the cul- ture of the Catawba and Isabella grape in the Ohio valley. His gardens and hothouses abounded in the rarest ex- otics, and were freely accessible to visi- tors who wished to enjoy them, and, if his gardeners were not on hand to point out their beauties, it is very probable that Nicholas Longworth himself would perform the part of chaperon. Mr. Longworth was a ready writer, full of wit, humor, and sarcasm. Mr. Longworth had four children — three daughters and one son. One of the daughters man-ied Larz Anderson, of Cincinnati, brother of the hero of Fort Sumter, a prominent lawyer. The wealth of which Mr. Longworth died possessed is put down at fifteen mil- lions ; but it is probable that it may be quoted at a much higher figure. His city lots alone would probably amount to that sum. The value of his prop- erty in the suburbs of Cincinnati and the different counties of Western Ohio, from Hamilton county to Sandusky, would perhaps swell his estate to twen- ty millions. 46 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. Jolin Overend, the Pioneer Bill Broker of Liondon. John Overend's name stood, for a long time, at the head of the most an- cient as well as extensive and renown- ed bill-brokering establishment in the world. Bill brokering in its present form was commenced about half a cen- tury ago. This house — Overend & Co. — so well known in Europe and Ameri- ca, was formed in the year 1807, under the firm of Richardson, Overend & Co. The partners were Thomas Richardson, a clerk in the banking house of Smith, Wright & Gray ; John Overend, a clerk to a woollen dealer ; and Samuel Gur- ney, then twenty-one years of age, the second son of Mr. John Gurney, a part- ner in the Norwich Bank. This bank was established in 1770, by Henry Gurney, who was succeeded by his son, Bartlett Gurney, and the latter, in 1803, took into partnership his cousin, John Gurney, and several other mem- bers of his family. Mr. John Gurney had previously been a woolstapler and spinner of worsted yam. In this char- acter he was acquainted with Mr. Joseph Smith, who was extensively connected with the trade of Norwich, and was en- gaged by the Norwich Bank to employ their surplus funds in discounting bills for his numerous connections. This business became so extensive that, upon the suggestion of John Overend, a firm was established expressly for the pur- pose of carrying it on, under the super- intendence of the Norwich Bank. Mr. Samuel Gurney had, for three years previously, been a clerk to Mr. Fry, who had married Mr. Gumey's sister, the celebrated Elizabeth Fry. After the death or retirement of Mr. Richard- son, the firm was Overend & Co. On the death of Mr. Overend, Samuel Gurney became the senior partner, un- til his death in 1856, when he was suc- ceeded by David Barclay Chapman. The second house of this kind, in point of time, was that of Messrs. Sanderson & Co. The house of Alexander & Co. has also long been eminent in the same kind of business founded by Overend. •' Old Mr. Denison," of St. Mary Axe. " Old Mk. Denison," as he was called by every one, for more than a generation, belonged to the primitive school of English bankers, who made his own fortune, and was remarkable for his economy and strict attention to business. He lived for years at his banking house in " St. Mary Axe," and was so provident as to go to market daily, basket in hand, for his family. But if he thus looked closely after small matters, it was because he held everything subservient to one great one — his bank and the accumulation of capital. Like many men who have a turn for economy, he was fond of boasting of the bargains he had bought. There has also been many a chronicle rehearsed of the trouble it used to give to the old gentleman to provide good things cheap, when his son, the present distinguished banker and political nota- bility, entertained his west-end friends at dinner. For, with the honorable pride so frequently observed among Scotchmen, " old Mr. Denison " not only took care that his son's education should be excellent, but gave him a very fair encouragement to gain a foot- ing in the best society — in which, too, he was as successful as he could have wished. He left a large property, which has been increased by his son, one of the richest London bankers — being commonly rated at three millions sterling — the greater part of which is always kept available for business pur- poses. liorillard, the New York Tobacconist. The name of Lorillard looms up very prominently in the annals of American mercantile biography, and few of the solid merchants of New York show a more honorable record of per- sonal worth and financial success. It EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 47 was one of Mr. Lorillarcl's favorite re- marks, and well deserving of note, that his prosperity arose from his not having made liaste to U rich. He entered upon business with a capital of a thousand dollars, increased by a loan from his brothers of double that amount; and from the skill, the foresight, and the diligence with which his business was conducted, and from some adventitious advantages, his own part of it was even- tually multiplied more than a thousand- fold. " Lorillard, the New York To- bacconist," became, in course of time, a name widely known in both hemi- spheres, nor has it yet lost its prestige. Simple in all his tastes and habits, well regulated in all his affections and desires, free fi'om vanity, ostentation, and pride, he had no extravagant long- ings, either to urge him on in the eager pursuit of wealth, or to make him squander, in prodigality, the fruits of iniquity and fraud. Instead, therefore, of unduly extending his business, and, in haste to enrich himself, careless about the interests and claims of others; instead of running out into wild and visionary schemes, which are usually so tempting to the cupidity of business men, and staking the laborious acquisitions of a life upon the chances of a day, Mr. Lorillard was contented to follow the prudent methods of better times, to avoid unnecessary anxiety for the future, to keep innocency, and take heed to the thing that was right in re- gard to his neighbor. Whenever, therefore, the profits of his business were not needed for the enlargement of his capital, he was in the habit of investing them in real es- tate, selected very often in obscure and retired places, which would be unat- tractive to the mere speculator, and with greater regard to the security of the property than the immediate pros- pect of gain. But, in most cases, this very moderation and prudence turned to a better account than the grasping calculations of avarice itself — his own possessions increasing in value, securely and steadily, while those of others were often swept away by their extravagance and folly. Jolin Jacob Astor, Eichest Merchant of America. Mr. AsTOK was born near the ancient city of Heidelberg, Germany, in the year 1763, and his history embodies an in- valuable moral for merchants generally, and for young men in particular. His parents moved in humble life. He came to this country when about nineteen years of age, at which time the State of Xew York was mostly a wilderness. He made frequent excursions up the Mohawk river, to traffic with the In- dians for furs, and gradually enlarged his business as his means increased. After a while, the American Fur Com- pany was formed, and he became a com- petitor with the great capitalists of Eu- rojDC, who controlled the Northwestern and Canadian Fur Companies. Such was his enterprise, that he extended his business to the mouth of the As- toria river, and formed the first fur establishment then known as Astoria. For many years previous to the war of 1812, and subsequently, Mr. Astor was extensively engaged in the Canton trade, and during the war was fortu- nate in having several of his ships ar- rive here with valuable cargoes. The profits on these were enormous. Mr. Astor made large investments in Gov- ernment stocks, which he purchased during the war with Great Britain, at sixty or seventy cents on the dollar, and which, after the peace, went up to twenty per