It was a custom which flourished well into the nineteenth century.

These memoranda are sprinkled through the account books of the East Indiamen out of Salem and Boston.

It might be Miss Harriet Elkins who requested the master of the Messenger "please to purchase at Calcutta two net beads with draperies; if at Batavia or any spice market, nutmegs or mace; or if at Canton, two Canton shawls of the enclosed colors at $5 per shawl.

Enclosed is $10." Again, it might be Mr.John R.Tucker who ventured in the same ship one hundred Spanish dollars to be invested in coffee and sugar, or Captain Nathaniel West who risked in the Astrea fifteen boxes of spermaceti candles and a pipe of Teneriffe wine.

It is interesting to discover what was done with Mr.Tucker's hundred Spanish dollars, as invested for him by the skipper of the Messenger at Batavia and duly accounted for.
Ten bags of coffee were bought for $83.30, the extra expenses of duty, boat-hire, and sacking bringing the total outlay to $90.19.