The way in which we managed to procure
funds in order to meet large amounts was
generally as follows: We would draw upon one or
other of our firms abroad —say at Smyrna —in
favour of a correspondent at Leghorn,
Hamburg, or elsewhere. That correspondent (our
correspondents were always Greeks firms) had
orders, so soon as he received the bill, to sell
it as if it were his own property and remit us
the proceeds, charging his commission of five per
cent for negotiating and endorsing the bill.  At
Hamburg —or wherever else this took place—
the transaction appeared quite legitimate and
business-like.  Thus Messrs. Velardi, Watson,
and Co., of London, drew upon Messrs. Velardi
and Co., of Smyrna, in favour of Messrs. Cavali
and Co., of Hamburg, for the sum of one thousand
pounds, payable three months after date.
Messrs. Cavali and Co., after sending the first
of the set of bills forward for acceptance, en-
dorsed it, and sold it on the Hamburg
Exchange. Any one not in the secret would
have thought that the house of Velardi and Co.,
of London, owed Cavali and Co., of Hamburg,
money, and had remitted this draft in payment
of the debt.  But the fact was, that the bill was
an accommodation bill on a large scale; for the
proceeds of its sale were duly remitted to us,
and by us used to pay off bills which either the
Smyrna or the Odessa house had drawn upon
our firm in London.

Drawing bills is a very easy proceeding;
even selling them can be accomplished at times;
the difficulty is to meet them.  To great minds
nothing is impossible.  Before the bills drawn
upon one of our foreign houses became due, that
house drew upon us in the way in which we
had drawn upon them, and sent the bill to be
negotiated in some other market, the proceeds
being duly remitted to the firm, in order to
enable it to meet the bill or bills we had had
drawn upon it.  Thus between the three firms,
which together had a bona fide capital of three
hundred pounds, we kept up a see-saw of bill-
drawing, which often amounted to thirty or forty
thousand pounds, scattered over most of the
commercial markets of Europe, and by no means
unknown even in America, both North and
South.

The profit and loss upon these transactions
were varied, but as a general rule we were the
gainers.  To achieve even a partial success in
this paper traffic, it was of course necessary to
watch all the exchanges in Europe, and to profit
by those that were favourable to our operations.
Thus, if the exchange in Paris upon Odessa was
more favourable than that of Hamburg upon
the same place, we sent our bills to Paris to be
negotiated, and vice versa.  Moreover, our
correspondents in every commercial capital of
Europe were under agreement to accept whatever
bills we might draw upon them, and we had
all the chief exchanges of the world at our
command.  So that, whenever it suited us to do
so, we drew upon any place bills which could be
favourably negotiated in London.

For a purely English house to carry on
transactions of such magnitude would have been
a simple impossibility.  English merchants have
still some old-fashioned notions about not drawing
or accepting bills, unless the said bills really
represent some veritable commercial transaction
between the drawer and the drawee.  Thus, if
Messrs. Smith and Co., of London, have sold
Messrs. Jones Brothers of Amsterdam so many
bales of goods, it is quite legitimate that the
former firm should draw on the latter for the
amount against the goods.  It is also quite
according to rule that when Messrs. Smith's draft
on their correspondent is accepted, they should
sell or discount the same, which at maturity will
be paid by Messrs. Jones.  But it was not until
the Greeks —or rather what is called the Levant
trade —took to trafficking in bills which had really
nothing whatever behind them in the way of
money or capital, that a regular and large profit
began to be made out of this kind of paper.

But, to do them justice, the Greeks are the
only people in the world that could carry on
that extraordinary trade, because they form the
only nation the natives of which have implicit
confidence in one another.  Whatever a Greek may
be to the foreigner, he is always true to his
countrymen.  He haggles over bargains,
gesticulates wildly, and shouts himself frantic, if he
thinks that he is likely to be overreached by so
much as half a farthing in the hundred pounds;
and in any transaction about goods, merchandise,
or money, he will try to wriggle out of his bargain
if he is likely to be a loser by it.  But
with all this he is true to his signature, knowing
that, whatever he might gain by dishonouring
it, he will in the end lose very much more than
he gains.  Thus, when Greek merchant A of
Marseilles, writes to Greek merchant B of
London, and informs the latter that he has
drawn upon him at three months' date for five
hundred pounds, but will cover the draft —that
is, remit the means wherewith to pay it —before
it falls due, B accepts the bill at once, feeling
quite certain that A will keep his word.

The business which our firm did, was not
confined exclusively to that of accepting and
drawing bills.  We bought large quantities of
Manchester goods, shipping some on our own
account to various ports in the Levant, and
sending out others on commission to different
firms abroad, that had given us orders to procure
them.  In Manchester there are a great
number of Greek firms, whose sole business it is
to purchase goods for houses in London and
elsewhere, and it was to one or other of these
houses that we always gave our order to buy
in the Manchester markets.  Strange to say,
although foreigners in this country, the Greeks
in Manchester purchase goods very much
cheaper than the English firms can.  Moreover,
as they do not always insist upon cash payments,
but carry on among themselves a system of
discounting, and will always accept bills drawn upon
any foreign firm, it is much easier for a house
with limited means to do business with them
than with the houses that are solely English.
If the Manchester Greeks thrive, prosper, and