https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/items/1784
type: Item
type: Letter
id: 1784
is public: true
owner: https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/users/1
resource class: https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/resource_classes/66
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title: Letter from John A. F. Rachau to Otard Dupuy & Co concerning customs fraud, a brandy order and cargo losses, 1851-07-29
created: 2026-08-10T01:28:47+00:00
modified: 2026-08-10T04:36:07+00:00
primary media: https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/media/1785
media: https://archive.neruda-archives.org/api/media/1785
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identifier: NRA-L-000460
description: John A. F. Rachau discusses new customs controls and frauds on the revenue, places a brandy order for Drews & Rogers, and reports cargo losses, settlement difficulties and complaints about low profit on Otard brandies.
date: 1851-07-29
temporal: New York 29 July 1851
sort date: 1851-07-29
item sequence: 000460
type: Commercial correspondence
language: English
language: en
creator: John A. F. Rachau
recipient: Otard Dupuy & Co
place sent: New York, New York, United States
spatial: New York, New York, United States
spatial: Cognac, Charente, France
spatial: New York–Cognac via Paris
subject: Cognac trade
subject: Commercial correspondence
subject: Customs fraud
subject: Revenue enforcement
subject: Brandy orders
subject: Cargo losses
subject: Commercial settlement
subject: Drews & Rogers
subject: New York
subject: Otard Dupuy & Co
subject: John A. F. Rachau
subject: United States
incipit: Messrs Otard, Dupuy & Co
public transcript: [[label: Address panel]] Messrs Otard Dupuy & Co Cognac France via Paris
public transcript: [[label: Documentary page 2]] Messrs Otard, Dupuy & Co Cognac New York 29 July 1851 Dear Sirs, I beg your reference to my last respects, on the 22d Inst. Canada, since which I have been favored with your letter of the 11th Inst. Enclosed please receive a first of Exchange for 29th f15,000, I Hy Bardin draft at 10 days sight on Messrs Pilletier, Main & Co which I beg you will place to my Credit on Genl Account & oblige, and debit me against this with f5000 received on your account from Mr E. Passalery, to be paid 22 Oct. I have taken note of the additional amount on which the letter is to get its allowance. It may be very well in his opinion that it is perfectly right to save some $1000 on the duty, but it certainly is cruel for other importers who have no variety of stock to avail of such advantages. This is the way the Treasury works, and no sufficient proof of it can be had by those who try. Another Circular has been issued by the Secretary of the Treasury with the view of making Entries of goods on foreign Account more stringent. It has particularly reference to Consular Certificates, I get no other way to get the actual market value of goods when shipped. It is not probable that these addi- tional regulations will effect a cure, for they are sure to be evaded, but it shows that the Government is aware of the great frauds daily committed on the Revenue, and is
public transcript: [[label: Documentary page 3]] endeavouring to check them. Please ship for Messrs Drews & Rogers, New York B&B 5 half Pips 1850 dark Tenders color, 4 p c of S. No. 35 5 " " 1849 dark Ditto " and 5 " " 1848 dark Ditto " & their address, all without Vintage marks. You are likely to receive an order from Messrs J. Baker & Co of Boston. They are reported very respectable. I have no particulars from Messrs Figueira & Co about the reported Leakage of Florian, but hear that Capt Barclay says partial Ullage is some 15 Casks of various sizes. I am afraid it was caused by the W. Buchen, which was listed to him was a bad stowage. Messrs Figueira & Co have withheld the freight, but this cannot be carried out, and in case of a lawsuit they are bound to pay it, having however the right to bring a suit for damages against the vessel and owners. Our portwardens having reported, as usual, "the Cargo to be well stowed" I do not see how the pol- icy can be made liable for Leakage caused by the weight of that part of the Cargo placed on the top of the Figueira's being all Brandy, the latter was in every respect well loaded. I do not know yet what part of the Leakage falls on your Brandy, but as the Figueira had a considerable quantity of Rochelle and Bordeaux, it is reasonable to expect that the latter bore most of the proportion. I shall probably go to Philadelphia tomorrow and endeavour to arrange this the best I can otherwise it will be difficult to get a satisfactory settlement of the
public transcript: [[label: Documentary page 4]] losses for Mr Figueira Our friends continue to complain that no profits can be made on the sales of your Brandies, my attempt of obtaining an advance in prices proving abortive. This is, undoubtedly, the natural consequence of other parties being to cut their Brandies through reduced prices. The great difficulty we have to encounter is that few of our friends will run the risk of an expense in paying any duty under what they really pay for Brandies, and the few transactions are accomodated without drawing the worst consequences in themselves. An average price would be fair to succeed, and unfortunately does succeed with Consignments, but to expect our Customers to pay some 10 pc above the price of Brands, when on their own account, to be current, is more than can be done. I see no immediate and satisfactory solution to this question, and am afraid we must rest our hopes that the next Congress will take some steps to solve it for us, should the actual Congress continue so many conflicting interests, as regards protection and free trade, as is likely to be. I should be glad to have your opinion of what Cognac is likely to do. Without further to add I remain with esteem Dear Sirs Yours faithfully John A. F. Rachau [[notes]] Editorial notes: The terminal signature is John A. F. Rachau; the documented and authority forms were checked against earlier correspondence.
