Dear Mr Holyfen,

As you will recall, the firm of Halpenny and Son accepted you as a junior partner, largely at the behest of Mr John Hampden, despite well-justified concerns regarding your practices as a merchant while in Italy and the Low Countries. I mean those transactions undertaken during the recent mania for the bulbs of the tulip flower, and specifically the scheme (which you claim to have originated) of borrowing bulbs, selling them for your own profit less a miniscule security to the lender, then repurchasing the same bulb and returning it to the lender.

This scheme, which was inordinately successful for you, was declared illegal in Holland following the regrettable suicide of Mynheer Kristiaan Bogardus, a significant lender of bulbs left destitute after the collapse of the market for those items.