User:JordanJosephM/sandbox

California Hide Trade Outline

I. Process of Trade

- In this section, I wanted to trace the exchange of goods, starting with the hides’ origins in California from the hands o to their destination for leather shoe manufacture in Boston. I will discuss the other goods, such as horses, tallow, furs, sea otter pelts, and others, that were traded along the network, where they were from, where they arrived, and their societal importance, as well. I wanted to discuss also aspects of prices, amounts, and inter-good competition and relative importance to various parts of the world, highlighting how the trade served the needs of the network destinations of its goods. I will include information about the significance of the barter system used in exchange, as well as unique methods of traders contributed to the distinct success of the trade, such as storing hides in San Diego for the sake of economic expedience.

II. Hubs of Influence

- In this section, I wanted to talk about the various cities involved, including the prominence of Boston, and cities up and down the coast of the Americas, including Monterey, Santa Barbara, San Pedro, and San Diego, and how the trade contributed to their growth and economies. Furthermore, I wanted to include some information about companies which had a hand in the trade, including Bryant, Sturgis and Company, for instance. Overall, this section will discuss the expansion of power, and which players in the trade exercised the most influence over time, discussing the growth in prominence of the US with regard to other nations.

III. International Political Ramifications and Multicultural Interaction

Next, I wanted to discuss how the trade contributed significantly to the process of cultural interaction. Indeed, the California Hide Trade provided a great venue for contact between various and widespread ethnic groups, including whites from Europe and the United States, Mexican and Californian Hispanics, Russians, and Native Americans. I will explain the importance of the established California missions and the essential service of priests in the trade. I will also discuss the importance of intermarriage between sailors, businessmen, and local political families regarding the trade. Furthermore, I wanted to identify in depth the relationships between the various countries impacted by the trade, including Mexico, the United Kingdom with its connections to Hawaii, the United States through Boston, Russia and Fort Ross, Chile, Peru, and China.

IV. External Impacts made on and by the Trade

In this section, I wanted to talk finally about significant events that impacted the Trade and resulted in its unique modus operandi, including Mexican Independence and its impact with regard to legislation introduced regarding the trade, for instance. Lastly, I wanted to discuss the impacts of the Trade on the world at large, including, for instance, how the trade contributed to California becoming part of the United States. Overall, this section focuses on the importance of the trade in the world at large, and how the American West was shaped by its existence. JordanJosephM (talk) 20:26, 13 April 2013 (UTC) JordanJosephM (talk) 17:14, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Comments

Joe--This outline reflects a lot of thought on your part about the role of the hide trade in the nation and the world. So good work on the research. But be careful not to write a paper on the subject rather than an encylopedia article, that is, you're not supposed to develop a thesis here, but rather summarize existing knowledge about the trade. If you want to make a point about, for instance, the role of the hide trade in the US conquest of CA or its dominance in the Pacific, you'll need to frame this as an argument made by another author. Also, make sure you have an introductory paragraph that provides a few sentences on the who, where, what, when of the trade. If you can find any maps showing the routes of these traders, that would be a helpful feature.Docjay57 (talk) 16:49, 8 March 2013 (UTC)

California Hide Trade Article Rough Draft

Below, I've placed my rough draft, though I've kept the outline just as a reference point to look back on just in case. I still intend to add perhaps one or two more additions two the writing, including some informative details about seasons, price, Native Americans, and the influences of other port cities and products, assuming one might find them welcome changes. I also definitely intend to place at least one map of sorts as a picture. I also intend to refine my citations, though I've kept them in parentheses for the time being.

I. Introduction

The California Hide Trade was a vast trading system of various products based in cities along the California coastline, operating from the early 1820s to the mid 1840s. The trade encompassed cities extending from Canton in China to Lima in Peru to Boston, involving a slew of nations such as Russia, Mexico, the United States, and the United Kingdom. In this process, sailors and ranchers representing corporations swapped hides and tallow procured from cattle on their way to Boston and other cities for finished goods of all kinds on their way to California. (Davis 256)

