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PEP ANS

75 PRN PET GREE RS IT NE TI FSS

XXIV A GENERAL HISTORY

lowing, when they arrive in Canada in the fummer. In the courle of
the following winter they are made up into fuch articles as are required
for the favages; they are then packed into parcels of ninety pounds
weight each, but cannot be fent from Montreal until the May following ;
fo that they do not get to market until the enfuing winter, when they are
exchanged for furs, which come to Montreal the next fall, and from
“thence are fhipped, chiefly to London, where they are not fold or paid
for before the fucceeding {pring, or even as late as June; which is forty-
two months after the goods were ordered in Canada; thirty-fix after
they had been fhipped from England, and twenty-four after they had
been forwarded from Montreal ; fo that the merchant, allowing that he
has twelve months credit, does not receive a return to pay for thofe
goods, and the neceflary expences attending them, which is about equal
to the value of the goods themfelves, till two years after they are con-
fidered as cafh, which makes this a very heavy bufinefs. There is even
a {mall proportion of it that requires twelve months longer to bring
round the payment, owing to the immenfe diftance it is carried, and from
the fhortnefs of the feafons, which prevents the furs, even after they are
collected, from coming out of the country for that period.

* This will be better illuftrated by the following ftatement :
We will fuppofe the goods for 1798 ;

The orders for the goods are fent to this country - - = = 25th O& 1796.
They are fhipped from London - - - - - March 1797.
They arrive in Montreal - - - - - - June 1797.
They are made up in the courfe of that f{ummer and winter.
They are fent from Montreal - - - - - May 1798.
They arrive in the Indian country, and are exchanged for furs the following winter 1798-9,
Which furs come to Montreal ~ - - - - Sept. 17996
And are hipped for London, where they are fold in March and April, and paid

for in May or June = Oo 5 5 & rs 1800,

The