of that place, to communicate your instructions
relative to the disposal of the Liverpool cargo,
on board of the ship ——, the loading
of that ship with good merchantable coffee, giving
the preference to the first quality whenever
it can be purchased on reasonable terms for cash,
or received in payment for the sales of the said Liverpool
cargo, or for a part thereof, observing that I
wished said coffee to be purchased at Samarang,
or any other out-port, if practicable; and in
all cases it must be attentively examined when delivered,
and put up in double gunny bags.
If the purchase of said
cargo is made at an out-port, the ship
——must
proceed there to take it in.
On the subject of purchasing coffee at government sales, I have no doubt that it is an easy way to obtain a cargo, but I am of opinion that it is a very dear one, particularly as the fair purchaser, who has no other object in view but to invest his money, does not stay on the footing of competitors, who make their payments with Netherland bills of exchange, or wish to raise the prices of their coffee which they may have on hand for sale.
Under these impressions, I desire that all the purchases of coffee on my account be made from individuals, as far as practicable, and if the whole quantity necessary to load the ship can not be obtained at private sale, recourse must then be had to government sales.
In many instances I
have experienced that whenever I had a vessel
at Batavia, the prices
of coffee at the government sales have risen
from five to ten per
cent., and sometimes higher.
On the subject of coffee I would remark that, owing to the increase of the culture of that bean, together with the immense imports of tea into the several ports of Europe, the price of that leaf has been lowered to such a degree as to induce the people of those countries, principally of the north, to use the latter article in preference to the first.
That circumstance has, for these past three years, created a gradual deduction from the consumption of coffee, which has augmented the stock on hand throughout every commercial city of the northern part of the globe, so as to present a future unfavorable prospect to the importers of that article. Indeed, I am convinced that, within a few months from this date, coffee will be ten per cent. cheaper in the United States than what it has been at Batavia for these two years past; nevertheless, being desirous to employ my ships as advantageously as circumstances will permit, and calculating also that the price at Java and other places of its growth will fall considerably, I have no objection to adventure.
Therefore, you must
use every means in your power to facilitate
the success of the voyage.