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

America, Russia, Hemp, and Napoleonfifty-two rubles. Cotton,fifty-fourrubles a pood in January,was twenty to twenty-five in August. And so it went for all theother colonial goods.Th e level of Russian tariffs, and the prices of Russian servicesand goods moved in the other direction: up. The tariffsunder the commercial ukase of December, 1810, were higher7 7othan before, and some Americans were forced to sell theircargoes at tremendous losses just to pay the tariffs on them.Interest charged for bank loans went up. Hemp, the bellwetherof Russian exports, rose from eighty-eight rubles per berkovetsin January to a hundred and eight or a hundred and ten inAugust. 38Som e Americans hoped to offset their losses in selling colonialgoods in Russia by the profits of selling Russian goods inAmerica. They were grasping at straws. The United States wasas glutted with imports from Russia as Russia was with importsfrom America. Russian duck, which had been twenty-ninedollars a bolt in July, 1810, was $23.50 in July, 1811. The verybest hemp, which had sold for as much as $320.00 a ton in thefall of 1810, was down to $250.00 in July of 1811. Ordinaryhemp plummeted as low as $200.00 a ton. 39Th e story of the ship "John/* of Salem, is a good example ofthe unfortunate state of an American vessel involved in Russo-American trade in 1811. In Ma y the "John" cleared Salemharbor for Archangel loaded with cotton, coffee, and Arabiangum and drugs. She arrived at Archangel on 4 July, after afast passage of thirty-six days, and immediately discovered thatcotton would not sell at any price, nor would the gums, and thecoffee only if it were of a special high quality. "Alloes, sandaracand myrrh"—presumably what was meant by "drugs"—sold210