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“On Liberal Terms:” The Boston Hide-Merchants in California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Bruno Fritzsche
Bruno Fritzsche
Affiliation:
University of Zurich
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Abstract

From Dana's Two Years before the Mast, a vast literary audience has read of the activities of Boston hide-traders in California during the 1840's. But Dana's understanding of the business of which he was a small part was far less accurate than his knowledge of ships and the sea. This gap is now filled by Dr. Fritzsche's analysis of the mechanics and profitability of the trade.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , Winter 1968 , pp. 467 - 481
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1968

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References

1 For a concise history of California, see Caughey, John W., California (2nd. ed., Englewood Cliffs, 1953)Google Scholar.

2 For a detailed account of the California hide and tallow business, see Ogden, Adele, “Hides and Tallow: McCulloch, Hartnell and Company 1822–1828,” California Historical Society Quarterly VI (1927), 254–64Google Scholar; “Boston Hide-Droghers along the California Shores,” ibid., VIII (1929), 289–305.

3 Smith, Dorothy B., (ed.), Sir James Douglas in California: From his diaries. (Vancouver 1965), 22Google Scholar.

4 The business papers of both Bryant, Sturgis & Company and William Appleton & Company are in possession of the Baker Library, Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, Boston, Mass. The two collections will be referred to in the notes as Bryant Papers and Appleton Papers, respectively.

5 Dana, Richard H., Two Years before the Mast (New York, 1840), chapt. XVIIIGoogle Scholar.

6 Appleton Papers, vol. 118, Henry Mellus to Appleton, Dec. 24, 1842; ibid., vol. 4.

7 See Tables 1 and 2.

8 Appleton Papers, vols. 2, 4, 22, 23, 29, 118.

9 These expenses with interest did not amount to much. In Table 2 they are included in “Other expenditures.”

10 Appleton Papers, vol. 118, Henry Mellus to Appleton, Dec. 24, 1842; ibid., vol. 84, Henry Mellus to Appleton, March 31, 1843.

11 Ibid., vol. 23; Bryant Papers, vol. 7.

12 Appleton Papers, vol. 84, Henry Mellus to Appleton, Jan. 25, 1846.

13 Ibid., vol. 118.

14 Ibid., vol. 118, Henry Mellus to Appleton, Dec. 24, 1842.

15 Bryant Papers, vol. 11, Bryant to Capt. Arthur, June 11, 1838.

16 Appleton Papers, vol. 118; ibid., vol. 22, p. 163.

17 Dana, loc. cit.

18 Appleton Papers, vol. 84, Henry Mellus to Appleton, Nov. 28, 1843.

19 Bancroft, Hubert H., History of California (San Francisco, 1884–1890), III, 381ff.Google Scholar; ibid., IV, 100ff. and 562ff.; ibid., V, 576ff. Also, Davis, William H., Seventy-five Years in California (San Francisco, 1929), 255–56.Google Scholar

20 Bryant Papers, vol. 11, Bryant to Henry Mellus, Jan. 20, 1840, and Bryant to A. Robinson, July 13, 1841

21 Boston Shipping List; also Shipping and Commercial List and New York Price Current of the corresponding years

22 See e.g. Bryant Papers, vol. 11, Bryant to Thos. B. Park, May 2, 1838.