Description:

CHINA TRADING COMPANIES LETTER ARCHIVE
Good group of nine A.L.S.s (one a retained copy) and one manuscript document, all related to the trading activities of the G.T. Smiessen Company and the Schwemann Company of Canton. Each letter is addressed to Frederick Huth & Co., a London bank, and all were sent from Canton between January 26 and October 26, 1850. The unsigned manuscript document is the earliest item present, and is dated at Shanghai, Nov. 17, 1849. It contains a partial list of goods being imported and exported between Shanghai and England; the company receives imports of various consumer goods, including "shirtings" and "woollens", and exports several varieties of raw silk and teas. It also gives loading instructions for the export goods and the exchange rate. The letters themselves, of which six are executed by G.T. Smiessen, with the balance signed "Schwemann & Co.", contain a variety of interesting content related to China and the products exported from there, with great detail on the specific state of the markets for individual goods. The writers talk of a great variety of local market factors, including the conversion of many cassia (cinnamon) plantations to tea production, due to low prices caused by a monopoly on the cassia trade, and the resulting shortfall in stocks of the spice. These regular market reports would have been of great importance to a bank such as Frederick Huth, which invested heavily in this overseas trade. Also of interest is a line in the letter dated March 28, in part: "... The Emperor of China, Taokwang, died on the 28th inst aged 70 years and after a reign of 30 years..." Each letter bears folds, with minor age toning, else very good. Smiessen & Co. was founded in Canton in 1848, trading in cassia, tea, silk and opium. It expanded to Shanghai in 1855. Schwemann & Co. appears to be operating as its own independent trading company, but in the China Directory of 1863, G.W. Schwemann is listed as an employee of Smiessen, indicating a merger.

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