The Indigo Pheasant: Volume Two of Longing for Yount: 2 by Daniel A. Rabuzzi Page A
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further. Matchett & Frew have suggested that something may not be quite as it seems about Coppelius, Prinn & Goethals (Widow), but could not give more detail.
The Landemanns are—as expected—in close correspondence with our mutual friends in the Northern and Baltic trades. By my next writing I may have news to share from Hamburg, Luebeck, Gothenburg, Danzig, Koeningsburg, and Riga.
Most devastating though is the total lack of funds coming from the larger City houses. Barings and the other acceptance houses won’t have anything to do with our Project, to the extent of neither Sedgewick nor I gaining so much as a conversation with them. (!)
The pending loan to the Kingdom of Prussia preoccupies many of our other friends—it is for the sum of no less than five million Pounds Sterling, which surely must reduce the stock potentially available to us. I had never seriously entertained hopes that the Rothschilds would back us, but it is frustrating to see the Prussia business absorbing all the focus of Isaac Solly & Son and of Haldimand.
I also thought that the East India Company’s investment would signify and attract Reid, Irving and Hurst, Robinson, yet so far we make no headway with those firms.
Another blow this morning: though they wish us well and will speak kindly on our behalf, Thomas Wilson & Co. is too busy with its new Brazil business to enter ours.
I am beginning to feel apprehensive and look forward to putting our minds together immediately upon your return. McDoon & Co. is now completely invested in the Project, our credit fully extended.
Since we cannot disclose the ultimate nature of the venture, we have had to offer a guarantee of 12% profit as a sort of blind trust—Sedgewick has arranged the legalities and confirms (we must be completely secure in this legal structure) that we are fulfilling our fiduciary responsibilities in this manner. How we are—as a business matter—to make good on that guarantee depends greatly on the outcome of your inquiries in Edinburgh and that of the Landesmanns among our northern connections.
In the meantime, our cash outlays as we embark on the Project are not small. The shipyard has agreed to extend us some credit, but not nearly enough to avoid sizeable payments to the mechanics and machinists, not to speak of the architects and draftsmen.
Not wanting to alarm you, but only to be sure you are in full possession of the relevant facts, I wish you Godspeed old friend.
—S
P.S. Something seems to work against us in this matter, more than just the normal vagaries of the market. I hear many reasons and excuses, e.g., the financial panics in the United States distract some, and the strife between the Greeks and Turks affect others, but there is more to it than that. We are not welcomed in places where formerly we were given freedom at least to propose our ventures; we receive odd and even stony glances from others, among whom we once numbered as friends. I will save more for your return, but think that our designs are being countered by those who sought to thwart us on our recent prolonged journey. More I will not put to paper.
[Letter from Mr. Sedgewick to Sir John Barrow, Second Secretary of the Admiralty, hand-delivered by Lt. Thracemorton, on the feast day of The Lady Gilthoniel, the Prayer-Incarnate]
Sir,
I beg leave to redouble my concerns for the nature and outcome of the matters to which you have entrusted me—my causes for alarm are well beyond my (and quite possibly any one man’s) control, as I believe you shall see from what I recount below.
Kidlington has done what you asked and re-attached himself to the McDoons, most particularly to the girl, in whom he clearly has a romantic interest (I assume my lord was aware of this when formulating your plan at the outset?). Not to tell you your business, but it is my considered opinion that an amatory thread in this tapestry may mar the whole pattern.
I do not know what Kidlington has reported to you, for he
The Landemanns are—as expected—in close correspondence with our mutual friends in the Northern and Baltic trades. By my next writing I may have news to share from Hamburg, Luebeck, Gothenburg, Danzig, Koeningsburg, and Riga.
Most devastating though is the total lack of funds coming from the larger City houses. Barings and the other acceptance houses won’t have anything to do with our Project, to the extent of neither Sedgewick nor I gaining so much as a conversation with them. (!)
The pending loan to the Kingdom of Prussia preoccupies many of our other friends—it is for the sum of no less than five million Pounds Sterling, which surely must reduce the stock potentially available to us. I had never seriously entertained hopes that the Rothschilds would back us, but it is frustrating to see the Prussia business absorbing all the focus of Isaac Solly & Son and of Haldimand.
I also thought that the East India Company’s investment would signify and attract Reid, Irving and Hurst, Robinson, yet so far we make no headway with those firms.
Another blow this morning: though they wish us well and will speak kindly on our behalf, Thomas Wilson & Co. is too busy with its new Brazil business to enter ours.
I am beginning to feel apprehensive and look forward to putting our minds together immediately upon your return. McDoon & Co. is now completely invested in the Project, our credit fully extended.
Since we cannot disclose the ultimate nature of the venture, we have had to offer a guarantee of 12% profit as a sort of blind trust—Sedgewick has arranged the legalities and confirms (we must be completely secure in this legal structure) that we are fulfilling our fiduciary responsibilities in this manner. How we are—as a business matter—to make good on that guarantee depends greatly on the outcome of your inquiries in Edinburgh and that of the Landesmanns among our northern connections.
In the meantime, our cash outlays as we embark on the Project are not small. The shipyard has agreed to extend us some credit, but not nearly enough to avoid sizeable payments to the mechanics and machinists, not to speak of the architects and draftsmen.
Not wanting to alarm you, but only to be sure you are in full possession of the relevant facts, I wish you Godspeed old friend.
—S
P.S. Something seems to work against us in this matter, more than just the normal vagaries of the market. I hear many reasons and excuses, e.g., the financial panics in the United States distract some, and the strife between the Greeks and Turks affect others, but there is more to it than that. We are not welcomed in places where formerly we were given freedom at least to propose our ventures; we receive odd and even stony glances from others, among whom we once numbered as friends. I will save more for your return, but think that our designs are being countered by those who sought to thwart us on our recent prolonged journey. More I will not put to paper.
[Letter from Mr. Sedgewick to Sir John Barrow, Second Secretary of the Admiralty, hand-delivered by Lt. Thracemorton, on the feast day of The Lady Gilthoniel, the Prayer-Incarnate]
Sir,
I beg leave to redouble my concerns for the nature and outcome of the matters to which you have entrusted me—my causes for alarm are well beyond my (and quite possibly any one man’s) control, as I believe you shall see from what I recount below.
Kidlington has done what you asked and re-attached himself to the McDoons, most particularly to the girl, in whom he clearly has a romantic interest (I assume my lord was aware of this when formulating your plan at the outset?). Not to tell you your business, but it is my considered opinion that an amatory thread in this tapestry may mar the whole pattern.
I do not know what Kidlington has reported to you, for he
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