Beschreibung:

Title: Archive of approximately 53 holograph letters, plus a few duplicates, from merchants and traders to William Shepard Wetmore, China Trade merchant and supercargo Author: ** Place: Various places Publisher: Date: 1827-1840 Description: Approximately 53 letters, plus a few retained duplicates, between 1 and 11 pages, nearly all of them folding stampless letters, with address. Important archive of letters written to one of the leading Yankee merchants in the heyday of the China Trade, from fellow merchants, business partners, and employees around the globe. William Shepard Wetmore (Jan. 26, 1801-June 16, 1862) was born in Vermont, and raised by his aunt and uncle in Connecticut following the death of his mother when he was one years old. William’s uncle, Samuel Wetmore, was a merchant and at age 14 William went to sea. In 1823, he was shipwrecked near Valparaiso, to which port he had gone as supercargo of one of the ships of Edward Carrington & Co., of Providence, a business partner of his uncle. In Valparaiso he went to work for the firm Richard Alsop of Middletown, Connecticut. This eventually led to a partnership of Alsop, Wetmore and Cryder in 1825 with John Cryder of Philadelphia. He retired from the firm around 1831, and, apparently on advice from his doctor, left for Canton, China where in 1833 he established the firm of Wetmore & Co. with Joseph Archer of Philadelphia. The company went on to be one of the largest mercantile houses in the East Indies brokering tea, tea papers, silks, spices, wines, ports, hemp, pearl buttons, copper and coffee, and on occasion opium, though apparently in lesser quantities than rival British houses. His many contacts in South America and elsewhere stood him in good stead, providing key information on business conditions. Seventeen of the letters are from his former colleagues in South America (14 from Lima, Peru), to Wetmore in Canton, and in addition to information on mercantile prospects there is much on the Revolution in Peru and conflict between Peru and Chile. In 1837 Wetmore took a hiatus from Canton, leaving his cousin Samuel Wetmore to take care of business, and traveling to England, where he married his cousin Esther Phillips Wetmore. Seventeen of the letters are written by Samuel Wetmore in Canton to William Wetmore in London and then New York, describing the progress of business in great detail, and adding information on the opium trade and the growing tension between the Chinese and the British which led to the First Opium War. Eight of the letters are from his former business partner John Cryder in London, offering keen observations on the mercantile business in general and making suggestions to Wetmore on business strategy. Many of the letters are docketed with the name of the ship on which it was shipped, making the letters into records of clipper ship voyages in the 1830s. A complete listing of the letters is available on request. Wetmore left Canton in 1839, leaving his cousin Samuel in charge of operations, and established a mercantile house in New York, Wetmore & Cryder. He retired in 1847, and moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where erected an elegant stone villa known as the Chateau Sur Mer, at which he resided until his death. Excerpts from selected letters follow: William Martin Lima, Oct. 17, 1833 – “…[I] will thank you to give me the prices and any information of your market that would be useful to enable me in making up a voyage to China or elsewhere so if I undertake any voyage the owner will give me a carte blance as he done in this instance – Turkey opium at terms…how this article… sells for in Canton..” * Joseph Archer, Macao, to Wm. Wetmore in Canton, Sept. 19, 1834 – “…The news contained in the letter is very important and excites great interest here. I am afraid the troubles are not yet at an end. Perhaps it is the policy to oblige Lord N to leave Canton in the manner in which he arrived there – Smuggled. I would not e surprised if