1838 MAGOUN & SON BOSTON BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE FROM ANTWERP

Description

[1838 MAGOUN & SON BOSTON BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE FROM ANTWERP]
MAGOUN & SON, BOSTON:
4-page notice and letter
, 8-1/2” x 10-1/2” with folds as mailed partly typescript form letter and partly handwritten letter dated August 15, 1838, unstamped ship’s letter, notice to T. Magoun & Son, Boston, from Antwerp, Belgium, the four pages are:
(i)
handwritten address “Messrs. T. Magoun & Son, Boston” with Antwerp return address, date, and name of firm;
(ii)
form letter to T. Magoun & Son (handwritten) announcing that the firm “Mertens, Mosselman, & Co.” is resuming business after having liquidated in 1832 with the intention of so resuming at a “more favourable period by the junior branches of the families”;
(iii, left inside page)
handwritten letter dated Antwerp August 25, 1838, to Magoun & Son, Boston, reading in part, “Gentlemen: At the recommendation of our mutual friend
Baring Bros. & Co. of London
we beg leave to refer
you to the
circulars and to offer you our best services…The demands for Sugars have become more active within these few days [continues with prices for different types including “Manilla, which is scarce”]…Coffee goes off to supply the wants of consumption [continues with prices for a couple of kinds, and continues similarly for cotton, rice, U. S. potatoes, Sumatra pepper, whale oil, and tobacco mentioning particularly Virginia and Kentucky tobacco]…We shall take pleasure in giving you the information you may particularly require of our market.”;
(iv, inside right page)
printed form letter, reading in part, “Sirs, Although retired from business myself, I take the liberty of introducing to your notice the new establishment…I beg to solicit your kind patronage in their favour…[handsigned] Mosselman De Hette [?]”;
one-of—kind business communication
bringing together three major international trading firms of the 19th century in different countries
/// POINTS OF INTEREST:
Magoun & Son
, Boston, founded by
Thatcher Magoun
(1776-1856), a shipbuilder in Medford, MA; the firm shortly became a
highly successful mercantile firm operating out of Boston actively trading in ports throughout the world for much of the nineteenth century and having business relationships with major banking and import-export firms in Europe (online sources);
Mertens, Mosselman & Co.
, Antwerp, Belgium, established in 1838 on the basis of work, reputation, and relationships of associates and forerunners over roughly the previous decade was a major firm not only in international trading, but also financial matters regarding Belgian colonization in Africa (online sources);
Baring Brothers & Co.
, Baring Bank
was a British merchant bank based in London, and the world’s second-oldest merchant bank after Berenberg Bank, Baring's close collaborator and German representative. It was founded in 1762 by Francis Baring, a British-born member of the German-British Baring family of merchants and bankers…The new partnership [formed in 1804] was called Baring Brothers & Co., which it remained until 1890…The bank collapsed in 1995 after suffering losses of £827 million (£1.6 billion in 2019)
[
resulting from fraudulent investments, primarily in futures contracts…" (wikipedia)
/// CONDITION:
mainly well-preserved on lighter paper for international mail, but weak along the folds for mailing with some limited loss and small hole (about the size of a dime) where stamp was removed by a previous owner with the loss of parts of two words on page iii.
keywords: historical business correspondence, international commerce, Boston shipping merchant, 19th century business