The Oilman, first series complete. With poems and letters, containing a variety of satire, and an autobiographical sketch

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THE OILMAN, first series complete. WITH POEMS AND LETTERS, containing a variety of satire, AND AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. EY THOMAS BLYTH. LONDON : OILMAN OFFICE, 155, LEADENHALL STREET. CONTENTS RUNNING IN THE FOLLOWING ORDER. Letter on the Decline of the London Oil Trade ... May, 1835. Song — A Commercial Satire June Oilman, No. 1, First Series July, Letter to the Oil Trade September, Fate v. Fortune, a Poem Song — A Commercial Satire November, Ditto Ditto January, . . 1836. Oilman, Part 1, No. 2, of the First Series March, . . . . Ditto, 2, . . . . Ditto Ditto 3 Ditto April, ... Ditto, 4, . . . . Ditto May, A LETTER TO A FEW FRIENDS, ON THE DECLINE OF THE LONDON OIL TRADE: WITH A HINT AT THE MEANS OF PROTECTING THE INTERESTS OF THOSE ENGAGED IN IT. By THOMAS BLYTH, Jun. LONDON: PRINTED, FOR THE AUTHOR, BY DEAN AND MUNDAT, THREADNEEDLE-STREET. 1835.

London, 23rd May, 1835. Gentlemen, As a dull detail of mercantile facts will rarely bear reading, I will take the liberty of relating one or two anecdotes in illustration of my subject. — If the digressions should be considered too idle, or too long; or the language too rough; it must be borne in mind, that this letter is addressed to " a few friends," who will weigh the motive of the writer against the merit of the performance; and let him escape censure who wants no praise, and aims at no reward. There is, perhaps, no branch of the commerce of London which has been subjected to more change within the last twelve years, than the oil trade. If you look back at 1823, you will remember that London sent a considerable fleet of ships to Greenland and Davis's Straits; and another to the Southern Ocean, for every variety of common whale and elephant oil; at the same time, London imported almost all the olive oil that the British Empire required; and it supplied all the other towns with that article, as well as our foreign neighbours with all the common oil they wanted.

If any man had been told, in 1820, that a few years would broom our Greenland shipping; divert the black oil-ships to some other trade; and direct the olive oil to some other port; the prediction would have been considered to be a wild and fanciful hallucination, by which the prophet had deceived him self, or wished to deceive others : for each branch appeared to exhibit strength, more than sufficient to combat all the difficul ties which might present themselves. But gas soon superseded the common oil; and the manufacturers discovered that they had been paying a tax on olive oil to the London houses, which the pressure of competition no longer allowed them to bear; they found that the Liverpool dealers could supply them at a price, some pounds per tun lower than they had been accus tomed to give.

Part I

.v SERIES OF LETTERS TO A FEW FRIENDS, UNVEILING THE DEFECTS AND SUGGESTING IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LONDON OIL TRADE. BV THOMAS BLYTH. PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. 3p MARCH, 1836. PREFATORY ADDRESS TO MY READERS IN GENERAL In future, every number of this work will appear in two or three parts, as it may sometimes suit my purpose or my pocket ; but the various parts will often appear at the same time. Some artful and interested individuals have taken great pains to prejudice the public against the " Oilman," but you know me too well to suppose that I care much about it. What, though all the world neglect me, Shall my storm-nurst soul repine ? And shall poverty deject me. While the mail-clad muse is mine ?" Montgomery . Having promised an autobiographical sketch comprehending my commercial engagements, it shall form a part of this number.

It will be extracted from the life intended to be prefixed a to the great body of my works. I shall prove to you that I have never admonished one individual in my satire, who had not previously injured me to a much greater extent. I touch pride with a gentie hand ; but when the vein is open, one cannot help taking an ounce too much, with a sincere wish to do the patient good. The Oil Club may expect very few songs from me, as I am now at peace with nearly all the trade, having nearly balanced my accounts with all those who have done me any harm. In my last number I promised to give you what is called " The £10,000 Story" at length. Repeated inquiries have been made about it, and I have applied to the son of the individual who is the hero of the tale for the particulars. You all know that real merit is always bashful — that there are those who " Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame."

