Lowe to Quarles. Contents of letter of 18 January (missing). Stade wants and expects...

Lowe to Quarles. Contents of letter of 18 January (missing). Stade wants and expects only 2 fleets this year, at Spring and Michaelmas. Lowe inclined to agree this a good thing as packcloth has risen so high in price that as happened last summer, men more likely to lose than gain by selling. Sales have been high this winter, so most men have sufficient stocks for a long time and will refrain from buying these high-priced cloths. In addition, the Emperor has summoned a Reekesday (diet) at Reinsburche [Regensburg] for May, chiefly to arrange resistance to the Turks who are attacking Hungary and threaten to over-run a large part of Christendom in summer. Supplies of cloth already bought to cover that eventuality and after then cloth should return to lower prices. If there are only 2 fleets in the year asks Quarles to send 300 cloths in first fleet. If 3 fleets or more, the need not so urgent. Lowe hears Reading cloth expensive - if so, asks Quarles to buy less and send Kent cloth instead. Counsels against buying inferior cloth. Lowe will not sell to men of dubious credit. Madder very expensive and scarce in Stade - it all comes from Hamburg. Lowe thinks price will fall, but will continue to report. Will not buy unless Quarles specifically orders it. Glad Quarles did not lose any cloth in the wreckage of the Middleburg fleet. Explains an accounting error. General discussion of financial position. Exchange rate. Frost stronger now and probably impossible to send into Hamburg or Emden. Recent sales of cloth. Dated at Stade [near Hamburg].