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An English Businessman in Sicily, 1806–1861*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Irene D. Neu
Irene D. Neu
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of History at Southeast Missouri State College
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Abstract

This account of the activities of an energetic, highly diversified mercantile capitalist illustrates in some detail the world-wide flow of commodities and capital in the early nineteenth century. Aggressive merchandising and sophisticated administration were involved, and one by-product was a rich reservoir of investment capital for developing American industries.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , Winter 1957 , pp. 355 - 374
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1957

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References

1 Schuyler Livingston to Erastus Corning, New York, May 26, 1854, Corning Papers, Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, New York; Pierce, Harry H., Railroads of New York, a Study of Government Aid, 1836–1875 (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), p. 6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Pierce, Railroads of New York, p. 6; John V. L. Pruyn Journal (mss.), Vol. I, p. 25, Pruyn Papers, New York State Library, Albany, New York.

3 Livingston to Corning, New York, July 25, 1854; July 31, 1855; Oct. 1, 1860; Benjamin Ingham, Jr., to Corning, Cleveland, Aug. 18, 1855: Corning Papers.

4 Whitaker-Scalia, Tina, Benjamin Ingham of Palermo (Palermo, 1936), p. 13Google Scholar.

5 Mary Tidman to her sister, Palermo, Jan. 24–31, 1852, in Tidman, Arthur Clayton, In Sicily, 1851–1852 (Oxford, 1927), p. 21.Google Scholar

6 Heywood, Oliver, Autobiography, Diaries, Anecdote and Event Books … (Brighouse, 1882), Vol. I, p. 36Google Scholar; Vol. II, pp. 9, 147, 193. Idem, The Nonconformist Register …, edited by J. Horsfall Turner (Brighouse, 1881), passim. Palmer, Samuel, The Nonconformist's Memorial … (London, 1775), Vol. II, p. 599Google Scholar. The Nonconformist background of the Inghams was called to my attention by Miss Susan Brooke of London and Cambridge, England.

7 The son was Benjamin Ingham, great uncle of the subject of this article. At Oxford he became associated with John Wesley and later in life was the founder of a religious sect known as the Inghamites. In 1741 he enhanced both his fortunes and his social position by marrying the Lady Margaret Hastings, sister of the Earl of Huntingdon. (Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. X; The Life and Times of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, by a Member of the Houses of Shirley and Hastings, Vol. I, p. 302; Lockwood, John P., “Methodism in Former Days. No. XXXIII — The Rev. Benjamin Ingham,” The Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine [London], Fourth Series, Vol. IV, pt. II [Oct., 1848], p. 1,099)Google Scholar.

8 Alumni Oxoniensis: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886 … arranged, revised and annotated by Foster, Joseph (London, 1887–1888), Vol. II, p. 727.Google Scholar

9 Crump, W. B., ed., The Leeds Woollen Industry, 1780–1820 (Leeds, 1931), p. 319.Google Scholar

10 I am indebted to Miss Brooke for this item. The William Ingham referred to here was a brother of the subject of this paper.

11 Parsons, Edward, The Civil, Ecclesiastical, Literary, Commercial and Miscellaneous History of Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Otley, and the District within Ten Miles of Leeds (Leeds, 1834), Vol. II, p. 427.Google Scholar

12 Giacalone-Monaco, Tommaso, La Politica del Vino Marsala (Venezia, 1938), II edizione riveduta, p. 10Google Scholar; Whitaker, Robert Sanderson, Whitaker of Hesley Hall, Grayshott Hall, Pylewell Park, and Palermo. Being Some Family Records Collected and Arranged … (London, 1907), p. 33Google Scholar; Whitaker-Scalia, Benjamin Ingham, p. 10.

13 The fears of the Yorkshire merchants were, of course, justified. A United States statute of December, 1807, was to place an embargo on the departure of all ships, except foreign ships in ballast, from American ports for foreign shores. The embargo was replaced in March, 1809, by a policy of noninter-course with Great Britain and France. This was continued until May, 1810, with the exception of a short period in the summer of 1809 when trade with Great Britain was permitted. War broke out between the United States and Great Britain in April, 1812, and lasted until December, 1814. See Heaton, Herbert, “Yorkshire Cloth Traders in the United States,” Thoresby Society's Miscellany, Vol. XXXVII, Part 3, p. 246Google Scholar. Reinoehl, John H., “Post-Embargo Trade and Merchant Prosperity: Experiences of the Crowninshield Family, 1809–1812,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. XLII (Sept., 1955), pp. 229–249CrossRefGoogle Scholar, presents interesting evidence to the effect that there was a general decline in American trade from 1807 onwards.