cent, above par. On his death, most of his estate went to Mr. William B. Astor, his son, and consist- ing in a great measure of property not subject to regular appraisal, the esti- mates of its value have been very va- rious. During the whole of his pro- tracted business career, Mr. Astor was noted for persevering industry, rigid economy, and strict integrity. He had 48 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. a genius bold, fertile, and expansive ; a sagacity quick to grasp and convert a circumstance to the highest advan- tage ; and a singular and never-waver- ing confidence of signal success in vrhat he undertook. As the result of only sixteen years of business life, Mr. Astor was worth one quarter of a million dollars, and is sup- posed, on a moderate estimation, to have left a fortune of twenty millions. It would be difficult to say whether the great part of his immense fortune was derived from his mercantile deal- ings or his investments in real estate. He early began and systematically fol- lowed up the policy of investing large- ly, not only in the inhabited parts of the city, where immediate income could be realized, but in unoccupied lots, or acres, rather, of fields . out of town, which he saw, in anticipation, covered by the spreading city. He was under no necessity of mortgaging one prop- erty for the purchase of another — under no temptation to dangerously expand. Thus he was enabled to make invest- ments which it has been said, no doubt with literal truth, centupled on his hands. At one time, it is stated, he was in the habit of investing two thirds of his net annual receipts in land, and in the course of all of his vast opera- tions, with a large part of his fortune afloat on the ocean, he is said never to have mortgaged a lot. During the fifty years of his active business life, he hardly made a mistake or misstep through defect of his own judgment. Until his fifty-fifth year, he was at his office before seven o'clock. He was a great horseman, and in the constant habit of riding out for pleasure and exercise. In the strength of his gen- eral grasp of a great subject, he did not allow himself to be too much dis- turbed by the consideration of details. His mind worked so actively that he soon got through the business of a day, and he could leave his office earlier than many business men who did less. , Troubled and annoyed by petty trials, he was calm and self-possessed under great ones. " Keep quiet — keep cool," was the constant and familiar admoni- tion from his lips. When the great trials came, his spirit rose with the emergency, and he was equal to the hour. Mr. Astor died in March, 1848, aged eighty-four years, and in his will bequeathed four hundred thousand dol- lars to found a free public library in the city of New York. Samuel Appleton, Merchant, of Boston. Samuel Appleton, a rich merchant and distinguished philanthrojoist of Boston, was bom in New Ipswich, N. H., in 1766. His father was a respectable farmer, and the son spent his youth amidst the severe toils attendant on the pursuits of agricultural life. Samuel shared his good fortune with his brother Nathan, who was his partner in mercantile business. Some amusing anecdotes are related of the early career of the subject of this notice, illustrative of his humble origin and his fidelity. One of these is, that, when fourteen years of age, his father hired him to as- sist a drover of cattle ten miles through the woods, for which service the fath- er received twelve and a half cents. The boy satisfied the drover so well, that six and a quarter cents more were given him as a gratuity. This was perhaps the first money that he could call his own. "When about twenty-one years of age, he left home and spent some time in clearing a lot of new land in Maine, on which was a log cabin ; the nearest residence was distant two miles, and his only guide to it was the marked trees. He next became a country schoolmaster, but after a short time engaged in a small village store. His success was good; and in 1794 he removed to Boston, where, with his brother Nathan, under the firm of S. & N. Appleton, lie em- barked in commercial pursuits, and be- EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 49 came one of the most thrifty merchants in that city. His wealth increased rapidly ; and, from an early date in his accumulations, his charities gladdened the hearts of the widow and orphan. The Boston Female Orphan Society was one of the fii'st to participate in his munificence. His native town, also, was occasionally remembered by him with filial affection. Indeed, he was always ready to give, according to his means, and when consistent with their claims, if the object presented was a good one. Being himself without chil- dren, most of his estate, amounting to a million of dollars, was distributed by his will as follows : he left to his wid- ow specific bequests amounting to two hundred thousand dollars ; also, many other bequests, to nephews, nieces and others, amounting to some three hun- dred and twenty thousand dollars more. Among these may be mentioned one of five thousand dollars " to his friend and pastor, Rev. Ephraim Peabody," and five thousand dollars to the ser- vants living in the family at the time of his decease, to be distributed in the manner and according to the proportion to be fixed upon by his widow. He then bequeathed to his executors, man- ufacturing stocks valued at two hun- dred thousand dollars, to be by them appropriated for scientific, literary, re- ligious, or charitable purposes, — and thus, through the long future, his wealth is to be beneficially employed. Mr. Appleton lived to the good old age of eighty-seven years. Peter C. Brooks, Underwriter and Millionnaire, of Boston. Peter C. Brooks was born in North Yarmouth, Maine, January 6th, 1769, his father. Rev. Edward Brooks, being then a settled clergyman in that place. Soon after his birth, his father returned to Medford, Mass., his native town, to which the family was strongly attached, and there he died prematurely, in 1781, the son being only twelve years of age. A. As soon as the subject of this sketch arrived at maturity, he repaired to Bos- ton, gifted only with a common school education, and without pecuniary means, to seek his fortune. The rich men of that city were then in especial need of young men of talent and char- acter, by whom they could be assisted in the care of their property and busi- ness. Mr. Brooks soon proved to them that he had business talents of the highest order, and these were united with great modesty, and an integrity that never received from youth to old age a single blemish. At the time referred to, there were no insurance companies in Boston, and Mr. Brooks had the sagacity to see the need of a substitute, and hence estab- lished himself as an insurance broker, particularly for marine policies. Most of tlie capitalists had such confidence in his judgments, that they became under- writers in his ofiSce. With the rapidly increasing commerce of the country, the business of Mr. Brooks became large and lucrative, and, almost before he or any one else thought of it, he was a rich man. This was the foundation of an estate estimated, long before his death, to amount to three millions of dollars, more or less; but it was at least sufficient to furnish a moral to young men, which to them is worth more than any mere financial compu- tation. It shows how a small busi- ness, shrewdly commenced and skilfully prosecuted, will ordinarily lead to com- petence, if not to afliuence. The same good sense manifested by Mr. Brooks in his business affairs was also exhib- ited by him in regard to his daughters when contracting matrimonial alliances. He desired his daughters especially to select wise and good husbands, rather than heartless and brainless shadows of manhood, though possessed of wealth. In illustration of this, it may be mentioned that Rev. Nathaniel L. Frothingham, D.D., Hon. Edward Eve- rett, and Hon. Charles Francis Adams, 50 COMMERCIAL AKD BUSINESS ANECDOTES. son of John Quincy Adams, were his sons-in-law. Although Mr. Brooks did not receive an