172 • The Abyssfirewood for the dean’s use during the coming winter. On the upper banks of
the Thames, woodcutters demanded prices far higher than usual, lightermen
wanted twice the normal rate to float the faggots down to a wharf, and the
wharfingers raised their prices sky high to three pounds a load for three
months’ wharfage on the docks, claiming the wharf area was already full with
goods left unsold because of the plague. An exasperated Tillison went four
miles farther upstream, finding a wharfinger who settled for five pence a load
and promised to guard the wood against thieves. The dean could surely pay
the total charges he had arranged for the wood, transportation, and storage,
even with the loss of rental money from his tenants around the cathedral
who had died of the plague. Nevertheless, Tillison felt obliged to apologize
for the steep prices the pestilence had forced him to pay.^33
Samuel Pepys was more adept than Tillison in getting good deals, and the
plague was not about to obstruct his pursuit of wealth. His techniques were
tailored to the situation and the class with which he was dealing. On one oc-
casion he took two saddle horses downstream into unfamiliar territory. The
local watermen refused to take him and the horses across to the other side un-
less he paid twenty shillings, twice the normal rate. Pepys lost his patience,
swearing he would have them dragooned into the royal navy by one of the in-
famous impressment crews. He did not have to carry out the threat; another
waterman came by and took Pepys and his horses over for ten shillings.
With his own class Pepys pressed a more civil advantage—being in the
right place at the right time. Windfalls had swelled his purse ever since he
entered the public-private business network, which he did while taking his
cue from his kinsman patron Lord Sandwich. Sandwich had a saying that it
was not one’s salary that made one rich but the opportunities of getting
money while in a salaried post. Pepys’ current salaries of £ 350 at the Navy
Board and another £ 300 as treasurer for Tangier were just the beginning of
what he might take in, thanks to the Dutch naval war. Skirmishes and raids
by both sides on merchant ships had depleted the Treasury while lining the
pockets of commanders with captured booty and adding to Pepys’ purse
through his contracting for naval supplies. He navigated the shifting terrain
skillfully and with better luck than did his naval superiors. Sandwich was
banished from the navy to a diplomatic post in Portugal for sharing booty
from two Dutch merchant ships before the king took his share, while Pepys
sold off his share quickly and avoided notice. And unlike Denis Gauden,
who had nothing but new debts to show for his management of the navy’s
vast supply network, Pepys steered his way through a sea of prospective con-
tractors to suppliers who would reward him with handsome bonuses.^34