gmertca, , ?|emp, an& JUapoleon - Vote Hemp

The Danish ProblemIt seems to be a law of the universe that regulations are notfor catching criminals as muc h as for exasperating honest folk.Th e regulations laid dow n by the ukase, though obviously notstringent enough to stop smugglers, were stringent enough tomake life hard for honest neutral traders. The "Mary/* commandedby Captain Osgood, arrived in Kronstadt on thetwenty-sixth of September, but was not allowed to discharge itscargo until the fourteenth of October. 61This sort of delay was particularly aggravating with the daysgrowing shorter and skims of ice appearing on the edges of theNeva. Captain Osgood didn't even hold the "Mary" in portuntil he could sell her cargo. H e loaded her with iron, hemp ,and linens, and sent her off on the second of November underJohn Ropes, his first officer. H e himself stayed in Russia to sellthe tropical goods that "Mary" had brought from America. 62Th e merchants of the Russian ports were as aggravated andfrustrated in their drive to mak e 1809 a golden year of profit asthe Americans. There was no doubt that business was vastlysuperior to that of 1808. In 1809, 376 vessels arrived at Kronstadtand St. Petersburg as compared to sixty for 1808. Financiallythe contrast between the two years was just as spectacular:in 1808, there passed through Kronstadt and St. Petersburgimports valued at 1,452,233 rubles and exports valued at5,875,896 rubles; in 1809, imports had grown to 5,159,798rubles and exports to 20,314,406. 63 But the harbor and facilitiesof Kronstadt were sufficient to handle a thousand vessels aseason! Merchants, nobles in St. Petersburg, and serfs hundredsof miles distant in the hem pfieldsof the Ukraine turned peevishfor lack of an outlet for their goods. Rumor had it that inthe summe r of 1809 the French ambassador gave a dinner at