university education, yet his attainments were better than many who had enjoyed those advantages. As a man of business he had not a su- perior ; and in the social relations of life, he was an accomplished Christian gentleman. Thomas H. Perkins, Merchant, of Boston. Mr. PERKms was one of the most sagacious, enterprising, and successful of Boston merchants, of which city he was a native. Colonel Perkins, as he was uniformly called, had two brothers, James and Samuel, both merchants. James, who died about the year 1825, and left a large fortune, was a liberal patron of the Boston Athenaeum. Sam- uel acquired a fortune ; but afterward incurred such heavy losses, that for many years he derived his chief sup- port from a salary as President of the Suffolk Insurance Company. Colonel Perkins had three sisters, one of whom was the mother of John P. Cushing, the well-known millionnaire, who accu- mulated a large fortune in China ; one was the wife of Benjamin Abbott, LL.D., for fifty years the celebrated principal of Phillips Academy, Exetej-, ISr. H. ; and the third sister was the mother of the philanthropic Captain Forbes, who commanded the James- town on her mission of benevolence to famished Ireland, in the year 1847. Colonel Perkins commenced his com- mercial career in partnership with his elder brother, James, who was a resi- dent of St. Domingo, when the insur- rection occurred in that island, and was then compelled to flee for liis life. They afterward embarked in the trade to the Northwest coast, Canton and Calcutta, in which they acquired great wealth. Soon after the death of his brother James, Colonel Perkins retired from active business. The Perkins family gave over sixty thousand dol- lars to the Boston Athenaeum. For more than sixty years was Colonel Perkins identified with the commercial history of Boston ; and for a quarter of a century, or more, by common con- sent, occupied a prominent position as the leading merchant of New England. Among" the many incidents of his life, which mark and illustrate his pri- vate character, is the part he took in the erection of the Bunker Hill Monu- ment, and the donation of his elegant estate for the use of the Boston Institu- tion for the Blind. He was also, in 1827, the projector of the Quincy rail- way, the first enterprise of the kind in the United States. Subsequently, he was much interested in urging forward the completion of the "Washington Monument ; and was also the largest contributor to the Boston Mercantile Library Association. But his chief pleasure was derived from his free and constant private charities. His full heart kept his full hand always open. Colonel Perkins visited Europe sev- eral times, and, while in Paris, on one of these tours, participated, with anoth- er Bostonian, in the pleasure of libera- ting from the conscription, George Washington, the eldest son of the Mar- quis de Lafayette. His last visit to Europe was made when in his seventy- seventh year ; and it has been asserted that no American, occupying a private station, has been treated with such marked attention by the nobility and gentry of Great Britain, as was Colonel Perkins. He was not simply a talented merchant, but his taste led him to the study and to the advancement of litera- ture, the sciences, and the arts. He died at Boston, in January, 1854, at the age of eighty-nine years, leaving a for- tune of nearly two millions. Jonathan Goodhue, Merchant, of New York. This eminent and excellent merchant was a native of Massachusetts, having been bom in Salem, June 21, 1783. EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. His father, Hon. Benjamin Goodhue, represented the State of Massachusetts in the United States Senate, two suc- cessive terms. Jonathan received his education at the village grammar school, and diligently improved the opportunities of educational advance- ment there afforded him, until, at the age of fifteen, he became a clerk of that excellent man and distinguished mer- chant, John Norris, of Salem. After serving in this capacity a few years, his employer sent him to Arabia, as super- cargo, touching at the Cape of Good Hope and the Isle of France, and re- maining some six months at Aden, Ara- bia, carrying on trade with the Moham- medans. Subsequently to this he went, in the same capacity, on a voyage to Calcutta. In 1807, at the age of twenty-four, Mr. Goodhue removed to New York, and there commenced his successful career as an extensive, high-minded and opulent merchant, under the p-at- ronage of his former friend, Mr. Norris, together with such men as William Gray, of Boston, Joseph Peabody, of Salem, and others of kindred stamp in that section of the country ; and one of his warmest friends in his newly chosen sphere of commercial operations was the late Archibald Gracie. As soon as the peace of 1814 came with its blessings upon the country, Mr. Goodhue greatly extended his busi- ness, comprising voyages to almost all parts of Europe, the East Indies, Mexi- co, South America, etc. And such was the method which characterized Mr. Goodhue's business transactions, that, notwithstanding the long period cov- ered by his career, and the consequent multiplicity and importance of the po- litical and other events affecting com- mercial interests during that period, his credit remained unimpaired throughout the whole. In his intellectual qualities, Mr. Good- hue was distinguis'lied for simplicity, clearness and strength, and his love of acquiring information from books and intelligent acquaintances. He was an unflinching Federalist, and an advocate of the doctrine of free trade, — differing of course, in these respects, from the great body of his associates through life. But that he entertained these views of political and commercial policy con- scientiously, no one ever for a mopient doubted. The same quality of con- scientious uprightness may be said to have shone conspicuously in all his personal, public, and business dealings. His tastes, too, were simple, and thus the affluence to which he attained was never accompanied by pride or extrava- gance ; and though he shunned noto- riety, he was always ready to fill those positions of philanthropic or financial trust in which he could be of benefit to his fellow-men, — a feeling which was illustrated by his long and honorable connection with some of the most im- portant institutions in his adopted city. Mr. Goodhue died at the age of six- ty-five years. Immediately after this event, a letter was found, written by Mr. Goodhue to his family, and in which, — with many other things equally char- acteristic of the goodly simplicity of his character, — he says : " In reference to the closing scene in this world, I wish to express my desire that there be no parade connected with the funeral performances. It would be my desire that none but the immediate relatives and friends should be called together when the usual religious services should be performed, and that no more than a single carriage should follow the hearse to the cemetery.