Approximately 34 letters, plus 7 documents, between 1 and 16 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. Three 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 alluding to the growing tension between the Chinese and the British which led to the First Opium War. Five 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. Excerpts from two letters: From John Cryder in Boston, 11/22/1835: "...You would be astonished at the great increase of business from the U. States the last two years, and the safety with which it has been conducted. None of the houses in London even during the last panic, have lost anything to speak of and the march of wealth and of improvement in the country since you left it, almost staggers belief…" From Samuel Wetmore, Canton, 3/31/1837: "...The number of vessels now arrived, & with what are to come, will afford great inducements to the Chinamen for holding their present prices – besides the vessels will require all the teas that are now in market & the whole of the first crop of Canton…Opium keeps very flat, constantly declining, & fed from slam sales at every reduction – we fully expect to see it considerably lower… The Mandarins have found their faces(?) and the rates are now to Canton 36# & to the ??? outside 31# per chest, being 19# les than for sometime back. The deliveries are fair (though small) from animaton(?) The Governor Findley arrived from Bombay on the 26th inst with about 1000 cts…"