by Elise Nuding
Full image collection of the Account Book
1784: Facing the legacy of the Revolutionary War
On 20th August, 1784, the brig Washington was docked in Copenhagen, as documented by an official summary of the voyage’s disbursements. The Washington’s visit to Holland is indicative of the expanding trade with the Baltic region that occurred as a result of the Revolutionary War with Britain. With many pre-war channels of trade closed or limited due to British monopoly, American merchants searched for new opportunities in the Baltic, and eventually China and the Indies. During the war Holland was keen to establish trading links with the newly established United States and in May 1783 there were 21 Dutch ships moored in the Philadelphia harbour (Hedges, Vol. 1, p.240).
Rhode Island had been affected by the war as documented in 1784 by Fenning and Collyer in A New System of Geography (RIHS Collections Quarterly, Vol. XVI No. 1, January 1923, p.20). Although describing Providence as “a thriving town, with a considerable trade”, the authors observed that the colony as a whole
hath suffered greatly in the present contest with Great Britain; it was early subdued by a detachment from general Howe’s army, whilst American forces have made frequent descents. In 1778, the count d’ Estaing attacked the island by sea, whilst an army, commanded by general Sullivan made an assault by land; but both these assailants were obliged to desist.
In Providence, the Browns and other inhabitants, felt the presence of the war, with French troops under the command of the Comte de Rochambeau stationed in the town from 1780-82. The presence of the troops taxed the economic resources of Providence, with numerous claims of compensation made to the Town by individuals who had put up French officers, or had their land used by the army. The Browns were among those affected, with Rochambeau’s aides being lodged at Nicholas Brown’s house, and the Baron de Viomenil and his aides at Joseph Brown’s house(RIHS Collections Quarterly, Vol. XVII, No.1, January 1924, p.13). By 1784 the war was over, but the aftermath was a post-war economic depression. Hedges refers to the immediate post-war years as the ‘Critical Period’, and describes Brown and Benson encountering difficulties with their London trade in 1784 (Hedges, Vol. 1, p.298). The partnership had been founded in 1783 with an economic enthusiasm for post-war trade, and the misplaced confidence cost all of the Brown brothers, and their partners, heavily. The brig Washington’s voyage to Copenhagen in 1784 was one of the voyages made in an attempt to overcome the “financial embarrassment” (Hedges, Vol2, p.39/40) of the Critical Period.
The Bureaucracy of Shipping
The document examined from B.671 F.3 in the John Carter Brown Library is an account book summarising the disbursements for the voyage. The detailed accounting gives an insight into the bureaucracy of merchant shipping, and the different hierarchy of people involved in the business. The document would have been written up by a clerk, and several copies were made for distribution to the appropriate persons, and to ensure that they made it across the oceans. In the collection at the JCB, there were two other copies of the booklet in Folder 3, both unfinished where clerks seemed to have not been required to complete them. One of the booklets contains a few pages of the disbursements, and then has two pages of handwriting practice in a pleasing insight into the details of scribing.
The Browns had numerous partner companies in all parts of the world whom they had agreements with, and relied on for the business transactions in foreign ports. The account book refers to the company responsible for the business at the Copenhagen end, Silby Dungan & Thompson, who are mentioned in all the transactions, and who it is recorded received £15673/1/4d on 9th September, 1784 for their efforts.
An insight to the complexity of global currency is given by the inside of the front cover. The booklet in Folder 3 is the more complete of the three versions, however it is missing this page. Fortunately, it is preserved on the copy in Folder 5. It contains a “memorandum of weights & currency at Copenhagen”. Listed are the exchange rates for lispounds, shippounds, and the Dutch ‘Rix Dollar’, as well as length conversions from Danish to English units. All of these conversions would have been done by hand for all the transactions, in what seems like an overwhelmingly complicated task.
‘Ship’d on board’: Cargo of the ‘Brigg Washington’
The account book details the cargo for the ship, which can be divided into commercial cargo, and provisions. The supplies required for the voyage are detailed, with practicalities such as the ‘Ropemaker’s Bill’ and the cost of “Sewing Twine” listed, as well as a “Bucher’s Bill”.