*' Erastus Corning-, Mercliant, of New York. In 1807, when but thirteen years of age, Erastus Corning sought and found the opportunity to begin that indus- trious career, which he has so long and so admirably sustained. Troy at that time attracted the attention of many 52 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. of the sagacious men of business of the Eastern States. It seemed by its posi- tion toward the Western and Northern trade, and the facilities for manufacture which clustered near it, to afford a sure recompense for the exercise of business energy ; a result of which the success of the city has justified the prediction. Mr. Coming's relative, Mr. Benjamin Smith, appreciating the character and energy of his nephew, made him the companion of his removal from Nor- wich ; and, as he fixed his abode in Troy, associated him with his business. Mr. Corning here, and then, entered upon that connection with the business of hardware which, with him, has been the progress from a moderate begin- ning to the head and control of the largest establishment in that section of the country. Seven years were passed in Troy. The same kind relative who had initiated him into the duties of a commercial life, accompanied him with his kindness to the last. Strengthened in fortune, and with a business habit which moulded readily to his charac- ter, and which was every day develop- ing the resources of judgment and good sense which distinguished him, he re- moved to Albany — the city the annals of whose prosperity, and, better than that, of whose charities, cannot be dis- sociated from his life. The house Mr. Corning entered, when he arrived at Albany, had at its head a remarkable man — a man of the first grade of merchants. John Spencer ex- hibited one of the best specimens of a merchant high in the order of commer- cial integrity. Nor is it strange that out of a house, conducted by such a man, so many fortunes have had origin. Many of those, now giving to various great measures of good the valuable influence of their wealth, as well as their example, traced from the house of John Spencer & Co. their career. On one occasion, Mr. Spencer was at the old Pearl-street House in New York, when that locality was the gath- ering place of the merchants of West- ern New York. At the dinner table were collected such men as Christopher Morgan, and those who, like him, led the business of "the West" — a geo- graphical designation applied, at that time, to New York State. The name of a merchant in Albany was mention- ed, and Mr. S^Dencer asked in relation to his solvency and credit. He an- swered instantly : " As good as my own." Returning to Albany, he sent for that man, conversed with him of his afiairs, entered fully into their ac- tual condition, and finding them pre- carious and at peril, assumed the bur- den of his obligations, and placed him beyond cavil or danger. Such was John Spencer's estimate of the worth of a merchant's word, that even his opinion was to be — though at cost and loss — made sound and reliable. The young man who, at the age of twenty, came to his establishment, was congenial to such honorable rule, and in two years after his entry to the house he became a partner, and the house of Erastus Corning — sometimes alone, but oftener with partners, giving to the business the same high and earnest di- rection — ^has continued in increasing prosperity, and with a range of busi- ness touching the very verge of the country. But it is to Mr. Corning, as a railway man, that the public eye has for many years been directed, and, so well known is his distinguished career in this sphere, that it would be well- nigh superfluous to attempt, in this place, any delineation of his great and sagacious abilities. ArcMbald Gracie, Mercliant, of Now York. This distinguished merchant and es- timable man was born at Dumfries, in Scotland, in 1756. He received a mer- cantile education of high order, in a counting house at Liverpool. Among his fellow clerks were three other emi- EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 53 nent merchants — the late Mr. Ewart, of the latter place ; Mr. Reid, of Reid, Irving & Co., London ; and Mr. Caton, of Baltimore, who married a daughter of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. IVIr. Gracie came to the United States soon after the peace which con- firmed their independence, and mar- ried Miss Rogers, a sister of the late Moses Rogers Esq., of New York. He established himself first in Virginia ; where, in the year 1796, he was ranked among our first merchants for credit and capital. The geographical position of New York did not escape his foresight ; for he early pronounced its destiny to be the commercial emporium of the West- ern "World, and selected that port for the home of his mercantile operations, as well as permanently made it his resi- dence. Here riches flowed in, and honor and usefulness were his rewards for a long term of years. Endowed with rare sagacity and sound sense, to which he added great experience, his commercial enterprises were laid with judgment, and executed with zeal. His signal flag was known in most of the ports of the Mediterranean and the Baltic set(i§, of the Peninsula, in Great Britain and China, and his name was synonymous with credit, probity, and honor. Even the Spanish Government, not usually over-confiding in foreigners, intrusted to him at one time their bills of exchange, drawn on Vera Cruz, to the extent of ten millions of dollars. These bills were brought in a French frigate to New York, in 1806, and Mr. Isaac Bell, who had charge of them, was upset in a boat, and a reward of two hundred dollars was offered to the finder of the trunk which contained them. It was picked up a fortnight after, at Deal Beach, near Long Branch. The bills were dried, and collected in specie by Mr. Gracie and two other distinguished merchants — Mr. Oliver, of Baltimore, and Mr. Craig, of Phila- delphia. But a season of reverses came. Em- barrassed by the capture of ships and cargoes, and by the failure of foreign correspondents and domestic debtors — disaster upon disaster befalling the commercial community — his mass of wealth, accumulated by a long life of enterprise and industry, was entirely swept away in the common ruin — a sad verification of the proverb : " Rich- es take to themselves wings and fly away." But he never boasted of them, nor trusted in their continuance. Public confidence had often been mani- fested toward him by appointments to places of trust ; and now his friends, whose esteem he never lost nor for- feited, sought to secure a continuance of his usefulness, and an asylum for his declining years, in the presidency of an insurance company, created for these purposes. But the effect of the blast which had prostrated him was not yet over ; for here again adversity crossed his path, and the hazards of the ocean proved ruinous to the affairs of the office. Benevolence and beneficence were the shining characteristics of Mr. Gra- cie. His dwelling was long the man- sion of elegant, unostentatious hospi- tality, and his door never closed against the poor. It is no slight testimonial to his standing and worth, that he re- ciprocated honor in a long and confi- dential intimacy with Alexander Ham- ilton and Gouvemeur Morris. Mr. Gracie died on the 12th of April, 1829, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. Thomas P. Cope, Merchant, of Philadelphia Mr. Cope, formerly one of the most eminent of Philadelphia merchants, was a native of Lancaster county, Pennsyl- vania, and belonged to a highly re- spectable Quaker family. His ances- tor, Oliver Cope, was one of the first purchasers from William Penn. On the maternal side, Mr. C. descended from the Pyms, who claim as an an- 54 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. cestor the celebrated parliamentarian, John Pym, whose name is connected with that of Strafford. In 1786, he was sent to Philadelphia, and entered a counting house. In 1790, he began business for himself, and built for his own use the store at the corner of Second street and Jones's Alley, then known by the euphonious designation of Pew- ter-Platter Alley. Here he transacted a large business, importing his own goods. In this location he continued until 1807, at which time he built his first ship, which he named for his na- tive county, Lancaster. This same year he was elected to the State Legislature ; and soon afterward he was solicited to accept a nomination for Congress, but preferred to superintend his extensive mercantile concerns. To Mr. Cope was Philadelphia indebted, in 1821, for the establishment of the first regular line of packet ships between that city and Liverpool, England. About 1810, Mr. Cope removed his place of business to Walnut street wharf, where his sons now have their counting house, and where their packet ships lie when in port. This place had been remarkable as the scene of misfortune to nearly all its previous occupants, and so marked had the results been, so striking and so uninterrupted, that a dread had been excited in the minds of those the least tinctured with super- stition. It was what was called an " unlucky place," and several of Mr. Cope's friends mentioned to him with some