He stood up suddenly. ‘No point in staying here just to hear all this wailing. Let’s go, Nicholas.’
They shuffled down the row to leave; the bearded planter got up and left with them.
Outside Laughton drew a deep breath. ‘There’s no denying it. We’re in a funk. I can’t see a way out of this.’
He paced ahead in a frenzy of bitterness and frustration. ‘With no warning – out of the blue so we couldn’t prepare. I rather fear …’
Renzi tried to sound encouraging. ‘The Navy can find you escorts, brother. And none can stand against our frigates.’
Laughton turned back abruptly. ‘Spare me your nostrums, Nicholas. It’s far too serious for that. Convoys only start at Barbados. How do you suppose that, with several hundred individual sailings a month from all over the Caribbean, they’re going to find ships enough to stay by each one? It’s nonsense and you know it.’
‘I only wanted to-’
‘I’m sorry I spoke hastily, Nicholas.’ He managed a grin. ‘You’ve a fine mind and deserve to know why it’s so monstrously difficult for us.’
He paced on for a few more steps, then said, ‘You’re concerned for your naval situation, and rightly so. We’re on quite another plane and our worries more direct. Have you seen in Kingston Harbour, brother, the quantities of ships lying in idleness? You put it down to our fear of what Boney has waiting out there on the high seas. For us this is the least of our concerns, believe me, the very least.’
‘I don’t understand, Richard. I take it they have full cargoes, ready to sail – then what other reason can there be to keep them back?’
‘Dear fellow, you cannot see it, and can’t be expected to. The sting in Napoleon’s decree lies not in the threat to destroy our ships, which I doubt he can achieve, but in its very different and brutally effective result. Nicholas, he’s closed the continent to us, destroyed our market. Those ships are laden with our sugar well enough but cannot sail – they have no destination. The commercial paper written against their safe arrival is worthless on both sides – we cannot deliver, therefore to sail is useless.’
‘How is it closed, exactly?’
‘Article four: all property of an English subject is declared lawful prize, of any origin and wherever found. What this means is that no neutral will touch an English cargo or be deemed an accomplice, especially since the decree additionally states that any neutral touching at a port of England or its colonies is deemed to be in collusion for the purposes of trade and will automatically be seized.’
‘Do pardon my ignorance on the matter, Richard, but the continent has been for some time under the heel of Napoleon. How, then, until now was it possible for an Englishman to sustain trading links with it?’
‘In course by the usual business practices. We have our own commercial agents in ports all over Europe, issuing notes against banks in England for our cargoes. These were carried in neutral bottoms and, while attracting the usual Customs exactions, were otherwise left alone. It may surprise you to learn that by this means it’s been possible for me to trade with France itself.’
‘It does indeed, dear fellow. Especially so since Mr Pitt’s Traitorous Correspondence Act treats trading with the enemy as a crime of high treason.’
‘As with all things in business, brother, do read the small type with diligence. The Act does not forbid the trading, rather its nature. Materiel of use to the military is of course prohibited but nowhere do I see sugar so proscribed. A little thought will reveal that the draining of French gold to pay for English produce has much to commend it, and there are Midland manufactories who are getting rich supplying to France and its subjects what they crave.’
Renzi came back, ‘It did cross my mind that, in your own case, our assault and taking of the French islands here, together with our diligent hunting down of their shipping, does favour you with a receptive market and high prices.’
‘True, we’ve done well – but now that’s a thing of the past. All British subjects in French territory are made prisoners of war. There go our commercial agents, leaving none to negotiate business. No neutrals will carry our goods – and that includes cargo from other sugar-producing countries around the Caribbean, for if we buy an interest in their crop it renders the whole subject to confiscation and they won’t allow it.’
Renzi gave a grim half-smile. The intricate web of international commercial relations was now shattered, the delicate threads of trust and faith at the core of international trading, which allowed the continuation of life-giving commerce in the midst of global war. It wouldn’t be the sugar industry only, even if it was the biggest wealth producer, but also the goods pouring out of the factories as a result of the revolution of industry in which Britain was leading the world.
‘Then there’s insurance,’ Laughton went on bitterly. ‘When premiums go much above ten per centum, profit on the voyage dwindles to nothing and at present, for fear of what Boney will do next, the rates are beyond reason.’
‘So you are at a stand, Richard.’
His brother gave a bleak smile. ‘Except that it is not to be borne. While our ships lie idle we must pay a per diem demurrage to allow our sugar to rot in the hold, an expense we cannot carry indefinitely. Yet we cannot sail for lack of market and increasing insurance rates. To sail – or not to sail. Nicholas, this is a dilemma for us. It makes trivial a decision such as to go with sugar or is it to be coffee, and is for myself the hardest I’ve ever faced.’
Aboard L’Aurore Kydd listened soberly to Renzi’s account of the meeting in Spanish Town. It seemed his friend’s sense of foreboding had been fulfilled. Napoleon had delivered his devilish counter-stroke and, because it was in the realm of commerce and economics, the Navy were helpless to do anything about it.
‘I can find no comfort to offer Richard other than that we carry on to do our duty,’ he told Renzi. It was a strange and disturbing feeling, being under threat of an enemy that could not be settled by sailing out to meet him in battle.
‘Meanwhile our orders are the same. Keep the seas to put down any privateers or such as show their faces – although with none of our shipping abroad I can’t see how they’ll bother.’
Then he handed a letter across. ‘This morning’s mail. From our late and much lamented third lieutenant. As my confidential secretary I think you’re entitled to see it, old chap.’
It was in Bowden’s strong, neat writing but on the front and reverse it had ‘in confidence’ written in capitals across the top.
‘To you. And asking for advice.’
‘Yes – read on.’
…
and so I suppose I’m asking you for counsel. I know my duty, that is clear, but the situation aboard has worsened to an alarming degree and I’m vexed to know what is the best course to take in the circumstances for the sake of all concerned …
‘Tyrell. Coming it the tyrant still.’
…
the topman came down from aloft as bid, but before he could be seized by the master-at-arms he cast himself into the sea and was lost. The four men on deck who called out in horror were taken and are to be flogged for contumacy. Moreover the entire starboard watch are under stoppage of grog for a week, occasioned by his hearing wry talk at their supper and none to own to it, and are as a consequence mutinous and intractable.
What is most disturbing is what is happening in the wardroom. They are a sullen, moody crew, for all believe the other is carrying stories to Captain Tyrell, for he knows what each is doing and saying and they durst not venture an honest opinion. I keep my counsel if asked, for if pressed it would be difficult not to betray what I think to be the true reason, that is, the captain is constantly prowling and spying on us privily …
Troubled, Renzi looked up from the letter. ‘These are not the actions of a balanced individual, dear fellow. Has he-’