Respectable Trade Read Online Free

founded. George Cole had put up his sign “Cole and Sons,” and bequeathed the business to his son and daughter. They had made it their life’s work to expand yet further.
    Two men seated on a bench moved closer to make space for Josiah. Their damp clothes steamed slightly in the warmth, and there was a prevailing smell of stale sweat and wet wool.
    “Good day,” Josiah said. He nodded at the waiter for coffee, and the boy brought him a pot with a cup and a big bowl of moist brown lump sugar.
    “You did well on the Daisy, then,” the man who had called him commented. “Prices are holding up for sugar. But you get no tobacco worth the shipping.”
    Josiah nodded. “It was a good voyage,” he said. “I won’t buy tobacco out of season. I’ll only take sugar. I did well on the Daisy, and we turned her around quickly.”
    “Do you have a partner for your next voyage?” the man opposite him asked. He spoke with a thick Somerset accent.
    “I am seeking a partner for the Lily. She will be in port within two months.”
    “And who commands her?”
    “Captain Merrick. There is no more experienced master in Bristol,” Josiah said.
    The man nodded. “D’you have the accounts for her last voyage?”
    Josiah shook his head, lying with easy fluency. “They are with the excise men,” he explained. “Some trouble over the bond last time. But the Daisy is a better example in any case. She was fresh into port and showed a profit of three hundred pounds for each shareholder. You won’t find a better breeding ground for your money than that!”
    “Could be,” he said uncertainly.
    Josiah dropped two crumbling lumps of thick brown sugar into his coffee, savoring the sweetness, the very scent of the trade, and signaled for a glass of rich, dark rum. “As you wish,” he said casually. “I have other men that should have the offer first, perhaps. I only mentioned it because of your interest. Think no more about it.”
    “Oh, no,” the man said quickly. “What share would you be looking for?”
    “A quarter,” Josiah replied coolly. He looked away from the table and nodded a greeting at another man.
    “And how much would that be?”
    Josiah seemed to be barely listening. “Oh, I couldn’t say. . . .” He shrugged his shoulders. “Perhaps a thousand pounds each, perhaps nine hundred. Say no more than nine hundred.”
    The man looked rather dashed. “I had not thought it would be so much. . . .”
    Josiah turned his brown-stained smile on him. “You will not regret it being so much when it shows a profit of twenty or thirty percent. Eh?”
    “And who will be the ship’s husband? You? You will do all the fitting and the orders?”
    “Myself,” Josiah said. “I always do. I would trust it to no other man. But I should not have troubled you with this. There is Mr. Wheeler now. I promised him a share in the Lily. ”
    “No, stay,” the man protested. “I will take a share, Josiah. I will have my share in her.”
    Josiah nodded easily. “As you wish, Samuel.” He held out his hand, and the other grasped it quickly. “Come to my warehouse this afternoon, and bring your bond. I will have the contract for you.”
    The man also nodded, half excited and half fearful. He rose from the table and went out. He would be busy from now until the afternoon, scouring the city for credit to raise his share.
    “I had not thought he had nine hundred pounds to outlay,” one of the others remarked. “You had best see your money before you sign, Josiah.”
    Josiah shrugged. Despite himself, his eyes strayed to the table at the top of the room. The men had called for a pie, a ham, and some bread and cheese for their breakfasts. They were drinking port. They were joking loudly, and their faces were flushed. They did not have to haggle over some small man’s life savings to finance a voyage. They carved up the profitable voyages among themselves; they shared the profits from the docks—even the barges that plied up and down