earnestness its bad character in this respect. "Then," said he, with his characteristic uprightness and fear- lessness, " I will try to earn for it a bet- ter name." And although he was a wealthy man before he removed thither, yet that place is identified with his subsequent prosperity. As a mercantile man, Mr. Cope was the contemporary and often the rival of Stephen Girard; he was also on terms of intimacy and friendship with that remarkable man. It was another proof of Mr. Girard's sagacity, that he selected Mr. Cope to be one of the exe- cutors of his will, and one of the trus- tees of the bank. It happened that after discharging with fidelity the du- ties which his friend and fellow mer- chant had thus devolved upon him, Mr. Cope became, for a time. President of the Board of Commissioners of the Girard Estate. To Mr. Cope, in an eminent degree, may be acceded the praise of bringing to a completion the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal; and the citizens of Philadelphia are not likely soon to forget the promptness and the eflaciency of his efforts to se- cure the construction of the Pennsyl- vania Kailroad. For a long time he was President of the Board of Trade, an active manager of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and was also President of the Mercantile Library Company from its foundation to his death. His personal appearance was quite prepossessing ; and not even the weight of eighty years deprived him of a buoy- ancy of spirits that made his company the delight of social gatherings. He died November 22, 1854. Jacob Ridgway, Merchant, of Philadelphia. Jacob Kidgway, son of John and Phebe Ridgway, of Little Egg Harbor, was bom on the 18th of April, 1768, and was the youngest of five children. His parents were Friends, his father being an elder in the meeting. He was about seven years old when his father died. His father left a good farm, be- sides money at interest, for each of the three sons ; and a small house and lot, with three thousand dollars, to each of the daughters. The family continued to live at the homestead, until the death of the mother, when the household was broken up ; and Jacob, then about six- teen, went to Philadelphia, to live with his eldest sister, whose husband he had chosen as his guardian. His property EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES. 65 was more than sufficient for his main- tenance and education, and aflforded a capital at last for commencing business. He studied the wholesale dry goods business in the store of Samuel Shaw, and succeeded him in it as partner with his son, Thomas Shaw. Though only twenty-one, he was highly valued for his business capacity. After a few years he withdrew from this, and went into partnership with his brother-in- law, James Smith, in a grocery, on Water street. They continued this for some time, till, finding their funds in- creasing, they sold out to Joseph Pry- or, and commenced the shipping busi- ness. Smith & Ridgway continued as ship- ping merchants with great prosperity until the difficulties between France and England. Their ships were seized ; and it became necessary for one of the firm to reside abroad to protect their property. Mr. Ridgway then removed with his family to London, where he conducted the business of the firm, and also that of other merchants. He spent much time in travelling, but finally settled at Antwerp, as consul for the United States. He there became a partner in the firm of Mertons & Ridg- way, stiU continuing in the firm of Smith & Ridgway, of Philadelphia. During this time he constantly sent on funds to be invested in real estate in Philadelphia. On his return, after sev- eral years' absence, he retired from business, finding sufficient employment in the care of his property. It is related, as an instance of his de- cision and promptitude, that, while living as consul at Antwerp, he was in- formed of the seizure of a vessel con- signed to his care, the cargo of which was very valuable. Instantly he de- spatched a courier to Paris to order relays of post-horses at the different stations, collected his papers, and trav- elled day and night, eating and sleep- ing in his carriage, until he reached Paris, where he procured an interview with Bonaparte, obtained authenticated papers for the ship's release, and re- turned to Antwerp with the same ra- pidity. Before his absence had been even suspected, and just as the captors were about breaking open the cargo and dividing the spoil, much to their surprise and disappointment, he ap- peared among them and countermand- ed their proceedings, producing his papers, and taking possession of the ship. Mr. Ridgway died in May, 1843, aged seventy-six years. PART SECOm Anecdotes and Incidents of Business Pubsuits nr THEIR Monet Eelations. PAET SECOI^D. Anecdotes and Incidents of Business Pursuits in their Money Eelations. BANKS, BANKERS, BROKERS, SPECIE, NOTES, LOANS, EXCHANGE, DRAFTS, CHECKS, PUBLIC SECURITIES, AND CURRENCY IN ALL ITS FORMS AND PHASES; WITH JOTTINGS OF THE MOST CELEBRATED MILLIONAIRES AND MONEY DEALERS THEIR BUSINESS MODES AND CHARACTERISTICS, MAXIMS, COLLOQUIES, ECCENTRICITIES, WIT, AND FINESSE. Money in thy purse will ever be in fashion. — Raleigh. Money, as money, satisfies no want, answers no purpose— can bo neither eaten, drank, nor worn.— Laurins. It — money— is none of the wheels of trade ; it is the oil -which renders the motion of the wheels more smooth and easy.— Hume. . Then would he be a brolver, and draw in Both wares and money, by exchange to win.— Spenser. "Whole droves of lenders crowd the banker's doors.- Dryden. Drawing: the Specie. There was at one time, in tlie vicinity of Boston, a working man who had saved quite a sum from his earnings, and of this sum he deposited some fifteen hundred dollars in a bank, one of the officers of which was an old acquaintance. After a time, however, the depositor concluded to withdraw his money, stating that he wished gold, as he was to expend it in Maine, and there might be some trouble about bills if he took them. He was informed that the cashier's check would be as good as gold for the purpose, and in case of loss, be more secure, as pay- ment could be stopped. But he desired to have the gold, which was at once counted out to him. The next the bank officers heard of him, he was under arrest, and the following facts were elicited : The story gfbout taking the funds to Maine was simply an excuse for drawing specie. The gold had been secreted under the hay in the loft of a stable ; and the man, visiting it in the night, had taken a lantern, the light of which had arrested the attention of another party who watched the movements, supposing the owner of the gold to be an incendiary, and took the man and his bag of double eagles forthwith to the police station house. After considerable parley and protestations of innocence on the part of the supposed culprit, the funds were retained as security for the owner's appearance in the morning. His state- ments concerning his treasure were verified the next day, and he was re- leased. When remonstrated with for his imprudence in mistrusting a sound bank so capriciously, and leaving his money in a place so liable to destruc- tion as a stable, he replied, that he thought that in case the barn was burned, his gold would drop' through, and he could easily find it among th» 60 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. The Great Bankers of tlie World in Kothschild's Parlor. In the year 1824, the great bankers of the world met together to combine in the carrying out of a colossal opera- tion for the French government, viz., to convert the state debt from five per cents, to three per cents. It was proposed to pay off with a round sum those who were disinclined to exchange their claims which bore five per cent, interest for new three per cent, claims, and to take seventy-five francs for every hundred. The whole of the state debt amounted to 3,066,- 783,560 francs ; and as it was shown that only about one third of the state creditors would consent to the conver- sion, a payment in cash of 1,055,556,720 francs became