The Californian Hide & Tallow Trade as established by McCulloch Hartnell & Co in 1822 involved ships sailing for California from Liverpool and Callao with cargos mainly of British manufactured goods which were sold in exchange for cattle hides and tallow. They would first call at Monterey where the cargos were registered with the customs authority and from where Hartnell as the resident manager would dispatch advices to the missions detailing the goods that would be offered for sale. The ships would then sail to the many different landing places (they couldn't be called ports) to display and sell the cargos to the missions and the few rancheros in exchange for cattle hides and tallow. The following image shows part of the invoice for a typical cargo, shipped from Liverpool on the Junius in July 1824:
They also supplied religious ornaments which the Franciscan fathers could now afford to indulge themselves with (in one of his letters McCulloch makes the comment "like good Christians the Padres laid their hands on all the Gold I had...."):
 |
| This invoice included - 6 Copper Stills, 43 Furnace Bars, 810 Scotch Girdles, 60 Bundles Hoop Iron, 6000 Rivets, 500 Axes different sizes, 500 Pick Axes, 78 doz. Assorted Knives, 10 doz. Assorted Saws, 500 approx. Spanish Bitts, 1 doz. pairs Spanish Spurs, 100 approx. Assorted Coopers tools - adzes, axes, hammers, bits etc, 6 pair Hoops, 200 Truss hoop rivets, 500 Nails, 4 Barrel Staves, 6 Double Basses with Bows, 48 Violins with extra strings and Bows, 12 Long Concert Trumpets, 24 Plain Concert Flutes, 12 Clarinets, 458 Assorted Iron Pots. Another invoice for the same vessel included Robes, Pullicates, Thick Coating, Cloths, Shirtings, Cotton Checks, Tin Tea Kettles, Hinges, Padlocks, a wide range of earthenware including Bowls, Plates, Cups, complete Tea and Coffee services, Jugs, Tureens, Dishes. |
They also supplied religious ornaments which the Franciscan fathers could now afford to indulge themselves with (in one of his letters McCulloch makes the comment "like good Christians the Padres laid their hands on all the Gold I had...."):
After discharging the cargos, perhaps involving visits to many of the mission locations, the ships were able to commence loading the return cargos but this was often a difficult exercise as in some places the ships were anchored a considerable distance from the shore and landing and launching the rowing boats through the surf was a hazardous occupation. Not only that some anchorages were dangerously exposed to south-easterly gales and the ships had to be ready at a moments notice to up anchor and put to sea to avoid getting caught on a lee shore. On these occasions they could sometimes be blown many miles away and not be able to return for a week or more to resume their loading.
 |
| 'Hide Droghing' from the 1840 book Two Years Before the Mast |
These and other difficulties led to the ships spending an inordinate amount of time on the "Coast" as it was called and the associated costs reduced the profits of the shipments particularly if they were chartered vessels. Another major issue was the fact that as this was a pioneering business there was little or no experience in California of stowing hides for long voyages and this caused problems on the early voyages to Liverpool with the hides arriving in a poor condition and fetching a low price. However matters improved somewhat when they were granted land at San Pedro on which they constructed a building for the storage and preparation of the hides.
This building was the first commercial structure in the port of Los Angeles and is commemorated by the plaque shown on our Introduction page. The building itself no longer exists but the following photograph of the ruins dates from about 1900:
 |
| Casa San Pedro Hide House ruins c.1900 |
They also purchased a small schooner, the Young Tartar, which stayed on the Californian coast collecting the hides and taking them to central locations for loading onto the bigger ships. This vessel unfortunately ended its life as a wreck on a beach in San Diego as shown in the following extract from the certificate of condemnation:
 |
| We the undersigned do hereby certify that the Schooner Young Tartar the property of Messrs John Begg & Co Lima and McCulloch Hartnell & Co California is now laying on the beach in the port of San Diego broken up, having been condemned in the said port on the 26th November 1826 after a survey... |
For the first year or so of trading McCulloch acted as supercargo sailing on the John Begg between Callao and California but from early 1824 he was based in Callao with Hartnell managing the Californian end of the business from his base in Monterey. In a letter written in March 1824 McCulloch reassures Hartnell of his commitment to the Californian business despite his residence in Callao:
"........I take the whole of the management of the Californian business into my own hands, having only to consult with him [John Begg] as to the disposal of the produce, chartering vessels etc. so that if you play your cards in that quarter, as well as we will ours in Peru, and our friend in England [James Brotherston], I have no doubt we will make a very handsome thing of it, although what has come to the Lima market as yet has been a losing concern.”