II. Process of Trade

The vast reaching California Hide Trade began humbly with the making of its eponymous products, hide and tallow, during the early nineteenth century in 1810. Region-based rancheros and affluent cattle farmers known as vaqueros cared for free-ranging livestock at their homes along the Californian seaboard with the help of a Native American workforce, the cattle which would become the ultimate source of their food, economy and livelihood. The often overabundant hides of the cattle were taken near the shore and the remaining fat from the cattle was liquefied and separated, thus creating tallow, collected in repositories crafted from hides. Both goods would be stockpiled near hub cities like San Diego and Monterey to await being bought by international trading vessels. Hides and tallow would need first to be cured, cleaned, stretched, dried in the summer sun, salted, and folded, a long and tedious process, completed by sailors themselves along with Native Hawaiian Kanaka peoples, together called ‘“droghers”’. Then, the dried hides would be taken from stocks, loaded painstakingly onto boats and rowed to a ship which might be three miles away. The hides, after this process, would be shipped to the eastern United States on vessels bound for Boston and the American Northeast, where they would be crafted for use into leather-based goods like shoes and boots. The tallow, on the other hand, would be taken on vessels to South American countries such as Peru and Chile where it would be used to create candles and soap. A tariff system charging up to 15,000 pesos enacted by the Mexican government would be paid at the coastal city of Monterey which allowed trading vessels to buy and sell goods up and down the California shore. Predominantly American vessels, which negotiated high tariffs on their payloads via honest or dishonest means, often saw returns three times the value of the cargo which they brought. On the other hand of the trade, Californians were able to purchase any number of manufactured products from trading ships, notably described by the traveler Richard Henry Dana as “floating department stores”. Various products purchased by Californians proved to be diverse and significant, many being finished goods not fabricated in the region, including silk, wine, sugar, lace, cotton, hats, horses, clothes, cutlery and tea from abroad. (Bean 70,71,75,76). (Malloy 80,88) (Caughey 168,169,178,179,180) (Gibson 260) (Rolle 115,116,136) (Davis 8,35,36)

III. Hubs of Influence

By the mid 1820s, the Hide and Tallow Trade facilitated by Spanish missions and their clergy and later private ranches represented the key profitable industry in California, taxes on their primary products propping up the regional economy and infrastructure. Major cities such as San Diego, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Pedro, and Monterey would grow to prominence and success in California as instrumental ports of commerce. Copious, prepared hides were taken onto Bostonian ships in California which embarked on several trips three to four months long, sailing up and down the California shoreline arriving and trading at cities, stocking purchased hides in San Diego until over 35,000 hides had been gathered for the return journey. Some ventures could take as many as three years for one conscripted ship. Goods from the trade would reach various corners of the globe including Canton in the Far East, Lima in South America, and Boston in New England. Hawaiian ports of Honolulu and Oahu existed as significant destinations and ports of call along the way to California, China, and other destinations such as the Russian ports, Fort Ross and Sitka, and the Sandwich Islands as well. Hawaii itself, under British sovereignty, existed as a great hub of trade, providing unique goods such as tobacco which could be sold in California and elsewhere, while also becoming a save haven in the winter for ships engaged in the hide trade. Canton in China provided a market for seal and otter skins procured earlier in the century on the California coast before the hide trade itself came to its most successful stages. Fort Vancouver, another British protectorate, provided a key jumping point to the California coast as the Hudson Bay Company came to power. The geographical extent of the trade grew to become a global enterprise. (Bean 65,70,74,75) (Malloy 76,80,96,124) (Caughey 167,178) (Gough 36,41) (Gibson 260,261) (Davis 31,153,154,204)

IV. International Political Ramifications and Multicultural Interactions

The Hide Trade proved to gain momentum and come to its ultimate fruition as a result of Mexican Independence, individual ranches replacing missions during Mexico’s secularization era in the 1820s. Large ranches increased from twenty to over one thousand by 1840, cattle numbering over one million in the region. Though many nations including Russia and the United Kingdom came and traded along the California coastline at major ports, contributing to this economic growth, the United States of America grew to become the most influential. American business interaction initially began with sailors of New England, who found an interest in the California otter and seal skins industry which drew to a close rapidly after the beginning of the nineteenth century. As hides and tallow replaced seals and otters as the primary products of commerce, corporations such as John Begg and Company of the United Kingdom and Bryant and Sturgis, William Appleton and Company, and Marshall and Wildes of Boston began to demonstrate a vested interest in the hide trade. The John Begg and Company representatives Hugh McCullough and William Hartnell were able to ensure a British influence in the trade for three years beginning 1822, the de facto first year of the enterprise. Competition between the two powers escalated over dominance in the trade, the United States eventually gaining the upper hand. The flourishing corporation of Bryant and Sturgis itself grew to become the most influential private business venture, facilitated by its associate William Gale, taking in four fifths of all hides gotten in California or a number of five hundred thousand. Native Americans such as the Tlingit group often interacted with white traders, at times giving way to positive and negative experiences. Often the natives and whites would trade otter skins as part of the regional system. Other times would witness combat amongst native and whites over tensions regarding resources. Oftentimes, American or British traders and sailors from the east would stay in California, living and intermarrying with Spanish families, becoming some of the first Americans to settle in the region. Stories and accounts of the region such as Richard Henry Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast and Alfred Robinson’s Life in California, seen through the eyes of sailors and voyagers, gave rise to a great fascination and awareness of California the region. Eventually, by the 1840s, the originally booming hide and tallow trade began to diminish in significance, the cause proving to be the overabundance of hides now in the eastern markets of Boston created by the trade itself. (Bean 70,74,75,76) (Malloy 82,91) (Caughey 167,178,179,180,181) (Rolle 115,135,136,137) (Gibson 259,260)

Bibliography

Bean, Walton. “California: An Interpretive History”. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. Print.