14 Heaton, “Yorkshire Cloth Traders in the United States,” p. 246.

15 Romeo, Rosario, Il Risorgimento in Sicilia (Bari, 1950), p. 189Google Scholar. On the subject of the British occupation see Rosselli, John, Lord William Bentinck and the British Occupation of Sicily, 1811–1814 (Cambridge, England, 1956)Google Scholar.

16 Julius C. Kretschmar to William L. Marcy, Palermo, April 1, 1854, Consular Letters, Palermo, Vol. IV, National Archives, Washington. In the latter part of the Napoleonic Wars such trade with southern Italy and the Morea (the southern peninsula of Greece), was permitted by Great Britain, licenses being issued under certain conditions, “so that … [British] Vessels, and their Cargoes, shall not be liable to capture by Our Ships of War or Privateers….” (Copy of instructions, signed by George III, to William Pitt, Lord Amherst, dated Nov. 7, 1809, F. O. 165/1, Public Record Office, London.) There was also encouragement of the trade by the enemy. See Avakumovic, Ivan, “An Episode in the Continental System in the Illyrian Provinces,” Journal of Economic History, Vol. XIV (Summer, 1954), pp. 254–261CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Kretschmar to Marcy, Palermo, April 1, 1854, Consular Letters, Palermo, Vol. IV, National Archives.

18 Gait, John, Voyages and Travels in the Years 1809, 1810, and 1811; Containing … Statistical, Commercial, and Miscellaneous Observations on Gibraltar, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Serigo, and Turkey (London, 1812), pp. 19–20Google Scholar.

19 Whitaker-Scalia, Benjamin Ingham, p. 10.

20 Petition dated at Palermo, Feb. 24, 1811, F. O. 70/45, Public Record Office, London.

21 Letter dated at Naples, Feb. 17, 1833, in Mozley, Anne, ed., Letters and Correspondence of John Henry Newman during his Life in the English Church … (London, 1891), Vol. I, p. 346Google Scholar.

22 Whitaker, Whitaker of Hesley Hall … and Palermo, p. 33; Whitaker Scalia, Benjamin Ingham, passim.

23 Benjamin Ingham to Joseph Whitaker, Palermo, April 12, 1830. The letter appears in its entirety in Whitaker-Scalia, Benjamin Ingham, pp. 37–52.

24 Richard Grepheus [?] to Ingham, London, Sept. 14, 1837, copy in possession of Professor Salvatore Fiorino, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.

25 See, for instance, arrivals of vessels as reported in Gazzeta de' Saloni, Palermo, Aug. 29, Sept. 25, Sept. 26, Oct. 3, 1846.

26 One pipe equaled 93 imperial gallons or 112 U. S. gallons.

27 Benjamin Ingham, Jr., to Ingham, Boston, Dec. 22, 1834, Fiorino Collection.

28 Whitaker, Whitaker of Hesley Hall … and Palermo, p. 33.

29 Giacolone-Monaco, La Politico del Vino Marsala, pp. 7–8. During the first six decades of the 18th century there was a brisk trade between England and Portugal, English merchants exporting woolens to their compatriots who had established themselves there and receiving wine in part payment. By the 1770's French competition had seriously interfered with this exchange. Sutherland, Lucy Stuart, A London Merchant, 1695–1774 (London, 1933), pp. 17–18Google Scholar.

30 Giacolone-Monaco, La Politica del Vino Marsala, pp. 8–9, 11. There is a facsimile of a contract of March 19, 1800, between Nelson and Woodhouse in an undated, unpaged advertising brochure which was distributed by Woodhouse & Co. some years ago.