Later on in the booklet, a “Memorandum of Expenditure of Provisions on board Brigg Washington” is kept, written sideways on the page to save paper, keeping track of the amount of provisions consumed every month. These invoices reveal the practical workings of running a merchant ship that often get forgotten when looking at eighteenth century trade on a macro scale.
The cargo that was taken on board in Copenhagen to be sold on in New England is a mix of consumer goods and raw materials for industry. The biggest component of the cargo was Bohea tea, the most commonly imported black tea in England and the United States. An invoice of “one hundred and twenty light chests of Bohea tea” is recorded, along with “three chests of Hison tea”, a green tea. The rest of the invoice consists of iron in various forms: flat squares, and ¾”, 1”, and 1 ½” bars of bolt iron. The iron only comes to £998/3/d, and the tea accounts for the rest of the £14590/1/10d in expenses, revealing that the real money for the shipping firms lay in providing American society with luxuries rather than in the trade of raw goods for industry. Brown, Rogers & Brown proudly announce their wholesale of such goods “at their Shop, next Northward of the Dwelling-House of Nicholas Brown Esq.”in the Providence Gazette of 11th June, 1785 with an advertisement on the back page (John Hay Library, annexed collections). Amongst the items “also for sale” at the bottom is “excellent Bohea tea, by the Chest, Hundred, or Dozen.”
From ‘Mastr’ to ‘Saylor’: Individuals on ‘Brigg Washington’
There are several individuals mentioned who get debited in the account book, and seem to be investors, or partners in the voyage. Peleg Clarke is referred to several times, mentioned as one of those whom the cargo is “on account of”, and as a mediator between the Washington and the firm of Silby Dungan & Thompson.
The page headed “Debit Peleg Clarke To Adventures on Board Brigg Washington in a Voyage to Copenhagen”, includes a variety of commissions he received on the cargo of the ship. He, as well as others, seems to have done well in the lucrative business of shipping. An insight into the master of the ship is provided by the invoice of Captain Gardner’s Bill. A breakdown of all the costs incurred by the captain is included in the disbursements, ranging from mundane expenses such as lamp oil and “nales”, to the cost of pilotage between Elsinore and Copenhagen, to the reoccurring expense of 2s. “to officers for indulgence”. The date each expense was added is included in the margins, suggesting that the original of this document was a work in progress, extended and added to as the voyage unfolded.
This alteration and updating of the records is also seen in the portage bill. This documents the enrollment and wages of the crew, listing the master (captain), the mate, six ‘sailors’, and the boy Audley Clarke. Whether he is a relation of Peleg Clarke who’s name keeps reoccurring is unknown. The orderliness of the account book is interrupted by the tiny lettering ‘lost over board Sept. 30th’ next to William Brown’s name, and by the addition of ‘Peter’ enrolled on 1st October after the totals for the ‘amount per month’ and’ advanced wages’ had already been tallied. The totals for the ‘time on board’, ‘total wages’ and ‘wages due’ must have been left blank until the end of the voyage as ‘Peter’ is included in those calculations. This indicates that the document was revisited, and reveals the prolonged creation process of the records. The details of the crew add a personal perspective to the records, and reveal some of the operations of the General Washington. The portage bill informs us that the crew was not extensive, that the ship must have docked somewhere in order to replace William Brown, and the wages the sailors received puts the value of the cargo into perspective. The precise account keeping seen in the rest of the document extends to the treatment of the people on board, and gives us an insight into the bureaucracy of eighteenth century mercantile capitalism.
Bibliography
Hedges, James, The Browns of Providence Plantations: The Colonial Years. Providence, Brown University Press, 1968
Hedges, James, The Browns of Providence Plantations: The Nineteenth Century. Providence, Brown University Press, 1968.
Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, 1923-24
Primary Sources
"Disbursements, invoices, sales, seamen's accounts, 1784", B.671 F.3, John Carter Brown Library, Brown University
"Disbursements, invoices, sales, seamen's accounts, 1784", B.671 F.5, John Carter Brown Library, Brown University
Providence Gazette, 11th June, 1785, John Hay Library Annex, Brown University, Call Number 3-SIZE AN P9 G2
Back to Social Contexts | Historical Climate and Connections: Shipping and the Browns
