The Virginia Gazette

April 26. A letter from a merchant in London to his correspondent in Basse Terre, St. Kitt's, says: The capture of so many Jamaica ships has occasioned a rapid rise in the price of sugars. Mr. Manning, two days ago, sold some of Mr. Taylor's sugars at 48 s. 6 d. It has also occasioned the stoppage of a very capital Jamaica house (Satigold and Jackson) whose unsettled negotiation amounts to the enormous sum of near 80,000 l. Another Jamaica house is said to have given way, and those have involved a banking house here, and a house at Bristol, the last for 50,000 l. Mr. Jackson above mentioned, it is said, waited on Lord North, to acquaint him, that it was necessary to give his house some support, or their ruin would involve so many others, and the consequences would be too fatal to mercantile credit. He said they have a large sum in specie on board the Pallas frigate, one of the Jamaica convoys, which is not yet arrived. It is generally imagined that sugar will be at fifty odd shillings per cent. Many more failures are apprehended.