Caughey, John Walton. “California”. 2nd ed. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1953. Print. Davis, William Heath. “Seventy-Five Years in California”. San Francisco: John Howell, 1929. Print. Gibson, James R. “Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785-1841”. Seattle: University of Washington Press; Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1992. Print. Gough, Barry M. “The Royal Navy and the Northwest Coast of North America, 1810-1914: A Study of British Maritime Ascendancy”. Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 1971. Print. Malloy, Mary. ‘“Boston Men’ on the Northwest Coast: The American Maritime Fur Trade 1788-1844”. Kingston, Ontario; Fairbanks, Alaska: The Limestone Press, 1998. Print. Rolle, Andrew F. “California: A History”. 2nd ed. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1969. Print. JordanJosephM (talk) 02:22, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

JordanJosephM (talk) 02:23, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Actual Article

The California Hide Trade was a vast trading system of various products based in cities along the California coastline, operating from the early 1820s to the mid 1840s, in turn becoming the most essential constituent of that region’s contemporary economy. The trade encompassed cities extending from Canton in China to Lima in Peru to Boston, involving a slew of nations such as Russia, Mexico, the United States, and the United Kingdom. In this process, sailors from around the globe often representing corporations swapped finished goods of all kinds from Boston and other cities in exchange for tens of thousands of hides (dried animal skins) and tallow (melted animal fat) procured from cattle owned by California ranchers.

Process of Trade

A Californian rancher takes in cattle, a duty that would begin the process of the California Hide Trade.

The vast reaching California Hide Trade began humbly with the making of its eponymous products, hide and tallow, during the early nineteenth century around 1810. Region-based rancheros and affluent cattle farmers known as vaqueros cared for free-ranging livestock at their homes along the Californian seaboard with the help of a Native American workforce, the cattle which would become the ultimate source of their food, many common supplies, economy and livelihood. The often overabundant hides of the cattle were taken near the shore and the remaining fat from the cattle was liquefied and separated, thus creating tallow, collected in repositories crafted from hides known as botas. Both goods would be stockpiled near hub cities like San Diego and Monterey to await being bought by international trading vessels. Hide skins would first need to be cured, cleaned, stretched, dried in the summer sun, whipped, salted, and folded, a long and tedious process, completed by sailors themselves along with the aid of Native Americans and the Hawaiian Kanaka peoples, together called ‘“droghers”’. Then, the dried hides would be taken from the stocks, loaded painstakingly onto boats and rowed to a ship which might be three miles away. The hides, after this process, would be shipped to the eastern United States on vessels bound for Boston and the American Northeast, where they would be crafted for use into leather-based goods like shoes and boots. Constituting the most widely traded good, the California hides were often known as ‘“California banknotes”’ due to their incredible prominence. The tallow, on the other hand, would be taken on vessels to South American countries such as Peru and Chile where it would be used to create candles and soap. In order to take part in the exchange itself, the Mexican government which governed California at this time, instituted an initial fee for foreign ships to pay upon entry into the coastal waters, a fee often manipulated and avoided by trading captains for their benefit through subterfuge and paying off collectors. A tariff system charging up to 15,000 pesos enacted by the Mexican government would be paid at the coastal city of Monterey which allowed trading vessels to buy and sell goods up and down the California shore. To be able to evade the tariff was considered the mark of a professional and a badge of honor by many contemporary captains of the day. Predominantly American vessels, which negotiated high tariffs on their payloads via honest or dishonest means, often saw returns three times the value of the cargo which they brought. On the other hand of the trade, Californians were able to purchase any number of manufactured products from trading ships, notably described by the traveler Richard Henry Dana as ‘“floating department stores”’. Various products purchased by Californians proved to be diverse and significant, many being finished goods not fabricated in the region, including silk, wine, sugar, lace, cotton, hats, horses, clothes, tobacco, cutlery and tea from abroad.

Hubs of Influence

This map effectively illustrates some of the key trading ports which would send vessels to and from the California coast to participate in the trade.

