NEWS FROM HOME.
Slyk and Heins were equally anxious to lose no time in viewing the scene
of their undertaking; the former, because he disliked any delay in
getting possession of the young merchant's money, and the latter,
because he was anxious to signalize himself by illustrious success. They
set forth the next morning for the dwelling of the peasant who had
undertaken to lodge the workmen during the time of their being employed
in the neighbourhood. The whole family party accompanied them, except
Christian and his inseparable friend Gertrude, who remained behind to
enjoy pleasures which would be less fatiguing to the invalid. The decoy
was to be visited; and the garden, with its rare flowers ranged in their
beds as by the rod of a magical mathematician. Christian pointed out to
his companion, as he was being carried in at the gate, the motto which
he had chosen for an inscription, "Peaceful is my garden."
"And now, Kaatje, you may go, if you will leave me the silver whistle.
You can work in the summer-house, you know; and we will call you when I
want to be moved. Do you like this place, Gertrude?"
Gertrude thought it the pleasantest spot in the whole garden. The shade
was welcome, and it was a pretty sight to see the herons wading in the
stream so near them; and the boat jutted out behind the summer-house so
as to make a good object for a painter. Christian hoped they might use
the boat while Heins was with them. It was seldom entered at other
times, except for the purpose of being kept in readiness for an escape,
in case of a flood. Every house had its boat in that neighbourhood; for
the sea was very rough at times, and the river had risen four inches
higher last winter than had been known for many years, so that it had
been determined to raise the dyke before the danger could recur.
Meantime every house had its boat.
"You think of that boat sometimes, I dare say," observed Gertrude, "when
your cough keeps you awake, and you hear the wind roar and the waters
splash. Do you feel afraid at such times?"
"No; I do not think God would let us perish so. He has suffered the
storks to build on the summer-house, though we cannot get them to settle
on the house. See; we have put up a frame for them to build on, and they
will not come; but there are two nests on the summer-house roof."
"What do you suppose from that?" inquired Gertrude, who was far from
being exempt from the superstition of the country with respect to the
stork, there supposed to be a holy bird.
"I think that if a flood came, we must get to the summer-house as fast
as we could, and stay there till the storks flew away; and then we must
go down into our boat."
"And what would you do while you were waiting for the waters to subside?
If they continued to rise, and nobody came, would you be afraid?"
"Not if M. Aymond was but with us, to pray for us. Or if God would put a
rainbow in the cloud, it would be a sign that people had been saved from
a much worse flood. Do you know, I call that boat our ark; but there is
not room in it for half the creatures we should like to save. Luc's dog
might go, and Roselyn's parrot, and perhaps Kaatje's calf might find a
corner; but our poor cows must all be drowned. I hope there will never
be a flood."
All further speculation was stopped by the arrival of a special
messenger from Amsterdam, with letters from the dignitary Vanderput to
his sister and his partner. Gertrude, after she had satisfied herself
that nothing was the matter, read her despatch without remark, and then
directed the messenger to overtake Mr. Snoek, and deliver his letter
without delay.
Mr. Snoek, meanwhile, was in raptures at all that he saw and heard. Not
having been made aware that the work was even begun, he was amazed to
find a lake where he expected to tread the trembling soil of a moist
pasture land. How this came to be water when it should have been the
well-limed soil which he had described, Slyk went on explaining from the
moment they entered the district, till the party arrived at the door of
the boor's dwelling. The truth of the matter was that he was himself
surprised and struck with the apprehension that some of his devices had
failed, that money was wanted to set the lime-kilns at work, and pay the
delvers; and that, as Dutch labourers had little idea of working for
anything but ready money, they had gone away. They must be recoverable,
however; they must be still in the neighbourhood, at some temporary
work, and not unwilling to be recalled, when pay should be again
forthcoming.
"They may well be willing to come back," observed Jan, the boor. "My
wife and I made them as comfortable as so many burgomasters. And their
wages were such as fully to make up to them for being brought so far
from home. But, Mr. Slyk, unless you employ them soon,--unless you
engage them before they are discharged from their present work, you will
have to alter your terms."
"No fear!" replied Slyk. "If the knave that should have sent you a
remittance a fortnight ago does not make haste, I will make him
answerable for spoiling the best work that was ever undertaken in this
district."
"There can be no difficulty in getting money to go on with," observed
Heins. "It is a most absurd reason for stopping the work."
