management of that establishment, which gave
us almost unlimited facilities in the way of
discount. What we found we could not do in the
Onyx, I managed to do with the Joint
Discount Company, at whose board I had a seat
so that, by one means or other, we always
managed to "melt" either our own paper, or
that which was sent us to discount on
commission.

It would have been well for us if we had
stuck entirely to our own business and bills.
Unfortunately, a very tempting—and, had the
times gone right, a very lucrative—
business was thrown in our way. There are in
London a vast number of small Greek firms,
commission agents, and other individuals, who
attempt to do in a small way what I have
described in a former chapter* that we did
on a large scale with foreign and other bills.
The great difficulty with these men is to know
where to discount the paper that is remitted
them from abroad, and if it were not for the
wealthier firms of their own countrymen they
would find it an utter impossibility in
London. They manage to melt their paper by
taking it to one of the better known Greek
firms, who— "for a consideration"— indorse
it, and pass it into their bankers with their
own bills, making over the proceeds to those
who give them the paper to discount. The
commission charged is generally very high,
often as much as nine or ten per cent for
three months, being at the rate of from thirty
to forty per cent per annum. Of course the
risk incurred by the larger houses is proportionably
great. If all go well, one set of bills is
provided for by fresh bills being drawn, and the
wheel is thus kept rolling on. But should there
be a hitch anywhere, and one bill not be met, or
should a commercial crisis come on, and bills of
all kinds be difficult—sometimes impossible—to
discount, not only does the party who is
discounting fall, but in all probability he drags
down with him half a dozen firms even weaker
than himself, and injures most materially the
larger firm that have discounted for him, often
ruining it irretrievably.
* See Going into Business, page 378 of the
present volume.

At the time we embarked in this dangerous
business, the English commercial world appeared
to be suffering from a superabundance of money.
Men were everywhere looking right and left to
find out how their funds had best be employed.
But, for those who did not enjoy good credit in the
City, the difficulty of obtaining money was great,
as, in fact, it always is more or less. To those
who, like ourselves, had facilities of obtaining
money, the rates of discount were not more than
four per cent, whereas, to strugglers in the sea of
commerce, nothing less than eight or ten was
charged, and those who were quite unknown in
London had to pay as much as fourteen and
sixteen. But with all this there was money
to be made in London, and where money is to
be made, men of the Greek nation will always
be found. There were then, as ever, a host of
small Greeks in London, anxious to profit by the
various kinds of commerce which they, of all
people, understand well. After the manner
of their nation, their capital was chiefly in bills.
To draw bills was easy enough, and to accept
them not more difficult; the question was where
and how to discount them. Actuated partly by
a desire of gain, and partly by a wish to be a
great man in the eyes of his poorer fellow-
countrymen, Mr. Velardi, in an evil hour, began
to discount some of these bills, and to pass them
in with our indorsement to the Onyx Bank. The
profits on these transactions are great, but the
risk is greater. For a long time all went well,
but gradually the number of these bills increased
upon us so quickly that we had to send them to
Liverpool, Marseilles—anywhere—wherever we
thought they could be discounted. Nor is this
kind of business one in which those engaged in it
can pull up at any moment they please. The bill
for two or three hundred pounds drawn by an
unknown man in London upon a myth in Trieste,
is certain not to be met at maturity unless funds
for that purpose be remitted in time. To provide
such funds the same party must discount another
bill, and if you who have melted the first for
him don't now do the needful, it is pretty
certain, not only that the bill will be returned upon
your hands, but also that two or three other
small bill-drawers and acceptors, whose names
are most probably written upon stamped paper
which you have indorsed, will also come to
grief.

In the mercantile world there starts up from
time to time a crisis or panic, which sets all
calculations and commercial rules at defiance. It
may be set down as a rule that every ten years
one of these fevers occur in the money market.
While they last, few, if any, even of the largest
houses, are safe, unless their speculations have
been conducted very prudently. We had been
about two years in the full enjoyment of our
greatly increased credit and reputation, when the
first clouds began to show themselves in the
horizon of trade. The first thing that caused us
annoyance was the failure of some of the
individuals whose bills we had discounted, and had
passed on to the Onyx Bank, or to the Discount
Company. This paper had of course to be taken
up at once, in order to save our own credit;
it was of no use renewing the bills, for day by
day the facilities for discounting grew less and
less all over London, as well as on the Continent.
For a time we kept on bravely, living upon the
reputation of our former credit, which was not
yet a thing of the past. But when really good
houses in the City began to fall, and when the
money article of the morning papers contained
every morning a list of four or five firms whose
bills had been returned on the previous day, even
Mr. Velardi began to get anxious, and try whether
it were not possible for us to save our reputation,
and weather the storm.

There was another circumstance which helped
greatly to injure us at this time. In the Levant
trade, and generally throughout the Mediterranean