By the mid 1820s, the Hide and Tallow Trade, facilitated by Spanish missions and their clergy and later replaced by private ranches, represented the key profitable industry in California, taxes on their primary products propping up the regional economy and infrastructure. Major cities such as San Diego, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Pedro and Monterey would grow to prominence and success in California as instrumental ports of commerce. Copious, prepared hides were taken onto Bostonian ships in California which sailed up and down the California shoreline, arriving and trading at these cities perhaps for four months at a time. The efficient crew proceeded to stock purchased hides in San Diego until tens of thousands of hides had been gathered over a period of a few years, now having obtained an expedient and suitable count for the return journey. Some round-trip ventures could take as many as three years for one conscripted ship. Goods from the trade would reach various corners of the globe including Canton in the Far East, Lima in Peru in South America, and Boston in New England. Hawaiian ports of Honolulu and Oahu existed as significant destinations and ports of call along the way to California, China, and other destinations such as the Russian ports, Petropavlovsk, Fort Ross and Sitka, and the Sandwich Islands as well. Hawaii itself, under British sovereignty, existed as a great hub of trade, providing unique goods such as tobacco which could be sold in California and elsewhere, while also becoming a safe haven in the winter for ships engaged in the hide trade. Canton in China provided a tempting market for seal and otter skins procured mostly earlier in the century on the California coast before the hide trade itself came to its most fruitful and successful stages before the seal and otter populations started to wane, the skins sometimes fetching over twelve times their original value. Fort Vancouver, another British protectorate, provided a key jumping point to the California coast as the Hudson Bay Company came to power in the area. The geographical extent of the trade grew to become a global enterprise.

International Political Ramifications and Multicultural Interactions

This image depicts the USS Boston, a contemporary vessel the likes of which would be trading in California ports like San Diego, Monterey, and Santa Barbara.

The Hide Trade proved to gain momentum and come to its ultimate fruition as a result of Mexican Independence, individual ranches replacing missions during Mexico’s “secularization” era in the 1820s. Numbers of large ranches increased exponentially by 1840, cattle numbering over one million in the region. Though many nations including Russia and the United Kingdom came and traded along the California coastline at major ports, contributing to this economic growth, the United States of America grew to become the most influential. American business interaction initially began with sailors of New England, who found an interest in the California otter and seal skins industry which diminished in prominence rapidly after the beginning of the nineteenth century. As hides and tallow replaced seals and otters as the primary products of commerce, corporations such as John Begg and Company of the United Kingdom and Bryant and Sturgis, William Appleton and Company, and Marshall and Wildes of Boston began to demonstrate a vested interest in the hide trade. The John Begg and Company representatives Hugh McCullough and William Hartnell were able to ensure a British influence in the trade for three years beginning in 1822, the de facto first year of the enterprise. Competition between the two powers escalated over dominance in the trade, the United States eventually gaining the upper hand. The flourishing corporation of Bryant and Sturgis itself grew to become the most influential private business venture, facilitated by its associate William Gale, taking in four fifths of all hides gotten in California. The influence of Bryant and Sturgis proved so pervasive that locals equated the company’s city of headquarters, Boston, with the entire United States. Thus, American influence in the region can be traced back as far as the 1820s.

California, during the tenure of the successful hide trade, represented a significant crossroads of various cultures, a frontier shaped by diverse peoples from around the world. Native Americans including the Tlingit, Chinook, Kodiak, Haida, Aleut and Tsimshian groups as well as others often interacted with white traders, at times giving way to positive and negative experiences. Often seeking areas where their trade was less prominent, otter-hunting Tlingit Native Americans would board the ships of foreign captains to travel from Alaska elsewhere. Undoubtedly, Tlingit Native Americans benefited from commercial trade, as well, obtaining objects like copper, porcelain, buttons, and dishes that they may not have come upon otherwise. Oftentimes, American or British traders and sailors from the east would stay in California, becoming some of the first Americans to settle in the region, living and intermarrying with Spanish families as a result of Mexico’s relaxed and welcoming laws regarding resident aliens. Eventually, by the 1840s, the originally booming hide and tallow trade began to diminish in significance, the cause proving to be the overabundance of hides now in the eastern markets of Boston created by the trade itself. Stories and accounts of the region such as Richard Henry Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast and Alfred Robinson’s Life in California, seen through the eyes of sailors and voyagers, gave rise to a great fascination and recognition of the California region. Setting an important historical antecedent, the California Hide Trade contributed to a dream of Western promise and success in the minds of the American East which helped inspire droves of immigrants during the Gold Rush, according to the historian John Caughey, who states, “The hide and tallow trade had made California an outpost of New England”. Ultimately, the California Hide Trade set an important precedent which would impact the way the people looked at the West for decades to come. For those interested in further information, The Peabody Essex Museum located in Salem, Massachusetts provides one of many, unique places where one can learn firsthand about the California Hide Trade.

Bibliography

JordanJosephM (talk) 23:10, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

This article was written by Joseph Jordan. JordanJosephM (talk) 23:31, 13 April 2013 (UTC)