Adam Smith, Commissioner (part 7)

Nota bene: For reference, here are the previous installments — parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 — of my multi-part series on Adam Smith’s day-to-day duties as a commissioner of the Board of Customs of Scotland. The next letter signed by Adam Smith in his official capacity as a Commissioner of Customs is Letter #121. It is dated __ November 1784 (alas, the day on my copy of the letter is cut off) and is signed by Adam Smith (top signature), Basil Cochrane (middle), and James Edgar (bottom). In this letter, the Board of Customs approves a payment in amount of “Three pounds, nineteen shillings & eight pence” for “Incidental Charges” incurred by a local customs officer: “Having receiv’d your Letter of the 26th of last Month [26 October 1784], inclosing an Account of Incidental Charges by Mr. George Henderson Tidesurveyor at Cromarty, amounting to Three pounds, nineteen shillings & eight pence; — We agree to your paying the said Account to be plac’d to Incidents, annexing this order and proper…