public translation: [[label: Address panel]] Messrs Otard Dupuy & Co Cognac France via Paris
public translation: [[label: Documentary page 2]] Messrs Otard, Dupuy & Co Cognac New York 29 July 1851 Dear Sirs, I beg your reference to my last respects, on the 22d Inst. Canada, since which I have been favored with your letter of the 11th Inst. Enclosed please receive a first of Exchange for 29th f15,000, I Hy Bardin draft at 10 days sight on Messrs Pilletier, Main & Co which I beg you will place to my Credit on Genl Account & oblige, and debit me against this with f5000 received on your account from Mr E. Passalery, to be paid 22 Oct. I have taken note of the additional amount on which the letter is to get its allowance. It may be very well in his opinion that it is perfectly right to save some $1000 on the duty, but it certainly is cruel for other importers who have no variety of stock to avail of such advantages. This is the way the Treasury works, and no sufficient proof of it can be had by those who try. Another Circular has been issued by the Secretary of the Treasury with the view of making Entries of goods on foreign Account more stringent. It has particularly reference to Consular Certificates, I get no other way to get the actual market value of goods when shipped. It is not probable that these addi- tional regulations will effect a cure, for they are sure to be evaded, but it shows that the Government is aware of the great frauds daily committed on the Revenue, and is
public translation: [[label: Documentary page 3]] endeavouring to check them. Please ship for Messrs Drews & Rogers, New York B&B 5 half Pips 1850 dark Tenders color, 4 p c of S. No. 35 5 " " 1849 dark Ditto " and 5 " " 1848 dark Ditto " & their address, all without Vintage marks. You are likely to receive an order from Messrs J. Baker & Co of Boston. They are reported very respectable. I have no particulars from Messrs Figueira & Co about the reported Leakage of Florian, but hear that Capt Barclay says partial Ullage is some 15 Casks of various sizes. I am afraid it was caused by the W. Buchen, which was listed to him was a bad stowage. Messrs Figueira & Co have withheld the freight, but this cannot be carried out, and in case of a lawsuit they are bound to pay it, having however the right to bring a suit for damages against the vessel and owners. Our portwardens having reported, as usual, "the Cargo to be well stowed" I do not see how the pol- icy can be made liable for Leakage caused by the weight of that part of the Cargo placed on the top of the Figueira's being all Brandy, the latter was in every respect well loaded. I do not know yet what part of the Leakage falls on your Brandy, but as the Figueira had a considerable quantity of Rochelle and Bordeaux, it is reasonable to expect that the latter bore most of the proportion. I shall probably go to Philadelphia tomorrow and endeavour to arrange this the best I can otherwise it will be difficult to get a satisfactory settlement of the
public translation: [[label: Documentary page 4]] losses for Mr Figueira Our friends continue to complain that no profits can be made on the sales of your Brandies, my attempt of obtaining an advance in prices proving abortive. This is, undoubtedly, the natural consequence of other parties being to cut their Brandies through reduced prices. The great difficulty we have to encounter is that few of our friends will run the risk of an expense in paying any duty under what they really pay for Brandies, and the few transactions are accomodated without drawing the worst consequences in themselves. An average price would be fair to succeed, and unfortunately does succeed with Consignments, but to expect our Customers to pay some 10 pc above the price of Brands, when on their own account, to be current, is more than can be done. I see no immediate and satisfactory solution to this question, and am afraid we must rest our hopes that the next Congress will take some steps to solve it for us, should the actual Congress continue so many conflicting interests, as regards protection and free trade, as is likely to be. I should be glad to have your opinion of what Cognac is likely to do. Without further to add I remain with esteem Dear Sirs Yours faithfully John A. F. Rachau [[notes]] Editorial notes: The terminal signature is John A. F. Rachau; the documented and authority forms were checked against earlier correspondence.
source: Original item in Neruda Archives.
provenance: Private collection, Neruda Archives.
rights: Publicly available images, transcriptions, translations, metadata and descriptions may be copied, shared, reproduced and republished, in whole or in part, for non-commercial purposes, provided that Neruda Archives is clearly credited and the relevant item identifier and stable URL are preserved. This permission includes non-commercial scholarly, educational, editorial, exhibition, website and social-media use. Automated machine use, including crawling, indexing, text and data mining, retrieval, embeddings and AI training by commercial and non-commercial systems, is permitted, provided provenance is retained where technically feasible and the item identifier and stable URL are preserved in source records or associated documentation. Commercial publication, commercial reproduction, resale, advertising use, paid access to a database or dataset and bulk redistribution of images require prior written permission. For the avoidance of doubt, permission is not required merely because an AI system or its operator is commercial. The images displayed and downloadable on this page are public access copies, and the permissions above apply to those files. Access to non-public source scans (preservation masters) or files specially prepared for print, where available, requires prior written agreement. Attribution may not be removed or replaced by false or misleading attribution.
access rights: Open public access. The images displayed and downloadable on each item page are public access copies. Non-commercial reuse of those images and of public transcriptions, translations, metadata and descriptions is permitted with clear credit to Neruda Archives and preservation of the relevant item identifier and stable URL. Automated use and AI training are permitted for commercial and non-commercial systems with provenance retained where technically feasible. Commercial republication, resale, advertising, paid database or dataset access and bulk image redistribution require prior written permission. Access to non-public source scans (preservation masters) or files specially prepared for print, where available, requires prior written agreement.
rights category: Open metadata and AI use; non-commercial public reuse
rights holder: Neruda Archives
bibliographic citation: Neruda Archives, NRA-L-000460.
research status: Every complete capture, documentary role, address panel, date, names, organizations, commercial context and material postal evidence was independently checked against the authoritative images and related Cognac correspondence; unresolved readings remain explicit. Date evidence: The dateline reads New York 29 July 1851 and the address-side docket records the same date. Origin evidence: New York is written in the dateline.
transcription status: Image-checked raw transcription
translation status: Image-checked English translation
catalogue period: 1850–1874
date certainty: Exact
extent: 4 documentary sides: Documentary page 1; Documentary page 2; Documentary page 3; Documentary page 4; 4 digital images.

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