METCALF BOWLER OF PROVIDENCE wrote this rather begging letter to elite merchants Brown & Benson in early 1784. By this time, the post-war slump was already in progress and lesser merchants and shopkeepers all along the eastern seaboard were experiencing financial difficulties. During 1784 Bowler paid what he could in a number of instalments of cash, but by 1785 he was reduced to paying Brown & Benson with various goods such as molasses. In the end, he assigned all his real estate including his shop and home to Brown & Benson as security for his debts, and his wife even had to sign away her dower rights. The tone of his letters is obsequious, and conformed to statements regarding the settling of all his debts to all his creditors as discussed in the previous chapter. He played on their generosity, kindness and reputation throughout. Only once did he complain that they had ‘crouded [sic] me rather too hard’. Brown & Benson managed to gain security for Bowler's debts (which no doubt made them unpopular with the remainder of his creditors), but they did not pursue the collection of his debts through the legal system. This story demonstrates the extraordinary measures merchants took to be conciliatory, and to avoid the hassle and expense of legal procedures which might in turn taint their own reputation. Bowler's plight, however, reveals more than this. He played on the fact that Brown & Benson were an elite, reputable mercantile house, and by being so, they owed obligations not only to him as a customer, but to the wider business community by not forcing lesser traders into bankruptcy. Bowler was asking for what Muldrew has described as ‘forgiveness of debt’. He pointed out that the security they had asked him for was ‘trifling and of no consequence’ to ‘Person[s] of your multiplicity of Business’, and that if they were kind he would be extremely grateful to such ‘worthy men’. Bowler's language demonstrates a clear sense of hierarchy and esteem, but he used this to stress Brown & Benson's responsibility as elite merchants to indulge him.