I have been thinking that if I could make a small beginning in business for myself it would not be a bad idea for we know not "what great events from little causes may spring", so I wrote to Uncle Cox this afternoon to know at what rate p ton he could sell me Guano in L'Pool, as I could get it here by Canal, & by the aid of Mr. Needhams's connexion with the Farmers, & the fact of their being only one dealer here at present, I might thus be able to turn an honest penny!
Letter from Uncle Cox in reply to my last quoting prices for Guano, and receiving my whole application very coolly & with the usual objections to my style of writing, treating the serious parts as jokes & the light parts seriously;
Wrote to Uncle Cox and sent him a sample of Guano similar to that Webb is selling here at £12/10/-; made a short comment at his letter.
Wrote to Father in the evening as to his last letter & opinions on my summer house scheme & about the Guano speculation.
Wrote to Uncle Cox on the Guano Trade & its prospects here for Mr. N's dealings in it; enclosing him samples of spurious Guano which has also been sold here for Peruvian;
Named to Mr. Needham a proposal for me to go over to L'pool on Saturday night and back on Tuesday morning next, for the purpose of buying Guano; he will see about it when he returns from Bristol, whither he goes on Thursday; hopes & fears;
told them of my hopes of going to Liverpool, hopes which were crushed by Mr. Needham this morning, having returned from Bristol and purchased 30 Tons of Guano as a starting point, so that he will not require any more for some time to come; in the market he had very little demand after it & though the first day, that has disheartened him, & he begins to doubt & fear the results, though no loss in any case can arise.
Mr. Needham begins to make progress with the Guano trade,
which I am glad to see, as having entered upon it at my suggestion I should
have [been] annoyed at his losing by it.
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