The last phrase above refers to the first shipments of tallow to Lima which were of poor quality and McCulloch urging Hartnell to keep a close eye on the tallow supplied by the missions was a regular theme in the correspondence as in this excerpt from a letter in September 1825:
"The tallow from some of the Missions has been sent in a shameful state which you will please to advise them of, and in future should like you to put some kind of mark upon the produce of every different Mission, in order that we may be able to know from whom such has been received."
The first shipment of hides direct to James Brotherston & Co in Liverpool was expected in May 1824 on the Bahia Packet and James Brotherston writes:
"The tallow from some of the Missions has been sent in a shameful state which you will please to advise them of, and in future should like you to put some kind of mark upon the produce of every different Mission, in order that we may be able to know from whom such has been received."
The first shipment of hides direct to James Brotherston & Co in Liverpool was expected in May 1824 on the Bahia Packet and James Brotherston writes:
“many enquiries are made for her, the hide trade are very anxious to see what sort of article is produced from so distant a country.”
However when she did arrive in June 1824 the hides were found to be in very poor condition and when they were auctioned there was very little profit. Brotherston writes then at great length with many recommendations mainly on improving the hide stowage methods and reducing the amount of time the ships were spending on the Californian coast. He does though appear optimistic for the "California Establishment" as he sometimes calls the McCulloch & Hartnell business:
"With regard to the concern at California we have already written to you fully, and at different periods we doubt not that if properly managed it will be a profitable concern".
The Neptune was the next vessel to arrive in Liverpool, in November 1824, with a cargo of hides which proved to be in generally much better condition than those on the Bahia Packet. Her cargo was sold at auction as per the following advertisement:
However the Neptune was 18 months on her voyage from Lima to Liverpool as she spent 9 months on the Californian coast loading her cargo and this displeased Brotherston greatly as the charter fees incurred ate considerably into the profits. He writes:
"The Neptune from the day she sailed from Lima has just been eighteen months and one day over the voyage. Nine months of which was spent upon your Coast – nothing can stand such mismanagement as this. You have now we understand erected stores for the reception of produce and you are supplied with a small vessel to collect at the different Missions. We therefore think that if due exertion is made by you you would be so prepared as to be enabled to dispatch any vessel in two months from the time she arrives on your Coast. In this item alone we consider there is a loss of £1200 which by your better arrangements maybe saved – and unless this is attended to the Establishment must be given up, it occupies a large capital with which we could do much better with here."
The following year 1825 appears to have been their best year - the experience they had gained was beginning to pay off and in a letter to Hartnell in April 1825 McCulloch writes:
"People have now begun to think that California will do well...."
He is perhaps becoming prosperous as in another letter in September 1825 he reveals that he has opened a retail store where he can sell some of the tallow from California:
"........ should I not always find a wholesale merchant it is my intention to retail that [tallow], as well as any thing else you may send; having every convenience from an extensive new Store which I have just finished and got into play."
The canny Scot though is well aware that the signs of their success might encourage their competitors:
“Now that our establishment begins to assume a favourable appearance, you may lay your account with soon finding opposition as there are always plenty ready to speculate where they see a probability of profitable returns, and as I have always advised, buy up every skin of tallow and hide you can lay your hands on, so that should any attempt it, they may find a clear coast and being once disappointed they will not be likely to repeat the same. We will require to keep all our irons in the fire for some time yet to bring matters to the right side, but from your exertions I expect soon to find it otherwise....”
The end of 1825 brought misfortune though as a company ship, the Esther, with her load of hides, was wrecked on the Irish coast. The misfortune was that Captain W. Davis and three crew were lost as for the business the wreck turned out to be somewhat fortuitous because Brotherston had insured the cargo for a high value and as the market for hides was poor at the time they received more from the insurance than they would have done if the hides had arrived safely. He wrote later to the partners:
"With regard to the concern at California we have already written to you fully, and at different periods we doubt not that if properly managed it will be a profitable concern".
