There is a general cry against the merchants, against monopolizers, etc., who, ’tis said, have created a partial scarcity.  That a scarcity prevails of every article, not only of luxury but even the necessaries of life, is a certain fact.  Everything bears an exorbitant price.  The Act, which was in some measure regarded and stemmed the torrent of oppression, is now no more heeded than if it had never been made.  Indian corn at five shillings; rye, eleven and twelve shillings, but scarcely any to be had even at that price; beef, eightpence; veal, sixpence and eightpence; butter, one and sixpence; mutton, none; lamb, none; pork, none; mean sugar, four pounds per hundred; molasses, none; cotton-wool, none; New England rum, eight shillings per gallon; coffee, two and sixpence per pound; chocolate, three shillings.

What can be done?  Will gold and silver remedy this evil?  By your accounts of board, housekeeping, etc., I fancy you are not better off than we are here.  I live in hopes that we see the most difficult time we have to experience.  Why is Carolina so much better furnished than any other State, and at so reasonable prices?  Your PORTIA.

BRAINTREE, June 8th, 1779.

Six months have already elapsed since I heard a syllable from you or my dear son, and five since I have had one single opportunity of conveying a line to you.  Letters of various dates have lain months at the Navy Board, and a packet and frigate, both ready to sail at an hour’s warning, have been months waiting the orders of Congress.  They no doubt have their reasons, or ought to have, for detaining them.  I must patiently wait their motions, however painful it is; and that it is so, your own feelings will testify.  Yet I know not but you are less a sufferer than you would be to hear from us, to know our distresses, and yet be unable to relieve them.  The universal cry for bread, to a humane heart, is painful beyond description, and the great price demanded and given for it verifies that pathetic passage of Sacred Writ, “All that a man hath will he give for his life.”  Yet He who miraculously fed a multitude with five loaves and two fishes has graciously interposed in our favor, and delivered many of the enemy’s supplies into our hands, so that our distresses have been mitigated.  I have been able as yet to supply my own family, sparingly, but at a price that would astonish you.  Corn is sold at four dollars, hard money, per bushel, which is equal to eighty at the rate of exchange.

Labor is at eight dollars per day, and in three weeks it will be at twelve, it is probable, or it will be more stable than anything else.  Goods of all kinds are at such a price that I hardly dare mention it.  Linens are sold at twenty dollars per yard; the most ordinary sort of calicoes at thirty and forty; broadcloths at forty pounds per yard; West India goods full as high; molasses at twenty dollars per gallon; sugar, four dollars per pound; Bohea tea at forty