Даниэль Дефо - Roxana

As Sir Robert frequently visited me, and was (if I may say so from his own Mouth) very well pleas’d with my way of conversing with him, for he knew nothing, nor so much as guess’d at what I had been; I say, as he came often to see me, so he always entertain’d me with this Scheme of Frugality; and one time he brought another Paper, wherein he shew’d me, much to the same Purpose as the former, to what Degree I shou’d encrease my Estate, if I wou’d come into his Method of contracting my Expenses; and by this Scheme of his, it appear’d, that laying up a thousand Pounds a Year, and every Year adding the Interest to it, I shou’d in twelve Years time have in Bank, One and twenty Thousand, and Fifty eight Pounds; [191] One and twenty Thousand, and Fifty eight Pounds : to realize this amount Clayton would have had to invest Roxana’s money at the unusually high rate of 8.5 per cent. See note 180. after which, I might lay-up two Thousand Pounds a Year.

I objected, that I was a young Woman; that I had been us’d to live plentifully, and with a good Appearance; and that I knew not how to be a Miser.

He told me, that if I thought I had enough, it was well; but if I desir’d to have more, this was the Way; that in another twelve Year, I shou’d be too rich, so that I shou’d not know what to do with it.

Ay Sir, says I , you are contriving how to make me a rich Old Woman, but that won’t answer my End; I had rather have 20000 l . now, than 60000 l . when I am fifty Year old.

Then , Madam, says he, I suppose your Honour has no Children ?

None, Sir Robert , said I, but what are provided for , so I left him in the dark, as much as I found him: However, I consider’d his Scheme very well, tho’ I said no more to him at that time, and I resolv’d, tho’ I would make a very good Figure, I say, I resolv’d to abate a little of my Expence, and draw in, live closer, and save something, if not so much as he propos’d to me: It was near the End of the Year that Sir Robert made this Proposal to me, and when the Year was up, I went to his House in the City, and there I told him, I came to thank him for his Scheme of Frugality; that I had been studying much upon it; and tho’ I had not been able to mortifie myself so much as to lay-up a thousand Pounds a Year; yet, as I had not come to him for my Interest half-yearly, as was usual, I was now come to let him know, that I had resolv’d to lay-up that seven Hundred Pound a Year, and never use a Penny of it; desiring him to help me to put it out to Advantage.

Sir Robert , a Man thorowly vers’d in Arts of improving Money, but thorowly honest, said to me , Madam, I am glad you approve of the Method that I propos’d to you; but you have begun wrong; you shou’d have come for your Interest at the Half-Year, and then you had had the Money to put out; now you have lost half a Year’s Interest of 350 l . which is 9 l . for I had but 5 per Cent . on the Mortgage.

Well, well, Sir, says I , can you put this out for me now?

Let it lie, Madam, says he , till the next Year, and then I’ll put out your 1400 l . together, and in the mean time I’ll pay you Interest for the 700 l . so he gave me his Bill for the Money, which he told me shou’d be no less than 6 l . per Cent . [192] no less than 61. per Cent : the usual rate of interest at this time, 5 per cent, was what Defoe considered fair. Clayton’s various investment schemes were probably not meant to sound either admirable or honest. Sir Robert Clayton’s Bill was what no-body wou’d refuse; so I thank’d him, and let it lie; and next Year I did the same; and the third Year Sir Robert got me a good Mortgage for 2200 l . at 6 per Cent . Interest: So I had 132 l . a Year added to my Income; which was a very satisfying Article.

But I return to my History: As I have said, I found that my Measures were all wrong, the Posture I set up in, expos’d me to innumerable Visiters of the Kind I have mention’d above; I was cry’d up for a vast Fortune, and one that Sir Robert Clayton manag’d for; and Sir Robert Clayton was courted for me, as much as I was for myself: But I had given Sir Robert his Cue; I had told him my Opinion of Matrimony, in just the same Terms as I had done my Merchant, and he came into it presently; he own’d that my Observation was just, and that, if I valued my Liberty, as I knew my Fortune, and that it was in my own Hands, I was to blame, if I gave it away to any-one.

But Sir Robert knew nothing of my Design; that I aim’d at being a kept Mistress, and to have a handsome Maintenance; and that I was still for getting Money, and laying it up too , as much as he cou’d desire me, only by a worse Way.

However, Sir Robert came seriously to me one Day, and told me, he had an Offer of Matrimony to make to me, that was beyond all that he had heard had offer’d themselves, and this was a Merchant; Sir Robert and I agreed exactly in our Notions of a Merchant; Sir Robert said, and I found it to be true, that a true-bred Merchant is the best Gentleman in the Nation; [193] a true-bred Merchant is the best Gentleman in the Nation : also an expression of Charles II’s, quoted with approval by Defoe in The Complete English Tradesman (1745 ed., reprinted Burt Franklin, 1970), I, 242. that in Knowledge, in Manners, in Judgment of things, the Merchant out-did many of the Nobility; that having once master’d the World, and being above the Demand of Business, tho’ no real Estate, they were then superior to most Gentlemen, even in Estate; that a Merchant in flush Business, and a capital Stock, is able to spend more Money than a Gentleman of 5000 l . a Year Estate; that while a Merchant spent, he only spent what he got, and not that; and that he laid up great Sums every Year.

That an Estate is a Pond; but that a Trade was a Spring; [194] That an Estate is a Pond; but that a Trade was a Spring : a favourite idea of Defoe’s. See The Complete English Tradesman , I, 245, and A Plan of English Commerce , in The Novels and Selected Writings of Daniel Defoe (Basil Blackwood, 1928), p. 75. Defoe uses Clayton as the mouthpiece for several of his own ideas on trade and commerce. that if the first is once mortgag’d, it seldom gets clear, but embarrass’d the Person for ever; but the Merchant had his Estate continually flowing; and upon this, he nam’d me Merchants who liv’d in more real Splendor, and spent more Money than most of the Noblemen in England cou’d singly expend, and that they still grew immensly rich.

He went on to tell me, that even the Tradesmen in London , speaking of the better sort of Trades, cou’d spend more Money in their Families, and yet give better Fortunes to their Children, than, generally speaking, the Gentry of England from a 1000 l . a Year downward, cou’d do, and yet grow rich too.

The Upshot of all this was, to recommend to me, rather the bestowing my Fortune upon some eminent Merchant, who liv’d already in the first Figure of a Merchant, and who not being in Want or Scarcity of Money, but having a flourishing Business, and a flowing Cash, wou’d at the first word, settle all my Fortune on myself and Children, and maintain me like a Queen.

This was certainly right; and had I taken his Advice, I had been really happy; but my Heart was bent upon an Independency of Fortune; and I told him, I knew no State of Matrimony, but what was, at best, a State of Inferiority, if not of Bondage; that I had no Notion of it; that I liv’d a Life of absolute Liberty now; was free as I was born, and having a plentiful Fortune, I did not understand what Coherence the Words Honour and Obey had with the Liberty of a Free Woman ; that I knew no Reason the Men had to engross the whole Liberty of the Race, and make the Women, notwithstanding any desparity of Fortune, be subject to the Laws of Marriage, of their own making; that it was my Misfortune to be a Woman, but I was resolv’d it shou’d not be made worse by the Sex; and seeing Liberty seem’d to be the Men’s Property, I wou’d be a Man-Woman ; for as I was born free, I wou’d die so.