I told Mr. R. P. jun. that I had promised to give the world an opportunity of admiring the noble sacrifice which was supposed to have done his father so much credit. The only answer that I could obtain was, " that several persons were concerned in the transaction, without whose sanction the narrative could not be put into my hands for publication ;" but I had pledged my word to the public, and therefore I did not feel satisfied with an answer which appeared to me like the retiring diffidence of a shopkeeper on hearing it said that he is considered very rich : how he half denies and half acknowledges the fact or no fact, just as it may happen. Well ! finding that private entreaty was altogether un availing, I determined on an official application, by virtue of my authority, as " Protector of the London Oil Trade," on the 11th October, 1835, I issued a mandate, of which the following is a sworn copy : — TO R. P , Jun.

Esq. Dear P , damn your modesty ! send me the story, My muse is determined to crown you with glory ; She bids me to give her respects to you, stating The " Oilman," for that, and that only, is waiting. The fame of thy sire through all Europe resounds, Whose word may be taken for ten thousand pounds. The world never heard of a banker so bold, Whose honour heroic can outweigh his gold. Tradition impatient will catch at his name, And millions of mouths will be filled with his fame. Pray how came your father to part with his treasure ? Disclose it, on pain of my highest displeasure ! And send it at once, for I now give you warning, To wait on me with it by nine in the morning. The nations around all expect No. 2, The commerce of Europe don't know what to do. The Oil Trade all over the world 's at a stand, No dealer dares buy till he has my command ; The prices of oil all depend on my nod, Great lord of the sperm, of the seal, and the cod !

(Signed) Blyth. Mr. R. P. jun. appeared before me (on Change) and pleaded his inability to bring forward the documents relative to the affair, which he said " was altogether a mistake." I know that the ■__ history must be highly creditable to the house, and therefore I shall spare no pains to obtain the materials, with a view of affording a bright example to others. Several of the trade at my request were about to do me an essential service ; but as I expect to have more extensive assistance from a single house, they will not wonder that I decline accepting a favour from so many. I am, how ever, equally indebted for their good intentions. Many people are anxious to know what benefit I expect to derive from the " Oilman." I shall frankly and fearlessly disclose the hopes which animate me in this arduous undertaking.

When the great improvements which I have suggested shall have been made — when part of the Lon don ship-owners have been saved by my exertions, and others have been ruined by their own obstinacy — when the wise have removed the outfit of their ships to Sidney or retired altogether — I shall find the importers of sperm oil to be old acquaintances, who, having profited by my advice, will be .disposed in my favour ; or strangers to the market and therefore free from any prejudice in favour of my rivals in Jeffrey s square, who now have a turnpike on the main road of our trade. I shall see the business carried over a railroad, where their influence cannot reach or will not live. Many persons will still continue to send their goods by the old waggon or the small errand carts now in use, but the rail and the steam must eventually trample down all opposition.

Full of gratitude and humility, I cannot help seizing on this and every opportunity of thank ing my friends for their kind encouragement; and I was just going to say that " I care not a button" for my enemies. But never ! no never, shall such an expression again escape my lips ! The button has hitherto been considered an article of small importance, but hereafter I hope that a phrase so irreverend will be discontinued, more particularly by the Oil Trade, as our friend John Christophers, Esq. of New Broad-Street, has taken out a patent for an improvement in the manufacture of buttons. It is truly gratify ing to see men of talent in this country so in nocently employed, while our neighbours are inventing infernal machines, whose aim is death, whose end is war. Who can pause for a moment in his choice — a button or a battle !