"Most absurd, indeed," replied Slyk. "Neither you nor I, my dear sir,
shall leave room for such an excuse, I am sure. We would both rather
turn our pockets inside out. The fellows shall be recalled this very
day, if we can muster our resources. You shall see the vein,--you shall
be shown,----but first, Jan, let us view your establishment. Where do
you lodge our men?"
Jan led the way into the house, which was built and laid out after the
fashion of the better sort of peasants' houses of that period. A range
of stalls for cattle extended along each side of the long low room of
which the dwelling consisted: and a space was boarded off at the upper
end of the apartment for the use of the family. Here was the ample
hearth on which the turf fire burned; and here the beds, ranged in
recesses of the walls, and the cupboards which contained the domestic
apparatus of the establishment. In the present instance, the cows had
been dismissed to a temporary shelter provided for them at a little
distance from the house, and their stalls had been fitted up with beds
for the workmen, so that tobacco-smoke had of late issued from the
recesses which had been wont to exhale the sweet breath of cows. The
clothing which the cows wore in damp weather still hung against the
partitions of the stall, denoting their original destination.
"Do you know, papa," said Francesca, who had been talking with Jan's
wife, "it was only for brandy that these people struck, after all. They
were not in such a hurry for their money but that they could have waited
for a remittance; but for spirits they could not wait."
"How should they?" inquired Jan. "Working, as they did, up to their
knees in water for seven or eight hours a-day, how should they exist
without brandy?"
Every body agreed that spirits were the only safeguard against the
perils of ditch water, and that eight hours a day was very hard work
indeed. Few labourers could be brought to exceed six. But why, Slyk
asked rather angrily, was brandy wanting? There was plenty to be had at
Winkel, and Jan might have been obliging enough to purchase a supply,
for which he knew very well he should have been presently paid. Jan
opened a cupboard door, in order to display the evidence of his having
no cash at command just now. Some pictures, handsomely framed and
carefully covered with canvass, were laid up there, to be sold at the
next Rotterdam fair. Jan's wife piqued herself on her taste in
paintings, and her husband had before found it answer well to trust to
it for the investment of money which must otherwise lie where it could
gather neither profit nor interest. He, and other Dutch peasants, had
made money by selling again the judicious purchases they were enabled to
make from time to time. Those who dared not venture upon pictures had
small speculations in gold chains and other expensive ornaments; and a
yet humbler class had their little ventures of books and foreign toys.
Every thing sold at the Rotterdam fair; and every Dutchman might be
trusted to make his speculation answer.
Jan having proved that his capital did not exist in a form that would
immediately exchange for brandy, intimated that he had something to say
in private, and to show out of doors to the gentlemen. As they went out,
Heins declared his intention of furnishing an abundant supply of spirits
out of the stock at Amsterdam, which had been destined for England, but
was scarcely likely to be wanted there till the course of exchange had
turned. At present, while the exchange was in favour of Holland, the
British merchants were, of course, stimulated to export as much as they
could, and would receive no produce from Dutch ports, clandestinely or
openly, till they had paid their debts by exportation. Slyk made a light
mention of this being one convenient method in which Heins's proposed
assistance might be advanced; and an immediate supply of brandy, salt
butter, and meat was promised.
What Jan had to show was of no little importance. No one knows better
than a Dutchman that water is never idle, even when it appears perfectly
stagnant. The pools which had spread over the ground whence the turf had
been dug, lay so still that the birds might have used them for a
looking-glass in which to dress their plumage; but these waters were,
nevertheless, at work, as Jan proved by leading his guests to one spot
of the inner dyke, where the soil appeared to be slightly giving way. On
this stormy coast, as in other parts of Holland, the sea-dyke was not
the only protection provided for the pastures which lay beneath its
level. It was all-sufficient for common times and seasons, but in the
event of a slight irruption, or of any accident to the mills on the
neighbouring canals, it was desirable to have a channel provided to
carry off an occasional flood. Such a channel was furnished by erecting
a land-dyke within the sea-dyke, leaving the space between to serve as a
passage for any overflow of water. The whole range of the sea-dyke near
Winkel was in admirable order. No dyke in the country was more thickly
planted with the reed which assists the gathering and hardening of the
sand thrown up by the waves. Its top was broad enough for two carriages
to pass with ease; and its internal slope was of a soil so hard that
nothing but the matted grass would grow upon it. The inner dyke was yet
hardly consolidated: but the process was hastened by the planting of
trees to a great extent. The young wood throve, and gave promise of
binding the whole soil in a net-work of roots. The only doubtful point
was the one now indicated by Jan. The bog water had spread to the foot
of this mound; and just there, the roots of a young willow seemed to be
starting. This was all: but, to the eye of a Dutchman, it conveyed much.