necessary. In order to collect this important capital, the whole financial power of England, Holland and France was called into exercise. Invitations in all directions assembled the leaders of the Paris and London Ex- changes — Messrs, Baring Brothers & Co. of London, Brothers Rothschild, and J. Lafitte & Co. of Paris, — to no very difficult task, namely, to arrange in three lists the capitalists of various lands with whom they were connected, especially those of London, Amsterdam, and Paris, at the head of each list being one of themselves. These financial magnates sat daily in the parlor of the Brothers Eothschild, and sat the longer because of the inex- haustible eloquence of M. Lafitte, about the advantages to accrue from the con- version and all matters cormected with it, — an eloquence which, as Mr. Baring afterwards remarked, drove them fre- quently into positive impatience. The secret plan of the holders of the three per cent, debt was to raise it to eighty, and then to sell it, and so get rid of it. This price would give to buyers an interest of three and one-half per cent. ; and if the portion of the debt to be paid off could not be raised, excepting by new three per cent, pur- chasers at eighty, the consequence would be, that the five per cent, before the conversion would be worth the rela- tive price of one hundred and six francs sixty-six and two- thirds, in order to get rid of the corresponding interest. This governed the operations of the London, Frankfort, Amsterdam, and Paris Ex- changes. The capital destined for the conversion, and collected at the com- mon cost of the representatives of the three lists, was estimated at one thou- sand millions. Speculators had con- ceived so favourable an idea of the three per cent, funds to be created — an idea based upon the belief that the undertakers would not bring it into circulation under eighty — ^that buyers were found in Amsterdam and Frank- fort at eighty-one and eighty-two, and even eighty-three and a half. At the same time important sales were made of French five per cent, state paper, at the relative price of from one hundred and six francs sixty-seven, to one hundred and ten. Nothing more was to be had. The project, after much opposition, was sanctioned by the chambers of deputies and peers. For the business world, the consequence of this measure was im- mense losses for all the direct par- takers in the conversion, and for all the first speculators. The five per cents, ran down to ninety-eight francs, and remained fixed at that price for a long time. As people had freely purchased in behalf of the conversion, it became necessary to turn the purchases made on time into money again. Of the three chiefs of this celebrated coalition, Messrs. Baring and Lafitte suffered most, because of the immense expense caused by the collection of the thousand millions. But the Roths- childs were splendidly compensated by the sales of the three per cents, at eigh- ty-one and eighty-two, and by the sale, at the same time, of a great quantity of five per cents, at one hundred and four — ^five — and six. As the three per cents, had just been called into exist- BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 61 ence they had nothing to furnish, and they could replace the five per cents, sold at ninety-eight francs. This plan of M. Rothschild was not imparted to the other two who were interested in the conversion, as is always required by the common understanding of a common participation in loss and gain — the two had been outflanked. The unconquer- able aversion which the chief of the Hope house had long felt, to all busi- ness connections with the Rothschilds, was the cause of the Amsterdam firms having no part in the projected con- version, and consequently none in the losses. In the same way the house of Hottinguer & Co. refused any partici- pation in the matter. Nicholas Biddle and the Mississippi IJoan. To the prudence and clearness which characterized Mr. Biddle's course in the crisis of 1836-7 has been attributed the fact that American credit was saved, and the mercantile interests of the United States preserved from ruin. The gratitude of the commercial houses thus carried through was limitless, and Bid- die was always received with marked attention in New York, and through- out the. States he was hailed as the greatest financier of the day — ^the Sa- viour of Commerce. Perhaps the height to which he was thus elevated made him dizzy, even generating the fancy that his popularity and moneyed in- fluence could lift him to the presi- dential chair. To win the South, he made enormous advances to the cotton planters. His last measure for popu- larity was this : there was no American holder of the whole $5,000,000 to the State of Mississippi. Planters are natu- rally rather backward, and this begat public distrust. Then Biddle took the whole loan, reckoning on his influence and the indorsement of his bank to pro- cure money from the capitalist. When he saw, however, that he had reckoned without Ms host, he determined to offer a part of it to Hottinguer & Co., as equivalent for the bank exchanges. The French firm, however, already a little nervous, resolved to get rid of the whole burden, to let the bank paper be protested, and to send back the Missis- sippi paper. What followed is weU known. Goldschmid and Baring's Unfortunate Contract— Suicide of the Former. Some fifty years ago, the houses of Baring and Goldschmid were contract- ors for a ministerial loan of £14,000,000. But Sir Francis Baring dying, the sup- port of the market was left to his com- panion. The task was difficult, for a formidable opposition had arisen, which required the united energies of both houses to repress, and to meet which one house was inadequate. It was the interest of this opposition to reduce the value of scrip, and it succeeded. Day by day it lowered, and day by day was Mr. Goldschmid's fortune lowered with it. He had about £8,000,000 in his possession ; and with the depression of his fortune his mind grew dispirited and clouded. Another circumstance occurred at this particular moment to increase his embarrassments. Half a million of exchequer bills had been placed in his hands to negotiate for the East India Company; and the latter, fearing the result of the contest going on, claimed the amount. His friends did not rally around him, as might have been expected they would, at such a moment ; and Abraham Goldschmid, dreading a disgrace which his sensi- tive and honorable nature magnified a hundredfold, after entertaining a large dinner party, destroyed himself in the garden of his magnificent residence in Surrey. ♦ Glances behind the Bank Counter. A VERY readable account of some of the inside operations of a provincial bank is given in Chambers' Journal. We commence with " Old Levy," the 62 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. official specie hunter : " Who can this little man be who comes forward, thumping down on the counter those immense bags of silver, and who has a man behind him bringing more?" This is " Old Levy," who collects silver for the bank, when hard pressed for that useful commodity. How he gets it all, or where, nobody cares to know ; there it is. Hard work he must have, and not very great pay, for he receives only half a crown for every hundred pounds of silver he brings. But a very useful appendage to the bank is Mr. Levy, nevertheless. There goes the messenger oflf to some branch with a remittance which prob- ably has just been asked for by letter. There seems nothing very particular about him, and yet his non-arrival at the branch to-day would place the re- spectable manager there in a very un- comfortable dilemma. It is curious how little bother is made in sending him off. The manager quietly walks up to him and says laconically : " Ten thou- sand pounds in notes to go to Overdun Branch by next train ; you have twenty minutes." The messenger sends out for a cab, stuffs the little bundle of notes into an inside breastpocket, and away he goes, as unceremoniously and unconcernedly as if he hadn't a penny about him. Here comes the little telegraph lad, elbowing