The schoolmaster, who murdered Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, is said to have inquired of some philosopher, — By what means a man could most securely hand his name to future times? — " He who would render his name immortal," said the sage, " must do some thing which is worthy to be written, or write something that is worthy to be read." Thus it is, that the names of bards and heroes go down together. What my friend has done deserves to be recorded ! but how shall I presume to venture on the task ? Friendship often dares to try what prudence would decline ; therefore, in the vain hope of associating my humble name with that of my illustrious friend, I presume to write a verse, on that master-work of his genius, which is intended to be used in advertise ments. It will be perceived that the national advantage of these buttons is economy of labour and durability.

Eulogy on the Patent Buttons invented by J.Christophers, Esq., which are rivetted to the waisthand with a hammer, instead of being fastened ivith a needle and thread. Great Christophers ! thy buttons claim The honour of immortal fame ! They save the cross-legged sons of b s, Per annum, many thousand stitches ; And he who would their strength surpass, Must nail his breeches to his a ! Blyth. I cannot do justice to the subject, therefore I shall recommend it to Southey or to Words worth, being the only men now living whose powers are adequate to it. To the Trade, Ship-Owners, and Importers. SPERM OIL. During the latter months of last year, when sperm oil was at £73 : 10 per tun, I privately intimated to my friends an intention of writing on this subject. I pointed out the unfavourable features in the speculation, and predicted a fall of £8 : 10 per tun.

As it has already fallen £3:10 per tun, I am so far borne out by experience. It is said, that one house, hearing of rny pamphlet being at hand, has expressed its disapprobation in strong terms ; but they were informed of my intention long ago. My duty to the public prevents me from yielding to that friendly feeling, which I shall always endeavour to cultivate with the house in question. They must not say — If he will not bow down, with the slaves of our house, We shall know how to keep him as poor as a mouse." They must not consider me as a collared hound, bred and fed under their noses. I am, indeed, poor ! but it has pleased God to give me that which enables offended genius to hurl defiance at a monarch's head ! I agree with Sir F. Burdett, who said, many years ago, that " he would never believe that the rich were intended to tyrannise over the poor, until he a found one set of men bora with saddles on their backs, and others booted and spurred ready to ride them." • ■ Gentlemen, it is now nearly a thousand years since the first pamphlet was written on the whale fishery ; the author of it was Alfred the Great ; the information was supplied to him by Ohthere, a Norwegian : it described the fishery as carried on by other nations ; for England did not engage in it until the year } 594.

From that period, down to the hour in which - 1 have the pleasure of addressing you, I will defy any man to shew an instance of a speculation more strongly marked by gross absurdity than that which lifted sperm oil to the price of this winter. Let us take a glance at its rise and progress, and then, if we can, let us be blind to its result ! The house, which is deeply interested in the fate of this oil, has several ships in the fishery. About two years ago, when the oil was at about £59 per tun, they sold their own cargoes, to be taken on arrival, at or below that price, and subsequently bought cargoes of other people at nearly ten pounds per tun higher, in conse quence of having received intelligence that " some ships on the Japan fishery had met with bad success ! ! ! " Other people followed a house supposed to be conversant in the matter, so that the price has been maintained during many months.

The great house at Newington favoured the advance : they were considerable holders and could not object to it; but they have had the wisdom to place themselves in a situation which leaves their allies little hope of their powerful assistance ; for their stock, on hand and to arrive, must be materially diminished. If I am rightly informed, they have been buying and selling at a profit (while the others have been buying only), no matter how high the New ington people bought, if they sold still higher. No person need be surprised at the story on which this grand mistake was founded. Many years ago an Recount was brought home that the fishery on the coast of Peru was worn out, because a few ships had been unsuccessful ! but other vessels soon returned from the same spot with full cargoes ; and the same thing will occur as regards the fishery in the neighbourhood of the Japan Islands.