The Neptune was the next vessel to arrive in Liverpool, in November 1824, with a cargo of hides which proved to be in generally much better condition than those on the Bahia Packet. Her cargo was sold at auction as per the following advertisement:
 |
| Liverpool Mercury 26th November 1824 |
"The Neptune from the day she sailed from Lima has just been eighteen months and one day over the voyage. Nine months of which was spent upon your Coast – nothing can stand such mismanagement as this. You have now we understand erected stores for the reception of produce and you are supplied with a small vessel to collect at the different Missions. We therefore think that if due exertion is made by you you would be so prepared as to be enabled to dispatch any vessel in two months from the time she arrives on your Coast. In this item alone we consider there is a loss of £1200 which by your better arrangements maybe saved – and unless this is attended to the Establishment must be given up, it occupies a large capital with which we could do much better with here."
The following year 1825 appears to have been their best year - the experience they had gained was beginning to pay off and in a letter to Hartnell in April 1825 McCulloch writes:
"People have now begun to think that California will do well...."
He is perhaps becoming prosperous as in another letter in September 1825 he reveals that he has opened a retail store where he can sell some of the tallow from California:
"........ should I not always find a wholesale merchant it is my intention to retail that [tallow], as well as any thing else you may send; having every convenience from an extensive new Store which I have just finished and got into play."
The canny Scot though is well aware that the signs of their success might encourage their competitors:
“Now that our establishment begins to assume a favourable appearance, you may lay your account with soon finding opposition as there are always plenty ready to speculate where they see a probability of profitable returns, and as I have always advised, buy up every skin of tallow and hide you can lay your hands on, so that should any attempt it, they may find a clear coast and being once disappointed they will not be likely to repeat the same. We will require to keep all our irons in the fire for some time yet to bring matters to the right side, but from your exertions I expect soon to find it otherwise....”
The end of 1825 brought misfortune though as a company ship, the Esther, with her load of hides, was wrecked on the Irish coast. The misfortune was that Captain W. Davis and three crew were lost as for the business the wreck turned out to be somewhat fortuitous because Brotherston had insured the cargo for a high value and as the market for hides was poor at the time they received more from the insurance than they would have done if the hides had arrived safely. He wrote later to the partners:
"......... the probable net proceeds of the cargo to come to your credit may be stated at £5300. Had the cargo arrived safe it would not have amounted to nearly that sum, the price of hides having fallen so very much........"
Whilst their exclusive contract with the Missions ended on the 31st December 1825, going into 1826 they still retained some advantage over the American competition owing to the goodwill which had been built up with the Mission Fathers and also because they were permitted by the authorities to anchor at many more locations than their competitors who were restricted to the ports of San Diego and Monterey. The relationship between the partners was becoming somewhat strained though and when in August 1826 Hartnell learnt that McCulloch had taken on a second retail store and was charging commission to sell cargos of Californian goods he wrote to him:
"Instead of devoting your time and attention to this concern as you bound yourself to do, I am informed that you never bother your head at all about it, having other two flashy establishment that engross the whole of your attention.....
........And if you do spare a few days to make sales of the cargoes that go to you from this it appears your wish that I who am toiling from years’ end to years’ end and getting bald and blind in the concern should pay you for doing what is no more than your bounded duty; but you must either turn over a new leaf or I shall no longer have the pleasure of subscribing myself , your affectionate Partner."
McCulloch responded to this in robust manner, albeit some months later in April 1827:
Hartnell then returned to California and for a while he tried to continue in the Hide trade on his own account but without success and he found himself in financial difficulty and unable to pay off his share of the partnership debts. McCulloch writes to him in August 1829:
"Since I last had this pleasure I am favored with yours of the 22nd January per Funchal and am very sorry or I may rather say displeased to observe that you have made no remittance either to Mr Begg or myself but I hope that long ere this reach you, you will have made a bold effort to make up your leeway and to give that satisfaction to Mr B and myself which, in my candid opinion, we are so justly entitled to; were it only the small amount which you are due to myself personally that was interested I should not consider it of much importance, but after emerging out of so many difficulties as I have lately done, and to find myself all at once thrown back into the same state once more, by the claims which J B & Co make upon me, is too much for mortal to bear, without grumbling at the hardness of his fate, but my confidence in you is too firm as not to believe that you will put forth your every exertion to fulfil the promises which you made us before leaving this even altho' it should inconvenience yourself and that not a little."