his way up to the teller, and pitching his missive imperiously across to him, as if he knew that his busi- ness was of primary consequence, and would be first attended to ; and he is right. The dispatch is opened by the manager, and is from the London bank- ers, where all the bills are payable, — and he thus reads : " Your customer, Robert Banks's bill for three hundred pounds to Hayes & Co., is presented for payment ; we have no advice from you to pay, — shall we do so ? " " Very stupid of Banks," mutters the manager ; but on referring to his account, he finds plenty of funds to meet it ; so the care- less friend is sent for, to give the neces- sary check and sanction for correcting his oversight. He comes in very hot, makes all kinds of apologies, and then another little missive is sent to the tele- graph office, addressed to the bank's agents; it contains only the word "Pay," accompanied, however, by a private cipher, known only to the " con- fidentials " in both establishments, and without which no notice would be taken of it. Vaults of the Bank of France. The silver coin of the Bank of France is heaped up in barrels and placed in spacious cellars, resembling the subter- ranean storehouse of a brewery, «ach tub holding fifty thousand francs, in five-franc pieces, and weighing about six hundred pounds. There are, at times, eight hundred barrels, piled up to the very crown of the arches, and rising much higher than a man's head. The visitor walks through a long alley of these barrels, for some time, until he comes to a large stone-floored apart- ment, wherein are to be seen large square leaden cases, resembling those used at vitriol and sulphuric acid works. Each of these holds twenty thousand bags of one thousand francs, and the whole are soldered up hermetically within the cases — several of these, it appears, not having been opened for nearly forty years, and will probably remain en- tombed one hundred years longer — the last of the stock to be disposed of or dipped into. In these leaden reservoirs the treasure of the Bank of France is kept perfectly dry, and free also from any variation of temperature. The stairs reaching to these regions of Plu- tus are narrow, and admit of only one person at a time, ascending or descend- ing with a candle. This has been ex- pressly contrived for protection and defence from insurgent mobs. In one of the treasure vaults are the precious deposits of the Rothschilds, and other BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 63 wealthy capitalists, left for safety with the bank. "Confidence " in Hard Times. A LITTLE Frenchman loaned a mer- chant five thousand dollars, when times were good. He called at the counting house on the times becoming " hard," in a state of agitation not easily de- scribed. " How do you do ? " inquired the merchant. " Sick — very sick," replied monsieur. " What is the matter ? " " De times is de matter." " Betimes f — what disease is that ? " " De malaide vat break all de mar- chants, ver much." " Ah — the times, eh ? Well, they are bad, very bad, sure enough ; but how do they affect you ? " ■ " Vy, monsieur, I lose de confidence." " In whom ? " " In everybody." " JS'ot in me, I hope ? " "Pardonnez moi, monsieur; but I do not know who to trust a, present, when all de marchants break several times, all to pieces." " Then I presume you want your money ? " " Oui, monsieur, I starve for want of Vargenty " Can't you do without it ? " " Ko, monsieur, I must have him." " You must ? " " Oui, monsieur," said little dimity breeches, turning pale with apprehen- sion for the safety of Ms money. " And you can't do without it ? " " No, monsieur, not von other leetle moment longare." The merchant reached his bank book, drew a check on the good old " Con- tinental" for the amount, and handed it to his visitor. " Vat is dis, monsieur ? " " A check for five thousand dollars, with the interest." "Is it bon?" said the Frenchman, with amazement. " Certainly." " Have you de Vargent in de bank ? " " Yes." "And is it parfaitement convenient to pay de same ? " " Undoubtedly. What astonishes you ? " " Yy, dat you have got him in dees times." " Oh, yes, and I have plenty more. I owe nothing that I cannot pay at a moment's notice." The Frenchman was perplexed. "Monsieur, you shall do me von leetle favor, eh ? " " With all my heart." " Yell, monsieur, you shall keep de Vargent for me some leetle year lon- ger." " Why, I thought you wanted it ! " " Tout au contraire. I no vant de Vargent. I vant de grand confidence. Suppose you no got de money, den I vant him ver much — suppose you got him, den I no vant him at all. Vous comprenez, eh ? " After some further conference, the little Frenchman prevailed upon the merchant to retain the money, and left the counting-house with a light heart, and a countenance very different from the one he wore when he entered. His confidence was restored — he did not stand in need of the money. That's all. Pursuit of Specie under DiflELculties. An anecdote of a somewhat lively character is given of a Cincinnati bro- ker, who favored the banks of La- fayette, Ind., during a financial excite- ment. The broker had with him about $3,500 in bills on the old State Bank, and some $4,500 on the Bank of the State. He stepped into the latter, and his eye brightened at the prospect of the yellow boys ranged in tempting piles before him, every dollar worth ten per cent, premium. He presented his notes, and the cashier recognizing him as one of the Cincinnati sharks, took up 64 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. a bag of silver specially reserved for sucli chaps, and commenced redeeming one bill at a time. The broker expos- tulated. He wanted gold — offered to make a slight discount; but no, the cashier told him that the notes were worth one hundred cents to the dollar, and he proposed to redeem them in Uncle Sam's currency at that figure. He refused to take the silver, and de- positing the red backs in an old carpet sack that looked as though it could a tale unfold of many a " run," the dis- comfited broker wended his way to the old State Bank. He presented his packages, marked " $3,500," and de- manded the specie. The cashier of this bank promptly put his hook into the broker's nostrils, by setting out a couple of bags filled with dimes and half- dimes. Mr. Broker thus finding "a spider in his cake " here also, turned upon his heel in disgust — if not a bet- ter man, at least better " posted." Specie in the Brokers' Windows. . It has been said that next to owning gold, the highest pleasure in life is look- ing at it. Acting on this idea; espe- cially in times when specie circulates scantily, knots of people stand, shoul- der to shoulder, at the windows of the exchange brokers, and feast their greedy eyes with gold. There it is, spread out in a flat, careless heap, with an ingenious affec- tation of profusion. Looking at it, tossed recklessly on the black velvet, as if thrown out of a shovel, one would hardly think that the owners attached much value to it. Its tempting abund- ance calls up visions of great vaults full of gold in the back office. The display in the window seems but a sample of tons more, which can be heard of by inquiring within. This is a high in- stance of art concealing art. The in- tention of the broker is to express the idea of boundless resources, and he does it. If he arranged the gold in his window, in the shape of a cornucopia, or piled it up in little uniform columns, set like the squares of a checker-board, the illusion of untold wealth would at once be dispelled. The gazers on the sidewalk would say, or think, "This is all the gold the man has. He is showing it off to .the best advantage." So it seems that the arrangement of gold in a broker's window, like the tying of a cravat, must be done with a certain studied carelessness, or it will fall short of a perfect success. Some brokers, who have investigated the subject with that attention which it deserves, as a legitimate department of the fine arts, obtain an admirable effect by scattering twenty-dollar gold pieces carelessly at the bottom of the heap, barely allowing the milled edge of the ground periphery to stick out from the mass of smaller coins above and around. The sidewalk man recog- nizes the sublime double eagle of the national currency at once. Perhaps he owned one like it years ago — or, more probably, he was slightly acquainted with some other man that once had one. At any rate, he has seen a twenty- dollar gold piece somewhere before, and its majestic outline is stamped upon his memory. From seeing these double eagles peeping out here and there, among the sprawling mass of coins, he derives, by a natural logical process, an impression of Ophirs and Golcondas within, which ten times the number of the same huge unattainable pieces would fail to create, if geometrically adjusted in cylindrical piles. lioss of Bank Notes. The old Bank of the United States was chartered in 1791, and continued in active business operation during a period of twenty years. Its circulation never exceeded twenty millions. In 1823, by decree of court, the trustees of the bank were formally released from any obligation to redeem outstanding BUSINESS PURSUITS IN THEIR MONEY RELATIONS. 