Slyk gave positive orders for the immediate erection of a mill to aid
the drainage; and that no more turf should be dug till an abundance of
lime was prepared to fill up the drained field, and till the bank was
ascertained to be in a sound condition. He made Heins observe that there
was very little water between the dykes, and no probability of more
before all should have been rendered secure.--Jan prepared himself to
set off in pursuit of the workmen, authorized to bring them back by the
granting of even better terms than before, if such should be demanded.
Heins observed that the masters of labourers in some other countries
were more happily circumstanced than he and his friend. In England, men
asked work of the masters, who were therefore in a situation to exercise
a choice, and to exert some authority; but in Holland, the masters had
to seek for labourers, and were consequently at their mercy as often as
there happened to be no scarcity of work. Even at present, when, through
the quantity of wealth in the country, it was difficult to find
employment for capital at home, and there was therefore more labour to
be disposed of than in the days of comparative poverty, the labouring
classes were able to make their own terms, from the abundance which they
possessed. One of the difficulties attending any new undertaking was the
management that was necessary to bring the requisitions of the labourer
into agreement with the interests of the master.
"Another difficulty," observed Slyk, "is the poor encouragement that is
given to liberal undertakings in this country. Our banks will bring on a
general distress, if they do not mend their measures. If they are so
timid and so ill-humoured as they are now about discounting bills, and
lending money to the spirited individuals who exert themselves to
benefit their country, everything will go to ruin. It is a part of their
regular duty to assist those who would enrich, those who would beautify
the face of the land; but there is more trouble than most enterprises
will pay in getting a few bills discounted."
Before he had finished his complaint, the messenger from Amsterdam had
appeared and delivered Vanderput's letter to Heins. There was something
in Heins's frowning brow and falling countenance as he read, which
induced Jakob to take up his theme again as soon as he could obtain a
hearing. He enlarged once more on the avarice and cowardice of the
banks, which refused to aid even such an undertaking as the one before
their eyes. Heins would scarcely believe it, but the Leyden bank had
within a week refused to discount bills drawn by Cats of Haerlem upon
Geysbuk of Rotterdam.
Heins could very easily believe it. The refusal of the bank probably
arose from the same cause which would now, he feared, prevent him from
making the advances he had destined to the undertaking before him. He
found that the turn of the exchange had given such a stimulus to
importation that he had less money at command, unfortunately, than he
could have had at any other conjuncture.--But he had promised, Slyk
reminded him. He had promised brandy, butter, and meat immediately, and
money to a considerable amount----
Subject to the consent of his partner, Heins observed; and his partner
now wrote him word that their joint capital was already completely
invested.
"But you have capital of your own, independent of the partnership," said
Slyk; "you, and your mother also. I beg your pardon for seeming to
interfere in your concerns, my dear fellow; but I am not one to stand by
quietly, and see a young friend, just left to his own guidance, let slip
so splendid an opportunity as this of making thirty per cent. of his
spare capital. I have a great regard for your mother too, and would fain
see that her worldly concerns do not suffer from her being deprived of
her husband, my very good friend. If she were here, with three thousand
guilders in her right hand, I would merely say, 'here is our ground,
there is the sea,' and leave the rest to her own good sense."
Heins looked about him for some time before he made any reply, and then
lamented that this soil was not already fit for pasturage, as some
German and Danish cattle were on the point of arriving to be fattened;
and it would have been one way of aiding the scheme to deposit them on
this spot. Jakob explained that there was a farm at a little distance
which belonged, he declared, to himself. He would say no more than that
any advances made by Heins might be repaid in the feed of these cattle,
and thus made independent of whatever risk might be thought to attend
the grand scheme.
