Autograph Letter Signed "H.S. Foxwell" to Messrs Stoakley & Sons, bookbinders, about paying the [Cambridge] University Account.

Author: 
H.S. Foxwell [Herbert Somerton Foxwell (1849–1936), economist and bibliophile
Publication details: 
[Embossed] 1 Harvey Road, Cambridge, 27 Sept. 1914.
£600.00
SKU: 15054

Four pages, 12mo, bifolium, closed tear at fold discreetly repaired, some marking but mainly good, text clear and complete. As follows: "I an surprised that you should be worrying me about paying the University Account. I explained most carefully to you the situation in regard to both accounts at the beginning of the year,& it was open to you to have declined the work if you did not like hte condition. | I have no funds to p[ay this account, which musr first be sent in to the University. There are some half dozen items to be added, which were charged to the Goldsmiths' accounts [by] my mistake. | You talk about the war crisis, but I will venture to say it has not cost you one-third of your income, as it has already cost me, to say nothing of the taxation which is to come. | Your difficulty, in peace & war, is always the same. You are trying to run the business without capital. You can't expect your customers to fund]?] you in capital." He argues that the "moratorium" makes things easier for them since, if the war created the difficulties, no-one will put pressure on them to pay. He continues, "I have done my best to keep the work in your hands, but the only return I get is to be reproached as if I were in some way a defaulter. This happens with no-one else. I have jsut received a letter asking me to meet some members of the Senate 'to consider the high cost of binding the pamphlets'. I shall be glad when it all comes to an end"