Jun 21, 2016 - Sale 2420

Sale 2420 - Lot 27

Price Realized: $ 845
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--PRELUDE.) Letter from a Merchant of the Province of New York. One manuscript page, 8 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches, signed simply "H.G."; folds, minor wear. New York, 1 November 1774

Additional Details

This letter was sent to editor Hugh Gaine for publication in his the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury. It is addressed as a protest from the merchants of upstate New York to their counterparts in Manhattan. It begins with a nod toward the dire conditions which preceded the Revolution: "the cloud that now hangs over our heads which threaten us all with slavery and bondage by reason of inhuman and unreasonable Acts of Parliament." However, the complaint was against the city merchants who were making it "impossible . . . to carry on trade or commerce any longer as you take the advantage of us in this difficult time of distress by extorting your goods to us at such an extravagant price." The upstate merchants here threaten "to enter into a combination amongst ourselves and throw up trade entirely" if the city merchants persist "to favour the poor Bostonians with your hospitality. . . . You make a great cry and noise against oppression and oppressors but . . . we are sensible of the mortal wounds we received and do receive from you." An interesting look at bickering between American merchants before the outbreak of fighting helped put the focus on a common enemy.