Long did Heins pace to and fro on the dyke, pondering his resources, and
reconsidering the letter of his partner, which was as follows:--
"I am sorry that your absence occurs just at this time, however short it
may be: for every day may make so important a difference in the course
of exchange as may materially affect our commercial concerns. How long
the exchange may remain as it is there is no saying, as there is a
rumour of the enforcement of tithe on the cultivation of madder in Great
Britain; and this will bring the madder of a Presbyterian country like
ours, which pays no tithe, into the market, at an advantage which must
tempt those merchants to export largely who are now importing. If,
besides this, certain relaxations of monopoly which are talked of should
take place, to the advantage of Dutch commerce, our exports to Great
Britain will be so abundant as presently to turn the course of exchange.
It is our part, then, while we can get bills cheap, to urge our business
to the fair limits of our capital, that we may have the fewer debts to
pay to England when that competition for bills arises which must
certainly follow the present abundance. I did business with Visscher
this afternoon, as you were not here to do it for me. He is too busy
(making his fortune, I suppose, out of the variations of exchange) to
have a word to say to his old friends till after 'Change hours. I fancy
that the bills on England which have fallen in value bring a pretty
profit into the broker's pocket when transmitted to Paris, where the
exchange is greatly in favour of England. Visscher must be making much
more by this state of things than he lost a while ago by the variation
which took place in consequence of the depreciation of money in Paris. A
fine lot of bills in his hands, which would have borne a premium over
night, were gladly disposed of at a discount the next day. Visscher has
never forgiven the over-issue of paper which caused this; but he is
making up for it now. His charge per cent. on these transactions is no
trifling gain in these busy days. When the exchange is once more at par,
he will spare us a day at Saardam to talk over a little speculation in
which it seems to me that we may share with advantage.
"It is rumoured on 'Change to-day that a certain provincial bank has
taken up a suspicion of the means by which a present neighbour of yours
is floating a scheme which he boasts of as promising great things. It is
said that a confederation of needy men have tried the now unusual trick
of drawing on one another in a circle, and thus raising money to carry
on their scheme, which they may or may not be eventually able to pay.
The bank in question has been gradually getting out of the scrape for
some time past, not forcing the parties to a bankruptcy, but making more
and more difficulty about discounting their bills. The other banks which
have been favoured with the custom of the parties are taking the hint,
it is said, and looking close into the character of the transaction. If
so, the truth of the matter will soon appear. Meanwhile, should any
speculator fall in your way, beware of his representations; particularly
if he talks of the distress of the country, and attributes it to the
timidity of the banks. The country is prosperous, and the banks know
what they are about full as well as he. When I have said 'beware,' I
have said that which makes me think it worth while to send a special
messenger with my letter. Besides this, I have only to say that I shall
be glad to see you at home; and that if your mother has any fine
pasturage untenanted, our Danish cattle may as well be landed in her
neighbourhood, and fattened on her meadows as on those of a stranger.
Arrange this as you please. * * *"
In the days when extensive alterations in the currency of trading
countries were common, commerce was much indebted to the intervention of
such men as Visscher. The bill-brokers held the power of equalizing the
exchange, or of preventing its variations from exceeding a certain
limit. The variations of the real exchange can, it is true, never exceed
the limit fixed by the cost of transmitting metals; for, as soon as the
premium which a merchant has to pay on the bill he wishes to purchase is
higher than the expense of sending gold and silver, he, and others
circumstanced like himself, will pay debts in money, the competition for
bills will be lessened, and their price will fall: but the tendency
which the exchange has to correct itself is much assisted by the
operations of the bill-brokers, who, as they deal in the bills of many
countries, can transport this kind of currency from places where it is
superabundant to places where it is scarce. Like all other traders, they
seek to buy where their article is cheapest, and to sell where it is
dearest; and this, of course, lessens the cheapness and the dearness in
different places. At the present time, the bills on England were cheap
at Amsterdam, and dear in Leghorn; and Visscher, and other bill-brokers,
by buying up bills on England, and transmitting them to Leghorn,
assisted in equalizing the demands of Holland and England, and also of
Leghorn and England, on each other, and thus aided in restoring the
exchange to par.
