On the 11 February 1820 Jonathan Winstanley, a clerk working for the merchant John Begg in the port of Valparaiso in Chile on the Pacific Coast of South America, wrote a letter to his colleague William Hartnell in the Santiago city office of the same firm some 90 miles away and the second paragraph of this letter reads:
"The 40$ for the journey to Cauquenes I have already paid McCulloch. He says he will arrange with you about the payment of the whole amt to Layola"
Later in the same letter he writes:
"I will thank you to send me down the Two Pipes Gin to the address of McCulloch immediately...."
This letter is the first firm indication we have that Hugh McCulloch, at 26 years of age, had found his way to Chile, where he also was working as a clerk for John Begg, and as Hugh would be closely associated with John Begg for the next ten years or so we will mention something of the latter's history and the background to his business as a merchant.
John Begg, the grandson of an Edinburgh excise officer, was born in 1791 in Musselburgh near the port of Leith in Scotland where in 1809 his sister Mary married James Brotherston, then a teller at the Leith Banking Company but the son of a once prosperous Peter Brotherston who was the pioneer of cotton spinning in Scotland and who built the first Scottish cotton mill in 1775 employing some 500 people before it shut down around 1800.
Heavily armed though she was, in April 1814 the Fanny was attacked and captured near the Irish coast by an American privateer and during the battle John Begg, no doubt travelling as supercargo (ship's agent), was seriously injured but went on to make a full recovery. Before this, in April 1813, there is an entry in Lloyd's List which refers to a ship Fanny with a captain's name of McCullock sailing for Jamaica in a convoy from Cork:
Although Lima had fallen under the control of the patriots the Spanish royalist forces still controlled parts of the country and over the next few years conflicts continued with Lima itself being briefly reoccupied by the Spaniards on two occasions, in 1823 and 1824. The last Spanish stronghold in Peru was the Real Felipe Fortress in Callao where they were besieged until their final surrender in January 1826. First-hand accounts of Callao at that time describe it as being in a state of ruin and during the siege famine and disease reduced the population from about 1500 soldiers and 4500 civilians to just 300 soldiers and 500 civilians with descriptions of the conditions on the streets and in the houses depicting a horrific scene but nonetheless, excepting the time he was to spend in California, Callao was to be Hugh McCulloch's home for the next decade or so.
In September 1821 Mexico became the next country to achieve independence from Spanish rule and McCulloch, in the course of his work for John Begg and in conversations with ships captains, began to learn of the situation in California, a territory of Mexico where, as in Chile and Peru, trade had been severely restricted under Spanish governance. He realised that there was a golden opportunity to develop a lucrative business providing the missions in California with the goods they urgently needed and to take in return the hides and tallow they were able to provide from the cattle that roamed the coastal prairies and grasslands of California.
He broached this idea to his colleague William Hartnell but he was initially very reluctant to become involved as not only did he foresee many pitfalls he was, though short of funds, happy in his situation in Peru where he enjoyed a good social life and had become engaged to an English girl. However McCulloch, perhaps the more business minded of the two, was very persuasive and eventually Hartnell agreed to become his partner in the new venture. John Begg was also persuaded by McCulloch's enthusiasm and analysis of the situation in California and he agreed to provide finance for the venture and also to charter them a ship for the first voyage. An agreement was drawn up and signed on the 21st March 1822 between Hugh McCulloch and John Begg whereby McCulloch agreed to go to California to collect hides and tallow or other produce to be exchanged for merchandise specified by Begg & Company. Hartnell was to be admitted as a partner when McCulloch considered his services necessary. Profits (or losses) were to be divided five-eighths/three eighths in favour of John Begg.
Later that month Hugh McCulloch and William Hartnell set sail for California on the brig John Begg, chartered to them for $1200 a month and carrying an experimental cargo valued at $22,000. It included articles such as cloth coating, shawls, buttons, combs, cooking utensils, dishes, cocoa, cinnamon, oil, iron bars, window glass, and woods from Brazilian forests. They were taking a huge risk as was John Begg in financing them because there was no guarantee that they would be permitted to trade with the missions in California and there was no precedent for the type of business they envisaged. Failure would surely bankrupt them and they could expect no sympathy from John Begg, hard-headed businessman that he was, though on the voyage north they had the encouragement of reading a conversational letter from Mr. Begg:
"The 40$ for the journey to Cauquenes I have already paid McCulloch. He says he will arrange with you about the payment of the whole amt to Layola"
"I will thank you to send me down the Two Pipes Gin to the address of McCulloch immediately...."
This letter is the first firm indication we have that Hugh McCulloch, at 26 years of age, had found his way to Chile, where he also was working as a clerk for John Begg, and as Hugh would be closely associated with John Begg for the next ten years or so we will mention something of the latter's history and the background to his business as a merchant.
John Begg, the grandson of an Edinburgh excise officer, was born in 1791 in Musselburgh near the port of Leith in Scotland where in 1809 his sister Mary married James Brotherston, then a teller at the Leith Banking Company but the son of a once prosperous Peter Brotherston who was the pioneer of cotton spinning in Scotland and who built the first Scottish cotton mill in 1775 employing some 500 people before it shut down around 1800.