A very slight acquaintance with Natural History would have informed my friends that the Physeter Macrocephalus or Sperm Whale, and the whole genus to which he belongs (but that species more than all the rest), as denizens of the mighty deep, are in the habit of making rapid voyages from one feeding ground to another. From the islands of the North Pacific to those of the Indian Ocean is a journey which they can perform in less than a week. They can traverse the vast Pacific, which is about eleven thousand miles, or nearly half round our planet, within a month. The Sperm Whale is so exactly alike on all the fisheries as to leave no doubt of their consanguinity ; they are one great family, and their wide domains are only proportioned to their immense bulk. When we are told that ships have been unsuc cessful on ' any particular fishery, we may rea sonably infer that other vessels have been so much the more fortunate at the next nearest fishing ground, (of course the Davis' Straits' fishery is an exception to this rule, for the Balœna Mysticetus, or Greenland Whale, will never budge from the polar ice.)

But the truth of this observation has been proved in this instance, the quantity of sperm oil taken has been very great ; and what does it matter to the market by whom it was caught and sold ? What did my friends think had become of the whales? Did they suppose that a convul sion of Nature had destroyed them ? It is ascertained that during the last fifty years the earthquakes have lifted the coast of Peru about six feet higher, to the extent of 1200 miles along the shore, thereby raising a weight equal to that of all the habitations of Man, leaving the sea to find its accustomed level. But that did not disturb the whales. A natural cause, sufficient to account for the destruction of the whales in the sea of Japan, would make the very existence of those islands doubtful. Now suppose that any young merchant, having heard that some calamity had befallen the whales in the Japan sea, should go and buy up all the Japan ink, on the supposition of its being the produce of those islands, or if he should make a speculation in Hunt's Japan blacking, I should be as little astonished as I was at the speculation in sperm oil.

What a strange notion of cosmography is implied ! It reminds me of the mother of a lieutenant in the navy ; he appointed me, many years ago, to be one of his executors; his will was handed to me, sealed up, with a superscrip tion, purporting that if it were opened before his death, it would become void. He died at Jamaica, and his mother could not be persuaded to have the will opened, in the fear of losing her claim, by a chance of his being still alive; she said that " she would go to the West Indies, if she had to walk every step of the way." The importation of sperm oil into the United States during last year was very great ; and the stock on hand, at present, is supposed to be very large ; but, very fortunately for the holders of it, common oils have been very scarce, maintaining a price which was hardly ever known before.

The common oils having an influence on sperm oil, which they have not in England, it has been supported by the sympathy which exists between them: but, during the year 1834, an event happened which is worthy of your attention. The ships sent to the sperm fishery from the United States increased so as to be nearly one-third more in number than those at sea in the year 1833. Now up to this hour the influence has not been felt, but in a very short time it must begin to operate on their markets, for the extra number of ships will begin to drop in, so as to glut them with an article which cannot be forced into consumption while it is one penny higher than common oil. Before the immense increase of shipping, sperm oil was often sold for 72 cents per old gallon, that is £37 : 16 : 0 per old tun, or £45 : 7 : 0 per imperial tun, which, with the duty, is £71 per tun, the price of this day on our market.

There are two reasons why sperm oil is likely to fall very low in America; first, the over-stock of oil, which they cannot well con sume, and next the want of a market for an increased quantity of spermaceti, the high price of which was the principal motive for the extended outfit. If bagged sperm should fall below sperm oil in the United States, it will, most likely, eventually do so here, because the price will be so low as to enable them to bring it here as head-matter or oil, it being subject to no higher duty. If this article should fall £10 per tun below the price which it has often gone down to before the increase of the fishery, it will afford a profit of that amount to bring it here : for American ships can come direct from the fishing ground, without any charge for freight or insu rance being incurred.

