William and Mary Treasures

So many original Alexander Donald letters in the William and Mary Special Collections library. Amazing - not since I was sent all the letters that he wrote to Boulton and Watt have I come across such a large collection in one day. But these were much more special as they are the real thing - the originals - rather than photocopies. As I said in the last post, they look like they were written yesterday, all in incredibly good condition and I appreciate going back to my relic comment from before, but these were written by the person I have been studying for quite a bit now and written over two hundred and twenty years ago at the time of the French Revolution, in fact some written within a month of the storming of the Bastille. It really was a very special moment to uncover quite so many - although slightly makes me panic that there must be other batches as good, if not better, somewhere else waiting to be discovered!

So much to go through - and I obviously need to go back with a proper camera as you can see from above - but this collection, or rather two collections (plus an original William Short to Alexander Donald, recipient's copy, thrown in and more on that later and its provenance), illustrate the social life of a merchant. I think the collection in the Rockefeller Library, just down the road from William and Mary were great to illustrate the economic life - looking at what was in their holds and how many hogsheads of tobacco were involved etc for the nuts and bolts, but these illustrate how wheels of business were actually oiled just to mix my metaphors. And it looks pretty much like a pack of cards to be honest - lurching from one crisis to another, chasing up payments here and putting off payments there.
All illustrates very clearly how the Donald and Burton business was set up - either consigning tobacco to Alexander to sell on your behalf in Europe, and waiting for the money once he had sold it, or selling it to him to do with it as he wanted and getting the money up front - or getting the money against what you had bought from Alexander from Europe. I had focussed on this on the talk I gave last week.
Also the many desperate letters Alexander sent just before his ships arrived in America shows just how important it was to make sure that there was enough tobacco ready in dock to fill up the ships so they could have a quick turnaround as the longer it took to fill up, the more expensive it was. Likewise letters sent to tell people to get in their orders for European goods early - so that everything could be ordered in time to fill up boats on the way from Europe to America. Quick turnarounds were very much imperative to keep costs down
Going to return to these letters many times over the next few days and will show some off these points and more - but the other thing they are fantastic at illustrating is the language of business. All being very civil to each other and behaving in a very formulaic way, but at the same time making sure you get the message across that they are behind in payments etc.
Nothing like veiled threats - just being disappointed that they haven't done something or disappointed when their behaviour has let them down. Alexander seemed to be in a state of permanent disappointment about something - for instance when someone hadn't popped in for a drink of "cool punch" when they said they would as he had wanted to discuss their consignment of tobacco, or a similar one: "When I heard of your being in town lately, I assured myself that you would not have left without calling upon me and settling your account". 
Seemed the best thing to do to get someone to do something was not to challenge them or threaten them, but almost to question their gentlemanly behaviour in a very subtle way - indeed even question if they were actually a gentleman, without of course ever being as crass as to say it like that. Everything is about face - as I said it was all a pack of cards, so you had to just keep up a front.
I think the reaction Alexander wanted to get is for the person he wanted the money from to say: "how dare he suggest in a terribly round about and convoluted but terribly civil way, I am not good for that payment, of course I can pay, I am a gentleman with a great estate/business and all is going so terribly well, and I can prove it, so I had better pay" rather than getting them to say: "if I don't pay, he will do something horrid to me, so I had better pay".
Here is Alexander once again being disappointed - this time someone else hasn't been to see him:
"If I am well, I intend seeing you between Hanover Court next and you Louisa Court. From this last I propose to go to Albemarle - and tho you pass by my door frequently, yet I will behave more civilly to you" 
Tomorrow we are doing the opposite, going from Albemarle to Hanover Court and shall certainly raise a toast to Alexander Donald (would never pass by his door) - and in cool punch of course.