The Sun.
London, England, 1827-11-01 00:00:00

ABUSES IN TRADE.

We have been informed-by some of the highest
men in the furniture print trade in the metropolis,
that the observations which have appeared in this
Journal on the practices of some of the London
tradesmen are 100 general and indiscriminate. It is
far from . our intention' to class with the knaves
who are to be foand.behind counters in every street,
any man who gets his bread .by other than base
means. Our position is, that every man of integrity
in trade has more than one competitor to contend
against, who will stick at. nothing, and that those
swarms of villains who have been working the de-
struction of the limiest and laborious shopkeeper are
sustained and cherished by some opulent wholesale
dealers in 'stolen or deceptions articles. There are
hundreds of tradesmen who despise and detest for
more reasons than that they, are themselves sufferers,
the depraved ingenuity which has been introduced
of late.years, as it were, amongst the very maxims
of trade. That habits of pirating the fair trader,
and robbing the public, exist in ,no .ordinary degree,
is evident even from the admissions of the cheats
themselves, who do not hesitate to exult in plunder-
ing either a rival shopkeeper or a customer. "--
. the old cat," the very fellow who stole the piece of
silk damask said; " she thought to do me, but I
was too sharp for her. I did her." Pride ought to
step in where there is no virtue, to forbid the bargain-
hunters from propping up those fair-spoken traf,
Pickers. There is not 'one nobleman's, baronet's,
judge's, or merchant's wife in the metropolis, ac-
customed to fly about from shop to s'--top, and from
acquaintance to acquaintance, lying and calumniating,
who is not the theme bf ridicule- and 'jest amongst
the very men whom they recommend, to the pre-
judice of the honest tradesman. " Why, my
Lady," said one of the latter description to one of
those hopeful encouragers of the pillaging syStem,
" it is impossible that you can get articles at so low
a price as you mention, except the seller buys them
from a thief or steals them himself."—" Tut, tut,"
replied her Ladyship, " I tell you I can buy them at

that rate, and what is it to me how or from whom
he gets them ?" To meet with such customers as
this wife of a Noble Lord, it must be admitted, is-
enough to contaminate the morals of a tradesman
who sees fellows, whom nobody knew a year ago,.
flourishing under the patronage of the great, and,
laughing at those upon whom' they palm their spu-
rious commodities. It .is with regret that we are
compelled to reckon amongst the supporters of the
system the-wives of a couple of our Judges ; but the
thing is notorious. There is not a shopkeeper at
the west end of the town who is not aware of their

ladyships' propensity. Surely, then, it could not.
be wondered at if the seat of justice were sometimes;
degraded by the manifestation of angry feelings—ill
the recollection of,what was going on at home 'were!
to irritate and inflame the minds of those who, after!
all, are but men, to unworthy and unaccountable:
hostilities. The gout or rheumatism is but a trifle
in comparison with the mental affliction which must'
obtrude itself upon the man appointed to tell the
culprit his fate, when he reflects that the wife of
his bosom has been avowedly and zealously lending
her aid to the promotion of conspiracies against the
nioral life of the community. But the taste of those
bargain-hunters extends to articles which are more
directly comprehended in the list of the prohibited.
The moment the word " smuggled" is mentioned,
their thoughts and wishes are directed to foreign
lace and other articles which bear a heavy duty.
No' matter whether blood may have been shed in the".
attempt to defraud the revenue—no matter whether
the men who vend. the contraband articles join in
house-breaking and robbery in the intervals of their
professional engagements—they are sure to find pa-
tronagealllco.thWeres
could
name amongstseverpa
le
females,rso ofthe
s mameo sttheexalt e d r
widows,

