| Description | Letters from Alexander Gordon in Madeira to his brother James Gordon of Letterfourie, first copy letter enclosing list of shipping, various traders changing allegiances, advertising new vintage at good prices, asking for wheat, flour and flax, all to be packed well in pipes or butts with iron hoops, pleased that all their friends are happy with their wine, anxious about India ships coming to Madeira, ‘As to what you mention of a Party formed there to supplant our trade, and bring the Canary Wine into Wogue, there is but too great a reason to dread its consequences’, Tenerife wine was brought in by the Brittos but seized and the ship burned, accounts, problems with London gaugers and with new barrels, roove boxes of citron sent to various people, asking him to establish a correspondence with a good house in Amsterdam, with list of bills, 27 October 1761; second, copy letter intending to address the matter of Tochineal but with no time just now, asking for wheat and flour and ideas for other commodities that will sell, including ‘some black shalloons and bays from London and Ireland’, beef and butter, tanned calfskins, blue and green Irish camblets, ham, tea and tongues for the family, recommending doing business with McKenzie in Bishopsgate Street, asking for kitchen tongs, shovel and poker, hay and oats for the horse, ‘a couple of curry combs and a couple of horse brushes’, disappearance of the French privateer and appearance of an English frigate, price of wine, 27 October 1761; third, letter regarding bills for goods shipped and goods delivered, necessity for staves, request for more flax and flour, directions for packing it, price of wheat, vessels expected from London, hoping for news from Mr Smith, fall in price of wine, suggestion of a new market for wine, new businessmen setting up in Madeira, hoping Campbell of Jamaica will call on his way, business in Jamaica, asking him to check the quality before buying Irish beef, intending to buy some West Indian beef, asking for butter, suggesting sending it by a Dutch vessel and buying Dutch flour at the same time, asking for barrels of pilchard and herring, and for mould candles from Ireland but not dipped ones as they have too many, 11 November 1761; fourth, letter regarding Tochineal’s letter and the problem of finding a livelihood for a woman, suggestion that she be apprenticed to a respectable vintner in London, 12 November 1761, with wrapper |