But when the currency of any country is altered, no operations of the
bill-brokers, or of any one else, can prevent the exchange from
_appearing_ to sustain a great variation, though those who understand
the circumstances, and are not apt to be alarmed by the mere sound of
words, know that, in such a case, if the exchange be really at par, it
cannot be nominally so, and do not therefore trouble themselves about
the apparent difference. This nominal variation does not affect trade;
because the decrease in the price of goods to be exported answers to the
discount which the exporting merchant sustains on his foreign bill: that
is, if an English merchant draws a bill on Amsterdam for 1000 guilders
in return for 90_l._ worth of goods, the discount at which the
Englishman sells his bill exactly answers the saving he has made from
the price of the goods exported being lowered through the depreciation
of the English currency: while the premium which the bill would bear in
Paris answers to the apparent surplus of the 100 guilders. The holders
of bills drawn before the alterations in the currency took place are
affected by such changes; and such liabilities to profit and loss are
among the evils attendant upon fluctuations in currency; but the amount
of exportation and importation, and therefore the real exchange, are in
no wise affected by alterations in the representative of their value.
If the course of the exchange is watched with anxiety, it should be with
regard to the nominal and not the real variation. As a test of the state
of the currency of the country its deviations are important, and cannot
be too narrowly observed by those in whom the power resides of enlarging
and contracting the currency. But the real variation might be safely
left to itself, even if there were no intervention of bill-brokers by
which equalization is secured. The variation can never pass the amount
by which the cost of transmitting payments in metal exceeds that of
making payment in bills. This cost can never be great while there is a
set of persons, like bill-brokers, to buy bills where they are cheapest,
and sell them where they are dearest; and thus, by arbitrating the
exchanges of different countries, equalize the whole. As such
equalization aids the security of property, commerce is largely indebted
to the intervention of this class of dealers.
If any means could be found by which the rise and fall of money could
take place at once and equally all over the trading world, there would
be an end to nominal variations of exchange, and commerce would be
divested of one of its mysteries: but this can never be while production
is more abundant in one place than another; and while the cost of the
carriage of commodities increases with distance. Mrs. Snoek found it
cheaper living at Winkel than at Amsterdam: that is, the great articles
of consumption were produced at hand, and had no cost of carriage to
bear; and the value of the precious metals was therefore higher at
Winkel than in Amsterdam, so much higher as to induce the Amsterdam
exporter who made purchases of her butter and cheese to pay her in that
commodity which was cheap to him while it was dear to her,--money. In
return for the produce of her farm, which was shipped from her
neighbourhood, there was a flow of money from Amsterdam to Winkel; a
flow which would continue till money, becoming more plentiful at Winkel,
fell in value so as to make it better worth the while of both parties
that Mrs. Snoek should be paid in commodities. If the respective
commodities should balance each other in value, so as to show that there
was the same proportion of money in both places, no money would be
transmitted; but if money at length abounded at Winkel more than at
Amsterdam, it would become worth Mrs. Snoek's while, in her turn, to buy
the merchant's commodities with that which was cheap to her while it was
dear to him. Such inequalities must exist in different parts of the same
country, and, much more, in different countries; and, while they do
exist, the coins of countries will change their relative value, and
there will be nominal variations of the exchange, wholly independent of
the total amount of sales between different countries.
At present, as in all former times, money was dearer at Winkel than at
Amsterdam; Mrs. Snoek delivered the produce of her farm to be shipped at
the dyke near her own abode, and was paid in money from Amsterdam. As
this suited her views of prudence, she designed to remain, with her
family, where she was, while Winkel continued to be a cheap place of
residence. Slyk was happy to hear this, both as it afforded a prospect
of many opportunities of confirming his hold on Heins's speculative
enthusiasm and his purse; and because it was likely to bring more of
Messrs. Vanderput and Snoek's herds of lean foreign cattle to fatten on
the pastures round Winkel. Mrs. Snoek had but little pasturage to let
while she kept up a fine dairy of her own; and Jakob's drained fields
would be tenanted as fast as they were ready to bear the weight of the
herds that hungered for the rich verdure which springs from such a soil
as he could boast of. This matter was settled on the road homewards;
Heins seeing nothing in such an arrangement inconsistent with the
caution recommended by his partner; and Mrs. Snoek thinking it well that
her son should obtain something from Jakob in exchange for the advances
made or to be made. Not that her opinion was asked by Heins. Being a man
of business, he cared little for the opinion of any woman; but,
nevertheless, he had no objection to her approbation.
Orders were left with Jan to bring back the work-people without delay;
and Gertrude was sorry to hear, before Heins's departure in the
afternoon, that he hoped to come again shortly to visit his family, and
his very good friends the Slyks. She did not choose to acknowledge the
look which conveyed that they would not be the only causes of his
return. She had the hope, however, that his Danish cattle were included
with herself in his unexpressed regards.