"Is it the sudden stoppage of all trade ?" "That has been serious enough.

It would have done much harm had that been the only thing, but there be many, many other causes.
Thou art too young and unversed in the ways of business to understand all; but I was not content to grow rich in the course of business alone.

I had ventures of all sorts afloat--on sea and on land; and through the death of patrons, through the sudden stoppage of all trade, numbers and numbers of these have come to no good.

My money is lost; my loans cannot be recovered.

Men are dead or fled to whom I looked for payment.