31 Giacolone-Monaco, La Politica del Vino Marsala, p. 10.

32 John Barlow to Samuel and William Woodhouse, Marsala, Feb. 3, 1828 (letterbook copy). In the 1830's Ingham was regularly sending a partnership account to Richard Stephens in London (Stephens to Ingham, Aug. 20, 1834), while as late as 1863 the Marsala concern was still known as Ingham, Stephens & Co. (Ingham & Whitaker to Ingham, Stephens & Co., Palermo, April 23, 1863). All letters cited in this note are in the archives of the Florio Company, Marsala, Italy.

33 Baglio is a Sicilian word, said to be a corruption of the Latin vallum.

34 Tidman, In Sicily, p. 75.

35 Whitaker-Scalia, Benjamin Ingham, p. 22.

36 Tidman, In Sicily, p. 75; Trevelyan, George M., Garibaldi and the Thousand (London and New York, 1909), pp. 231–232Google Scholar.

37 As late as 1824 the carriage road out of Palermo in the direction of Marsala went only as far as Alcamo, about 30 miles. Beyond Alcamo there was a “pretty good” mule path to Trapani on the west coast, and from there a path of similar description to Marsala. (Travels through Sicily and the Lipari Islands, in the Month of December, 1824, by a Naval Officer [London, 1827], pp. 50, 70Google Scholar.) By 1851 the road had been extended to Trapani, and “the engineering part” of “a great artery” from that place to Marsala had been completed, but the stones remaining in the roadway were “of such Cyclopean dimensions as to be trying alike to the carriage and the rider.” (Tidman, In Sicily, p. 76.) When Garibaldi led his troops from Marsala toward Palermo in the spring of 1860, he found a paved road stretching only a few miles in the direction of Calatafimi. His men went forward to meet their Royalist opponents along “a mere track.” (Trevelyan, Garibaldi and the Thousand, p. 243.)

38 Joseph Whitaker, born in 1802, married Eliza Sophia Sanderson, the daughter of William Sanderson, an English businessman in Messina. This couple had 12 children, 11 of whom grew to maturity. Three sons — Joshua, Joseph I. S., and Robert Sanderson — in the course of time were to join the Palermo firm, while the five remaining sons were to establish themselves in England. Joseph Whitaker died in Palermo in October, 1884. (Whitaker, Whitaker of Hestey Hall … and Palermo, pp. 5–10, 34.)

39 Benjamin Ingham, Jr., born in 1810, married Emily Hinton, daughter of an Englishman who lived in Naples. Of this marriage there was no issue. Ingham, Jr., died in Paris in 1872 and his widow afterwards married General Giacoma Medici, who was described as “Governor” of Palermo. (Whitaker, Whitaker of Hesley Hall … and Palermo, pp. 33–34; Whitaker-Scalia, Tina, Sicily & England, Political and Social Reminiscences, 1848–1870 [London, 1907], p. 157.)Google Scholar

40 Joshua Ingham died unmarried and was buried in the little English cemetery within the walls of the Woodhouse baglio in Marsala.

41 The Boston Directory (Boston, 1828).Google Scholar

42 William Woodhouse to John Barlow, London, June 8, 1829, Florio Archives. Joseph Ingham died in New York in October, 1833. (Records of the Suffolk County Probate Court, Boston, Mass., Docket No. 30389.)

43 Alfred Greenough to Ingham, Fiorino Collection. The heading of this letter has been destroyed, but the place and date — Boston, December, 1834 — may be inferred from the contents.

44 Richard Grepheus [?] to Ingham, London, Sept. 14, 1837, copy in Fiorino Collection.

45 Alfred Greenough to Ingham, Boston [December, 1834?], Fiorino Collection. See also Giocolone-Monaco, La Poiitica del Vino Marsala, p. 11.

46 Ibid.

47 Woodhouse wine was sent to the United States perhaps two decades before Ingham's wine appeared there (John Woodhouse to John Woodhouse, Jr., Marsala, March 21, 1805, letterbook copy, Florio Archives), but the sales were small and the product was not aggressively pushed.

48 Letters written from the United States by Benjamin Ingham, Jr., are to be found in the Florio Archives, in the Fiorino Collection, among the Corning Papers, and in the possession of Miss Brooke.