wives of statesmen--ladies who no doubt have exercised
an unboundedand even tyrannicalinfluence over their
husbands,—we could name many of those person-
ages, as they are called, who have been all their lives
thus in league with the most desperate ruffians that
ever " flashed off a lugger," or " cellared a crop" at
midnight. It is a melancholy fact, that there are in
Parliament some individuals who are active in de-
crying and correcting other abuses, at the same time
that they are silent upon the most demoralizing of
all abuses—those of trade. We are aware that filial
recollections may interfere in the case of some of our
reformers to quench the vigour of impartial justice,
and to drown the memory of former wrong calcula-:
tions of the principles of trade. But these are not:
times in which the sins of the father are visited upon
the children; The son of a print pirate, who has
realized an immense fortune by " imitations," and
to check whose plunder in that department of trade,'
it had been found necessary to introduce an act into!
Parliament, bears some of the reproach, although he
shares the profits, and he cannot be better employed
than in correcting the evils of which his father is the
reputed parent. But the various acts of baseness.
consequent upon One great .plan of dishonesty in,
trade, would surprise and shock our readers. We
shall mention one very common practiee. We have'
already spoken to upwards Of- fifty respectable per-.
sons who have confirmed the information. A lady,
in passing along Holborn, sees a piece of print in.a
shop-window, ticketed at a very low price. She
enters,and asks for it. The shopman bows to her,
and requests she will do him the honout'of stepping
to the other end of the shop. She acquiesces,' and
presently she finds herself in a place comparatiVely
dark, and three or. four fellows busily engaged in

throwing down-before: _on •
• ~1111."
variety of prints, -each oraltirkr-116% eu,
double the ticketed chaigiiiiitz., she
wished to purchase. She ,requeet4W e gen-
tlemen will not take so mull 'trouble-, ;I 'she does
not intend to buy any article except that which
struck her fancy in the window. " Ob,dear, Madam,"
says one"fellow, " that is a miserable thing compared
with those—besides, we have only a yard or two.of
that at present, But look at this; there is a beautiful
thing. Upon sny honour, madam, I don't get mare
' than 1 per cent. upon that, article?' The lady stilt
perseveres; she will not have any other print than
that wthoi ch she
exhibit a
pt firstec fsreol eaci t
alled .
partslh
'esse
ofha fellows
el :iholsoer
besieged
con-
time
eehsr
loepldne
oorndaelrl tsoi
dschr euhesrheinytioeladspuarnedhasgei
finds upon examining her purchase, that she is robbed;
If she holds out; what is the alternative of those who
have been all bowing and scraping to her ? Why,
the miscreants swear that she came but to plunder
them—that she is a shop-lifter. We ask those who
are bold enough to venture into the penetralia ,of
those thieving depositatiegi whether they do not
think the character of an innocent person, who may
be induced to enter on account of an apparently
cheap price, in imminent danger ? Whether these
wretches who are constantly on the Ivs;:fil for the
unsuspicious, would hesitate to slip into a _
pocket or a woman's muff, unperceived, something
which they might, if they found occasion, convert
into evidence of robbery ? We have one recent in-
stance before us of a timid woman, who, :perceiving
that the articles exhibited inside the-:shop bore no

comparison to -those. which were called counterpaCts
in the wiudows; refused to buy. She had'
muff at a slight distance from her on the counter,
and in taking it up she felt that there was something
in it. At this moment. the shopman accused her of
taking a roll of riband. She. had. just- her haft('
aPoli the Aiholiaiik.iu.. her muff. Thera, wete Othe;-
villains behind the counter, who joined in the charge..
She at once saw her dunger,•her, disgrace. Her tegt,-
were scarcely able to support her when the principiti

came forward, and witllall imaginable kindness said
that there must be some mistake, again exhibited his
patterns
.before her, and succeeded. She laid out her,
money for, trash, but she never entered a shop since.
Agents and Custom-house and East India-house
officers have been proved to have been tainted with
the crime of ruining the fair trader. The iniquity
of the great ringleaders has extended itself to all with
whom they come in contact. A
scene was exhi-
bited some time ago at the East India- baggage ware,
.house, which is well worth recording here. It has
been long the practice for persons 'to
are tolvllo
sent
entfi.
shawls,oi
or China, or otherarticles of value
India, to have them valued, instead of waiting for
the regular sale. Oriental goods are: generally va-
lued by the Company's officers, in conjunction with
the officers of the Customs, and a duty of 75 pe-:
cent. is charged upon the valuation. • It would bci
supposed that officers who were ,appointed for the
purpose of protecting the King's duty and accom-
modating the merchant, and who were a sort of
check upon each other, would be eery cautious, as
to the manner of turning their power to private a.c-
count. It was found, however, that game of th,d
high officers in the baggage department were deep
in a system of fraud which had no doubt been cxr,
ried on for a series of years; and that not only tha
revenue but the fair dealer suffered by the imposi-
_

tion. Many of the purchasers of valuable articlati
were struck with the facilities. which One. or .-two
persons in trade found in obtaining whatever they
required, without waiting for a sale. Upon close in-
quiry, however, the accommodation was ascertained
to be founded in the grossest fraud. Some China

