PBA Galleries

3 pp.+ stampless address leaf. 

Wetmore was a leading New England merchant of the China Trade in the 1830s, a decade of political unrest in the Celestial Empire, being the resident Canton representative of his partnership with Philadelphian Joseph Archer. Their firm dealt in tea and many other commodities, occasionally including Opium – but more notably Silk, such transactions, as this letter testifies, bringing them “instant” wealth.

"The silk shipment has resulted fully equal to you expectations and made you a rich man in an instant.  We are doing very well...No teas in market...Teas will open higher than last season. Raw silk will break very high...Silk fine goods have advanced...they will not decline. Shipments will be very small to America for very few of the orders can be executed at the limits. Galaxy, Richard Alsop and Splendid all arrived too late for us to get old Teas for them. We had purchased every chit before their arrival for ships Monson and Bark Kent of Boston...”