In 1812 John Begg and his sister inherited about £5000 each from the estate of their uncle William Begg, a Liverpool merchant who had made a small fortune as a ship owner in the Liverpool slave trade before it was abolished in 1807. Begg and Brotherston also became the owners of a ship of his, the Fanny, and went into business together as shipowners and merchants trading mainly between Rio de Janeiro and Liverpool where they had an office and warehouse. On 5th December 1812 James Laughton, the captain of the Fanny, was granted Letters of Marque which enabled the Fanny to sail as an armed merchantman.
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| Lloyd's List |
It is of course possible that there were two ships with the same name engaged in the Caribbean and South American trade or maybe Hugh McCulloch was aboard as a clerk to John Begg and being inexperienced gave his own name as captain to the authorities in Cork.
In the early part of the nineteenth century British merchants were confined to the Atlantic coast of South America as the Spanish colonies on the Pacific coast were only allowed to trade within Spanish territories. However the Spaniards were beginning to lose their authority in the region due to their political instability caused by the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and this gave rise to a movement for independence amongst these colonies. In February 1817 the patriot forces defeated the Spanish army at the Battle of Chacabuco and one of the outcomes of the new political freedom that resulted was that foreign merchants were for the first time allowed to set up establishments in Chile.
In July 1817 James Brotherston published the following advertisement, in which the "Gentleman" is no doubt John Begg and indicating that he intended to establish himself as a merchant in Chile:
The Caledonia and John Begg arrived in Valparaiso in late 1817 or early 1818 and on 5th April 1818 Begg was one of five British merchants who joined the patriot army in the decisive defeat of the Spaniards at the Battle of Maipu which finally gave Chile it's complete independence. Maybe Hugh McCulloch sailed on the Caledonia with John Begg but no evidence has been traced to substantiate that possibility. His colleague William Hartnell was recruited by James Brotherston in Liverpool in December 1818 on a salary of £100 per annum and arrived in South America in the Spring of 1819.
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| Liverpool Mercury 25 July 1817 |
John Begg was an adventurous, ambitious businessman not averse to taking risks in the search of profit and very soon after becoming established as a merchant in Chile he was exploring possible new markets further north up the Pacific coast. The biggest opportunity was believed to be in Peru and when the declaration of independence was made on 28th July 1821 in the capital Lima, after the city had been taken by the patriot army commanded by General San Martin, John Begg wasted no time and in August 1821 he and his clerks including Hugh McCulloch and William Hartnell were among the first merchants to arrive in Callao, the port city nearby, which was to be their new base of operations.
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In September 1821 Mexico became the next country to achieve independence from Spanish rule and McCulloch, in the course of his work for John Begg and in conversations with ships captains, began to learn of the situation in California, a territory of Mexico where, as in Chile and Peru, trade had been severely restricted under Spanish governance. He realised that there was a golden opportunity to develop a lucrative business providing the missions in California with the goods they urgently needed and to take in return the hides and tallow they were able to provide from the cattle that roamed the coastal prairies and grasslands of California.
He broached this idea to his colleague William Hartnell but he was initially very reluctant to become involved as not only did he foresee many pitfalls he was, though short of funds, happy in his situation in Peru where he enjoyed a good social life and had become engaged to an English girl. However McCulloch, perhaps the more business minded of the two, was very persuasive and eventually Hartnell agreed to become his partner in the new venture. John Begg was also persuaded by McCulloch's enthusiasm and analysis of the situation in California and he agreed to provide finance for the venture and also to charter them a ship for the first voyage. An agreement was drawn up and signed on the 21st March 1822 between Hugh McCulloch and John Begg whereby McCulloch agreed to go to California to collect hides and tallow or other produce to be exchanged for merchandise specified by Begg & Company. Hartnell was to be admitted as a partner when McCulloch considered his services necessary. Profits (or losses) were to be divided five-eighths/three eighths in favour of John Begg.
Later that month Hugh McCulloch and William Hartnell set sail for California on the brig John Begg, chartered to them for $1200 a month and carrying an experimental cargo valued at $22,000. It included articles such as cloth coating, shawls, buttons, combs, cooking utensils, dishes, cocoa, cinnamon, oil, iron bars, window glass, and woods from Brazilian forests. They were taking a huge risk as was John Begg in financing them because there was no guarantee that they would be permitted to trade with the missions in California and there was no precedent for the type of business they envisaged. Failure would surely bankrupt them and they could expect no sympathy from John Begg, hard-headed businessman that he was, though on the voyage north they had the encouragement of reading a conversational letter from Mr. Begg:
"The co-partnership which exists between us will we hope be placed on your arrival in California upon a permanent footing and lay the foundation of your future prospects and happiness in life.........Next to permission to remain in the country your fortunes will depend on your own exertions, in which we have every confidence that nothing will be wanting to crown them with success........."