The vast accumulation of the article in London will defy consumption, which will begin to improve the moment it goes down to £60 per tun, which is the highest price for a safe speculation, because that price will pay a ship-owner, under ordinary circumstances. Who, in London, would think of speculating in coals at a price 50 per cent, beyond their cost at Newcastle, with that of the freight, &c. &c? The result must be certain ruin. There is no accounting for an advance in oil ; it often has taken place in exact opposition to all reason ; it is governed by a code of laws like those which are said to be observed in riding and driving about London. The rules of the road are a paradox quite, Go right you go wrong, and go left you go right." I once saw an advance of price which is rather more singular, but not more absurd, than some improvements in the market for oil.

I saw some boys fishing in the harbour at Whitehaven ; I observed to one boy that it would be well to kill two fishes which were convulsed with agony in his basket. He put the little animals out of their misery, and I rewarded him for his humanity by giving him a penny. Another boy, looking archly at me, said, " that he had got one fish in great agony, and that he would put it out of its misery for the same sum." There was an advance of 50 per cent, in the price of humanity ! As a man of business, I mistrusted such a market, and walked off. I should not do the speculators justice if I were to leave you in the dark as to their real motives. They were not ignorant of the mat ter ; they have removed from Upper Thames street to a place where the very air is redolent of the lore of commerce ; but they have two reasons for desiring high prices : they have other cargoes to arrive, which will improve in value ; and a price, which threatens to throw sperm oil partially out of consumption, is be neficial to them as patentees of a spirit made from India-rubber, which is intended as a sub stitute for this article.

It gives a brilliant light, at 35 per cent, less expense. But like all other things it has a defect. — Have you ever been accidentally in any place where, in defiance of decency, you have been obliged to sit with the door open to prevent being suffo cated ? If you have, you may form a notion of the smell of that delectable article. Edmund Burke, in his work on the Sublime and Beautiful, says, that " a dreadful stench is a true source of the sublime ;" he instances Milton's hell, where the sulphurous gas is described in terms which excite horror. If Edmund Burke had left a lamp trimmed with this spirit, un lighted, in his house, its rapid evaporation would have given a better notion of a sublime stink than Milton was able to furnish ; but no doubt some means will be found to improve the spirit.

If the otto of roses should become very cheap, adieu to sperm oil ! for a mixture with that volatile essence, by the chemical affinity common to all essential oils, would make the article worthy of the French lamp. There are two things which force themselves on our attention : — the first is, that high prices are injurious to the London ship-owner, by a check of the consumption, and by exciting the outfit of ships by our colonists and by the Ame ricans, and thereby causing a reaction, which is the certain consequence. A fall must follow : it may go down to a price which may not pay for the importation. The second thing is, that we cannot keep the oil at a high price by any safe means. A speculation in this article should never be attempted without a reasonable hope of ,£5 per ton profit ; the expense and disadvan tage of holding it, with the risk of leakage, and diminution of its bulk, at the period of its greatest consumption, are fully equal to ,£3 per ton.

The Baron Dupuytren, surgeon to the King of the French, said that " the distinguishing character of cholera is, that it begins where other diseases end; that is, it begins with death," — I may say the same of the present speculations in sperm oil. They began with a loss ! In the face of such increasing fisheries, with a weekly public sale, who will dare to stop the swellingtide? — The Atlantic ocean beat Dame Partington, remember that ! A young merchant is said to have sent a hun dred gross of Jew's harps to Buenos Ayres for sale, being about six for each of the little boys and three for each of the old women : but they had never seen such things before, and the speculation failed for want of a music-master to teach their use. Another man sent stoves and grates ; but not one ounce of coal existed there !

Let those worthies come forward to support sperm oil ; but let me whisper in their ears that I will stake my credit on a fall to ,£65, which I expect will be above the average of the next two years. END OF

PART 1.

P.S. — Part the Second may be expected next Saturday or Monday : it was intended to accompany this, but I could not delay a paper of so much importance as my article on Sperm Oil. MARCHANT, PRINTER, INGRAM -CO URT, FENCH URCH -STREET. THE OILMAN. No. 2. IN TWO PARTS. —