William Gray
Elias Hasket Derby
“Memorandum of Mr. John R. Tucker’s Adventure.
“Mr. C. Stanley, Sir:
“I hand you a bag containing 100 Spanish dollars for my adventure on board the ship Messenger which please invest in coffee and sugar, if you have room after the cargo is on board. If not, invest the amount in nutmegs, or spice as you think best. Please do for me as you do for your own, and oblige your obt.
“John R. Tucker.
“To Edward Stanley, master.”
Captain Stanley kept an itemized record of his transactions with Mr. J. Tucker’s one hundred Spanish dollars, and it may be interesting to note how such an “adventure” was handled to reap profits for the waiting speculator in faraway Salem. The captain first bought in Batavia ten bags of coffee for $83.30, which with boat hire, duty and sacking made the total outlay $90.19. This coffee he sold in Antwerp on his way home for $183.75. Arriving at Salem he paid over to Mr. Tucker the sum of $193.57, or almost one hundred per cent. profit on the amount of the “adventure.” This is enough to show why this kind of speculative investment was so popular in the Salem of a century ago.