65 bills, as twelve years had elapsed from the expiration of the charter ; and no- tice, by public advertisements, had been widely sjjread for seven years, — sufficient to meet almost every ordi- nary case, it would seem. The notes then unredeemed amounted to the large sum of $205,000. A fund of five thou- sand dollars was reserved for instances of peculiar hardship that might in fu- ture turn up ; but the whole presented did not exceed eleven hundred dollars, of which the greater part was in the hands of an invalid revolutionary sol- dier, and liquidated in 1835. A note of ten dollars, however, was redeemed a short time since. Lafltte in a Tight Place. The ancient and close connection between the banking houses of Lafitte of Paris and Coutts & Co. of London, who were intrusted with the wealth of the highest and richest nobles in Eng- land, had brought into their hands an immense capital, belonging to English travellers in France and Italy. Many of the travellers had settled in those countries, leaving their money in La- fitte's hands. It was the common calculation, that fifty thousand Englishmen were living in France; and that if each were to spend but ten francs a day, fifteen mil- lions of francs a month, and one hun- dred and eighty millions a year, of English gold, would be spent in France. It is evident, that if one-third of these people, or even fewer, were to leave their funds in Lafitte's hands, it would make up a capital far beyond the need of his banking business, and so his own capital might be untouched. But, in order to make it lucrative, La- fitte had loaned it on mortgages of every sort, had invested it in factories, had bought real estate, forests, etc., so that it was no longer of use in his busi- ness, but the foreign capital served for his operations. The Julv revolution 5 alarmed most of the English in France ; they departed, and drew their money from the banker. This emigration be- came stronger every day, and emptied the portfolios and chests of the house. For the first time^ tJie credit of the mightiest FreTich lanMng house mm shaken^ and their embarrassment was notorious. Then the new king, Louis Philippe, came to the help of his friend Lafitte, who had greatly contributed to his elevation, and bought of him the part of the forest of St. Germain which he owned, for the sum of nine millions of francs. Even this heli?, however, was not needed, for the storm soon blew over. Ouvrard the Banker, and Napoleon. Napoleon once sent for Ouvrard the banker, ostensibly on diplomatic busi- ness. After a brief interview, Napoleon said: " Can you give me any money ? " " How much does your imperial ma- jesty require ? " was Ouvrard's answer. " To begin with," said the emperor, " fifty millions of francs." " I could get that amount within twenty days, in return for five millions Kente," (of which the price was more than fifty-three francs,) "to be given me at fifty francs, and under the condi- tion that the treasury shall pay Dou- merc, whose creditor I am, the fifteen millions it owes him." The agreement was at once con- cluded, and the terms drawn upon the spot, by a secretary of the emperor, the latter dictating every word, and sign- ing the paper with his own hand. Napoleon, who had made himself fully acquainted with the condition of the public credit on the Paris Bourse, him- self doubted the success of this propo- sition of Ouvrard's; but when the great banker continued, for seventeen days, to pay in two millions of francs daily to the treasury. Napoleon could scarcely master his astonishment. This , 66 COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES. was, perhaps, the first time that he, who had never known any other way of fill- ing the treasury than by contributions from the countries he overran, and the taxation of his own subjects, formed a correct idea of the power of credit. liearning- the Currency in a Small » Way. Of all the close dealers among us, the Dutchmen live on the least, and shave the closest. It is astonishing how soon they learn our currency. A good thing occurred, however, in this connection, with the keeper of a small lager bier saloon, in a certain neighborhood, who undertook to teach his assistant, a thick-headed sprout of "Faderland," the difierence between " fivepence " and " sixpence." "Yah!" said John, with a dull twinkle of intelligence. A wag of a loafer, who overheard the lecture, immediately conceived the idea of a " saw " and " lager bier " gratis, for that day at least. Procuring a three cent piece, he watched the departure of the " boss," and going up to John, he called for a mug of " bier," throwing down the coin, and looking as if he ex- pected the change. John, who remem- bered his recent lesson, took up the piece, and muttering to himself, " Mit- out de vomans — 'tish von sixpence," he handed over three coppers change. How often the aforesaid was drank that day, we know not ; it depended upon his thirst and the number of times he could exchange three coppers for three-cent pieces; but when the boss came home at night, the number of small coin astonished him. "Yat ish dese, John; you take so many ? " " Sixpence," replied John, with a pe- culiarly satisfied leer. " Sixpence I Dunder and Blitzen ! You take all dese for sixpence ? Who from ? " "De manumit peard like Kossuth; he dhring all day mit himself." " Der teufel ! You give him change every time ? " "Y-a-h," said John, with a vacant stare. " Der teufel catch de Yankees ! " was all the astonished Dutchman could say. Punch's Money Vag-aries. The early Italians, says "Punch," used cattle as currency, instead of coin ; and a person would sometimes send for change for a thousand-pound bullock, when he would receive twenty fifty- pound sheep ; or, perhaps, if he wanted 'cery small change, there would be a few lambs among them. The incon- venience of keeping a flock of sheep at one's bankers, or paying in a short- horned heifer to one's private accomit, led to the introduction of 'bullion. As to the unhealthy custom of " sweating sovereigns," it may be well to recollect that Charles the First was, perhaps, the earliest sovereign who Was sweated to such an extent, that his im- mediate successor, Charles the Second, became one of the " lightest sovereigns " ever known in England. Formerly every gold watch weighed so many " carats," from which it became usual to call a silver watch a " tur- nip." " Troy weight " is derived from the extremely " heavy " responsibility which the Trojans were under to their credi- tors. The Eomans were in the habit of tossing up their coins in the presence of their legions, and if a piece of money went higher than the top of the en- sign's flag, it was pronounced to be " above the standard." Banking: Hahits of Girard. The habits characterizing Mr. Girard's attention to business were extremely regular in his counting room, and gen- erally so in the bank, but not always. On discount days, he almost invariably ^l^fil '^31 JS G JF- /^ /--' /v' -1-^^ ,.^/y^^^J, "i^ .\i...-ntan»..nl