which had been placed in the baggage warehouse,
and for which a customer was waiting,
,was valued
as usual, but upon being submitted afterwards to
impartial judges, it was found to be undervalued
nearly 2001. per cent. It also appeared that accord--
ing to the public practice of the .gentlemen of this
.warehouse, the number of the •pieces!oc!Chine . was
merely mentioned; itestead 4.the,pactiftnlar desalts-
tion of 'the' articles ipiek4;pap4gogsq. 4R Oat after
,the dellyery fg.. .4WW.!irol9usel4l,ahrembingitmo
Official record to 'detect whether they were 'China
jars, each of . the value :241., or petty articles not
worth ss. , 'Almost all the proceedings. at the ware-
house seemed to hinge upon a certain convenient
person, who had been an examining officer, but who,
on account of dealing in East .India uununodities,
' was, according to the standing . regulation, required
to quit the service. 'He was, however, still.em-
ployed in .stith4 mariner as to enable. him to have
constant communication with the warehOnse, hear to
Which he kept a- large shop for the sale of East India
goods; and he was connected with a dealer in silks,
who had had fin many years an extensive monopoly
of the shawls disposed of 'at the warehouse, the
greater number of which, by some means or other,
found their way to his shop. The ex-officer having
access to the directions to the presents, and the ships'
reports, applied to those owners of articles who, he
thought, would dispose of them. Many owners wish
to sell off their goods upon a valuation, instead of ad-
vancing the duties upon them ; anti the silk dealer in
question was always called in, through the instru-
mentality of his friend, to superintend the valuation.
The plan was this :—An officer, who was down to
the fraud, would set an extremely low value upon an
article ; others of the officers,' Who also had their
fingers hi the pie, made a shovi. Of objecting, and
then the silk-dealer's valuation was brought forward,
which eitfiei COnfireneirthe first' valuation, or very
slightly iniOaioed upon it. This deciaiOn was always
considered filial. The inspector, who was one of the
gentlemen iti the secret, had a son, who used to pass
the entries, on which his father afterwards officially
approved the values, and was one of the two agents
employed at the warehouse. The silk-dealer thus,
in fact, set a valuation upon his own articles, and his
custom was to value a shawl worth 40/. or .56/. at
20/. or 251., so that he would pocket the difference
between the 'fraudulent and the real valuation,
whatever
commodity
the
sumin he m
the i might have given o
firstt
iiistenceA divisionfr
of profits must of course, in such cases, have
taken
found a great deal of accommodation
in the readiness with which he got bills which were
pslta yclee: The inspector, who lived in very
elegant
of Very equivocal value discounted; and the other
officers met with " their reward." So much had
the officers been in the habit of benefiting by wink-
ing at these frauds, that if a principal in a concern
refused to cash
,an inspector's accommodation bill,
great pains would be taken to revenge theinsult.—
One of the East India brokers, in an intelligent let-
ter to Mr. Huskisson, says--"' If the officer wants
another loan, he goes to another merchant if the
latter refuses, he risks being 'singled out whenever
4 •
anopportunity, hoWever trifik • occurs; if he com-
p
lies, the officer, as a set-off. • -nes difficultio with
the detection of these prs JO.
had, however, and in the list of
so manymaey orfaseathies
his creditors were found t4e names of the two per-
fraudulent companies vs: alluded failed after
sons whom he was in the.habit of obliging. He
barotagyh in
can 7 alt the difference."
into play. The other officers, who had for some
years been living at a rate of expence not warranted
by their ostensible means, after this exposure,
dropped back into their ordinary pace, and the en-
tries with which they used to meddle, although the
board would not dare to' correct or alter them with-
out great caution and ceremony, were no longer sub-
ject to their bold and dishonest revision. The in-
jury to which the fair trader was liable from the firstfiNgv which brought
ex-
istence of this flagrant abuse, obvious. The ar-
ticle which the monopolist received upon his own
valuation, could of Course be sold at a considerably
less price than an
,artiCle of equal value upon which
the full duty was paid.
.We understand
.that the
duties uporfilie':gorisas in the baggage tiVirehousea,
in 'the year'preCeding the detection: of the 'practice
we have described, to alidut 20,0001., and
that in the felloWing year they exceeded 40,000/.--
We should 'Wish to be infOrtheA whether all t' le
periions Concerned in those.traniactiOns were remov ,(1
from the service of the EastlUdia
' j 1'