49 Citrus fruit as an item of export to the United States is mentioned that year for the first time in the reports of the American consul in Palermo to the Secretary of State. These reports are to be found in Consular Letters, Palermo, National Archives.

50 Ingham, Jr., to Ingham, Boston, Dec. 22, 1834, Fiorino Collection.

51 Ingham, Jr., to Ingham, New York or Boston, Jan., 1835, Fiorino Collection. (The heading of this letter has been destroyed but it is clear from the contents that it was written from one of the indicated cities very early in 1835.)

52 Extract of the principal contents of a letter from Ingham, Jr., to Ingham, Boston, May 31, 1834, appended to a letter from Ingham to Joseph Whitaker, Harrowgate, England, July 24, 1834; Ingham, Jr., to Ingham, Boston, Feb. 13, 1836: Florio Archives.

53 Draper & Devlin to Ingham & Whitaker, New York, May 3, 1862, copy in the Florio Archives.

54 Barclay & Livingston to B. Ingham & Co., New York, Feb. 14, 1837, Florio Archives. A note added to this letter in the handwriting of Joseph Whitaker states, ”… I have great hopes, this House will be able to introduce our wine into more general Notice in the New York Market, as from all accts they sell more Wine, sale on Commission, than any other ten houses there….”

55 Livingston, who was born in 1803, entered the employ of Henry & George Barclay when he was 16 years old. In 1824, when he came of age, he was accepted as a partner in the firm, but the name remained unchanged until 1834, when it became Barclay & Livingston. (Scoville, Joseph A., The Old Merchants of New York City [New York, 1899], Vol. II, pp. 72–73Google Scholar.) In describing Livingston, one of his fellow merchants, who usually displayed no scruples in discussing his neighbors' weaknesses, said, “He thoroughly understood his business. He never neglected it. He was careful, prudent and just….” (Ibid., p. 74.)

56 Ingham & Whitaker to Luigi Monti, Palermo, April 12, 1863, copy in Consular Letters, Palermo, Vol. IV, National Archives.

57 Barclay & Livingston to B. Ingham & Co., New York, June 10, 1850. A letter of Nov. 2, 1857, from Barclay & Livingston to Ingham & Whitaker acknowledged a credit of £5,000 with Heath & Co., to be used for investments in the United States. Both letters are in the Florio Archives.

58 See footnote 48. The records of the Ingham concern in Palermo were completely destroyed in the Second World War, while those at the baglio in Marsala were partially destroyed. The remaining records in Marsala are now in the Florio Archives.

59 Barclay & Livingston to Ingham & Whitaker, New York, May 6, 1862, copy in the Florio Archives. In 1865 William Cunliffe Pickersgill (1844–1868), a partner in the firm of W. C. Pickersgill & Co., married Sophia Whitaker, one of the daughters of Joseph Whitaker of Palermo. (Riggs, John Beverley, The Riggs Family of Maryland [Baltimore, 1939], pp. 298–299Google Scholar.) Pickersgill & Co. did not assume the management of the large land holdings in Michigan which were a legacy from Ingham's Sault Canal venture. Erastus Corning had always managed these together with his own and he continued to do so. After Corning's death in 1872, his son, Erastus Corning, Jr., took over the management of the Ingham lands. (Corning to W. C. Pickersgill & Co., Albany, Sept. 21, 1863; Nov. 6, 1869; Corning, Jr., to Townsend Fondey, Albany, July 31, 1873: Corning Papers.)

60 W. C. Pickersgill & Co. to Ingham & Whitaker, New York, July 5, July 8, 1862, Florio Archives.

61 W. C. Pickersgill & Co. to Ingham & Whitaker, New York, Nov. 4, 1862, Florio Archives. During the 1860's Pickersgill & Co. was remitting funds to Heath & Co. of London for the credit of Ingham & Whitaker. A letter of August 5, 1864, for instance, announces the transfer of £800 to the London house for the benefit of the Palermo firm. (Pickersgill & Co. to Ingham & Whitaker.) This is but one of several letters conveying similar news which are to be found in the Florio Archives. In the same place there is also a number of communications from Heath & Co., confirming the receipt of American remittances.

