Description:

Boston and New York Cotton Mercantile Firms 23 items Discuss International Commerce on Eve of Panic of 1837. Great Slavery Association

This series of letters to Abraham Bell & Company from N. F. Cunningham & Company of Boston details joint ventures in international commerce, ship owning, and real estate speculation. They were specifically involved in the transportation and sale of cotton from the American South to Liverpool, England.

Many northern shipping companies, including Abraham Bell & Company, purchased southern cotton, grown on plantations by slave labor, and shipped them to England to fuel British textile mills. This trade made southern planters extremely wealthy but also brought profits to northern shipping companies and buyers and speculators in the British Isles. By the 1850s, southern planters and politicians believed that cotton was king and was a global necessity. By the late 1850s, the American South supplied 77 percent of the cotton consumed in Great Britain, 90 percent of that consumed in France, and similar percentages for the German states and Russia.

[SLAVERY.] Archive of Correspondence to Abraham Bell & Company, 1835-1844, Boston, Massachusetts. 23 documents, 26 pp., most 7.75" x 9.75". Expected folds; very good.

Excerpts
- N. F. Cunningham & Co. to Abraham Bell & Co., January 7, 1836, Boston, Massachusetts:
"the Insurance for 3 mos. covers any property you may have in the Store, not exceeding the sum insured. The cotton now in it can be exchanged with the term for other goods, of equal value without prejudice to the insurance."

- N. F. Cunningham & Co. to Abraham Bell & Co., January 8, 1836, Boston, Massachusetts:
"Mr. Child has proposed to us to take a joint interest with you in Lands to be purchased in Mississippi or elsewhere to amount of 5000$. At the Govt price [platted?] by a competent agent we dare say the speculation will turn out a profitable one. But we have no surplus funds to spare for such an investment & must decline a participation in it.
"The Bark Noble from London today brings one day later. It is mentioned in the papers brought, that levys were going on in France to man their navy. This is attributed in the English papers to the state of affairs with this country."
In his seventh annual message to Congress, delivered in December 1835, President Andrew Jackson criticized the French government for its refusal to pay 25 million francs for damages to American shipping during the Napoleonic Wars. Although the two nations reached an agreement in 1831, the French Chamber of Deputies repeatedly refused to make appropriations for payments. When Jackson first addressed the issue in his 1834 annual message and sought permission to make reprisals on French property, the French withdrew their ambassador. In this message a year later, Jackson revised an original draft that was bellicose and assured France that he meant no offense but refused to apologize or to permit foreign influence to affect how he communicated with Congress. Soon after this message, the French authorized payments, and the crisis abated.

- N. F. Cunningham & Co. to Abraham Bell & Co., June 8, 1836, Boston, Massachusetts:
"Our opinion is that the Emerald should be sent to Liverpool & there coppered. The cost will be very much less & from the experience we have had, we believe the English copper to be nearly as good as the American.
"Put in 2 or 300 bales cotton by all means on ships a/c if to be had at 16 to 17...."
Navies and merchants protected the hulls of their wooden vessels from attack by shipworm, barnacles, and other marine growth by adding a thin layer of copper sheathing to the hull below the waterline. Because coppering was expensive, only better merchant ship owners could afford to use copper sheathing, but their better performance allowed for lower insurance premiums.

- N. F. Cunningham & Co. to Abraham Bell & Co., October 7, 1836, Boston, Massachusetts:
"We are indeed surprised at the result of the Emerald’s first voyage. We have been flattering ourselves she would make $10,000 at least. We are of opinion she should be sold, even should she bring but $35,000 rather than send her cotton freighting again, which would we believe eventuate in a [?] loss to the owners. We say 35,000, But we think she would bring more."

- N. F. Cunningham & Co. to Abraham Bell & Co., November 18, 1836, Boston, Massachusetts:
"We have never known the times appear so squally as now. The rate of interest is enormously high—that is enough to ruin merchants of moderate means, who borrow it—in a short term--& we can see no prospect of a change for the better."

- N. F. Cunningham & Co. to Abraham Bell & Co., December 28, 1836, Boston, Massachusetts:
"If the Emerald can obtain 1500£ for a freight of goods to New York from Liverpool it may do to order her to return to the latter port. But for no less a sum. Passengers in the steerage should be prohibited. They injure a good ship more than their passage comes to."

- N. F. Cunningham & Co. to Abraham Bell & Co., March 28, 1837, Boston, Massachusetts:
"We have very little confidence in cotton, at such prices as will most likely be current at Mobile this & the next month."

- N. F. Cunningham & Co. to Abraham Bell & Co., May 19, 1837, Boston, Massachusetts:
"Money will soon be plentiful, & we are happy to hear Toulmin, Hazard & Co. are making arrangements to go on. The late suspension will aid their object, as it will enable the Banks to approve all the reasonable assistance wanted."
The Panic of 1837, a financial crisis in the United States, touched off a major depression that lasted until the mid-1840s. The Panic culminated from a variety of factors, including speculative lending, a decline in cotton prices (falling 25 percent in February-March 1837), a collapsing land bubble, international specie flows, and restrictive lending policies in Great Britain. The lack of a central bank, after President Andrew Jackson refused to extend the charter of the Second Bank of the United States also contributed to the collapse, which came to a head on May 10, 1837, when banks in New York City ran out of gold and silver and suspended specie payment.

- N. F. Cunningham & Co. to Abraham Bell & Co., October 12, 1837, Boston, Massachusetts:
"We have your favours of 4 & 10 Ins, latter with the Emeralds a/c 2 Voyage. The result is not so favourable as we hoped it would be. We will examine & report upon it in a few days. We trust the owners will be in favour of loading the ship on freight hereafter."

Abraham Bell & Company was a shipping firm established in New York City by Irish-born Quaker Abraham Bell (1778-1856). The business operated several transatlantic routes and shipped a wide variety of goods, including cotton and linens. In 1844, Bell changed the name of his company to Abraham Bell & Son. In the late 1840s, during the Irish famine, the company assisted in the transportation of immigrants to America.

N. F. Cunningham & Company was a mercantile firm established by Nathaniel Fellows Cunningham (1770-1841) in Boston, Massachusetts.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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