text:  But the thing which astonished me most of all was that in this great mercantile nation a merchant is very little appreciated unless he is in debt or a cheat; but the hero of most of the histories if he is of a mercantile family is over head and ears in the books of Jew usurers and has left the respectable circle of his equals in rank and spends his time and constitution in the gaieties of the lords and ladies