62 Circular dated at Palermo, June 2, 1851, signed by B. Ingham, Florio Archives.

63 “Few Sicilians” an observer had lamented in 1836, “carry on commerce with great energy. The major part of the profits springing from this activity goes into the hands of foreign merchants.” (E. Estiller, “Sul commercio di Sicilia,” in Giornale di Statistica, Vol. I [1836], p. 173Google Scholar, quoted in Romeo, Il Risorgimento in Sicilia, p. 204. The translation is by the present writer.) In 1839 the exportation of sulphur, Sicily's leading article of foreign commerce, was monopolized by some 15 English firms, while the wine trade, second in importance, was dominated by “the great British merchant-entrepreneurs of Marsala.” (Ibid., pp. 204–205.) By the 1850's the pre-eminence of the British merchants was being challenged by Sicilian houses, most notably that of Vincenzo Florio.

64 Ingham to John Goodwin, Palermo, Aug. 27, 1860, copy in F. O. 70/322, Public Record Office, London. In 1854 the Ingham establishment at Marsala employed 160 men and 30 boys under 16 years of age. (“Le manifatture ed Industrie existenti nella provincia di Trapani nell anno 1854,” in Dir. Centr. di Stat., fascio 147, Archives of State, Palermo.) However, large quantities of wine were purchased from the peasants and merely “improved,” stored, and prepared for shipment at the baglio, so the true number of persons dependent upon the Marsala establishment was far greater than the quoted figure would indicate.

65 Mary Tidman to her sister, Palermo, Jan. 24–31, 1852, in Tidman, In Sicily, p. 21.

66 SirMundy, George Rodney, H. M. S. “Hannibal” at Palermo and Naples, during the Italian Revolution, 1859–61. With Notices of Garibaldi, Francis II, and Victor Emmanuel (London, 1863), p. 89Google Scholar.

67 See Filiberto, Ignazio, Relazione del Viaggio del Brigantino Palermitano Eliza da Palermo a Sumatra, Toccanda Boston (Palermo, 1839).Google Scholar

68 Whitaker, Whitaker of Hesley Hall … and Palermo, p. 33.

69 In October, 1841, the British consul in Palermo reported to the Foreign Office: “A Petition to the King [of the Two Sicilies], praying for the total removal of the Sulphur Duty, has received the signatures of many Mine owners and Merchants.… The only English name which appears on the list is that of Mr. Ingham. The other British Merchants have declined signing, as the petition professes to come from Sicilian subjects.” (John Goodwin to William Temple, Palermo, Oct. 25, 1841, F. O. 165/99, Public Record Office, London.)

70 Whitaker-Scalia, Sicily & England, pp. 138–139. At the time of his marriage in 1837 Ingham was in his 53rd year. His intimate association with the Duchess, however, seems to have predated the marriage by some years, for his only biographer (herself a member of the Ingham clan by marriage), writes that Ingham chose the occasion of his marriage to “regularize his position” with “his friend” the Duchess, who was a member of the Spadafora family, one of the most important families in Sicily. (Whitaker-Scalia, Benjamin Ingham, p. 18.)

71 Ibid., p. 28. Ingham's principal heir was his great-nephew, William Ingham Whitaker, the second son of Joseph Whitaker. W. I. Whitaker left Sicily in 1877, settling at Pylewell Park, an estate which he purchased near Lymington, in Southampton, England. (Ibid., pp. 28–29; Whitaker, Whitaker of Hesley Hall … and Palermo, pp. 19–20.)

72 Whitaker-Scalia, Benjamin Ingham, pp. 30, 32.

73 When Rear-Admiral Mundy suggested on May 22, 1860, that the English residents of Palermo board a British ship in the harbor, Ingham, then a venerable 76, alone refused to do so. “He felt convinced the Royal troops would be able to maintain order….” But five days later, when a cutter was “specially told off to convey himself and family to the ‘Hannibal’,” he changed his mind. Then it was too late, and he had to “pay the penalty of his previous obstinacy,” for battle broke out before arrangements could be made to leave. Although fighting in the immediate neighborhood was severe, the Ingham villa was respected by both sides. (Mundy, H. M. S. “Hannibal” at Palermo and Naples…, pp. 89, 111–112, 128, 173–174.)