And in June 1831 McCulloch writes:
"I have also endorsed over to Mr Anderson your private Act Current which you signed before your departure from this, and the greater part of it being money advanced when I was in the utmost difficulties I fully expect that you will use every endeavour to accomplish it's cancellation; as regards the Company account, I have paid Mr Begg my full proportion of all losses and hope that some day or other you will be able to reimburse me if not for all at least part of said Acct."
Hartnell by this time is in quite desperate financial straits and in November 1831 he writes to one of his creditors saying he has great difficulty in even maintaining his family with common decency:
Finally in 1833 through the medium of the Mr Anderson referred to above, who took over his business, Hartnell received his discharge from the partnership liability. There had been much negotiation preceding this event in which Anderson played a large part and when the discharge was finally agreed Anderson told Hartnell that "throughout the whole transaction McCulloch had proved himself a good friend."
So by the early 1830's the original founders of the Californian Hide and Tallow Trade were no longer involved in it but the trade continued mainly with ships from the Boston firm of Bryant & Sturgis who in 1822 had failed by a few weeks to be the first on the "Coast". In 1841 Bryant & Sturgis was itself dissolved and whilst the hide trade was continued for a few more years by other Boston based merchants it finally came to an end in 1848 as a result of the California Gold Rush which created an entirely new and profitable market for the rancheros, who had largely taken over cattle breeding from the Missions, supplying beef to the influx of miners and other immigrants.
 |
| Lloyd's List 27th December 1825 |
Whilst their exclusive contract with the Missions ended on the 31st December 1825, going into 1826 they still retained some advantage over the American competition owing to the goodwill which had been built up with the Mission Fathers and also because they were permitted by the authorities to anchor at many more locations than their competitors who were restricted to the ports of San Diego and Monterey. The relationship between the partners was becoming somewhat strained though and when in August 1826 Hartnell learnt that McCulloch had taken on a second retail store and was charging commission to sell cargos of Californian goods he wrote to him:
"Instead of devoting your time and attention to this concern as you bound yourself to do, I am informed that you never bother your head at all about it, having other two flashy establishment that engross the whole of your attention.....
........And if you do spare a few days to make sales of the cargoes that go to you from this it appears your wish that I who am toiling from years’ end to years’ end and getting bald and blind in the concern should pay you for doing what is no more than your bounded duty; but you must either turn over a new leaf or I shall no longer have the pleasure of subscribing myself , your affectionate Partner."
McCulloch responded to this in robust manner, albeit some months later in April 1827:
“From the manner in which I am employed here [Callao] I have no prospect at present of having it in my power to take a voyage to California. The winding up of the late concerns of John O'Brien & Co and Hugh McCulloch & Co whose affairs turn out to be anything but flashy engrosses all my time and attention, save and except when the affairs of the Californian establishment requires them and then you will never find me absent from my post and I may safely say that, between one thing or another no one in the two Americas is more troubled and bothered with the cares and concerns of this life than what I have been for the last 10 months and am likely to be for 8 or 10 months to come; the cares and anxieties of the last 10 months have literally made an old man of me before my youth is half finished.......
.....John Begg & Co. have written you by this conveyance intimating to you their intention of putting a stop (for the present) to the Californian Establishment, and requesting of you to wind up the concern and make out a Balance sheet of how the affairs stand; I am of the opinion that this is only a temporary winding up, at least I would fain hope so (I can't get Mr Begg to speak decisively) for it would be a great pity to give up the concern just at the time when, having it's plans matured, there was every chance of some good business being done. I do not like the idea of our sowing and then other people reaping the profits. So much for having a partner."
Dealing with these matters by letters which took many months to exchange between Peru and California was obviously unsatisfactory and so later that year of 1827 Hartnell, having drawn up a statement of the partnership's accounts as requested, sailed to Callao for a meeting with McCulloch and Begg. The statement showed the partnership had a total deficit of $29,069 with Begg being liable for the largest share but McCulloch and Hartnell also liable individually for substantial amounts. Following discussions between the three partners it was agreed to dissolve the partnership and a notice to this effect dated 1 May 1828 was sent to the Mission Fathers in California:
Dealing with these matters by letters which took many months to exchange between Peru and California was obviously unsatisfactory and so later that year of 1827 Hartnell, having drawn up a statement of the partnership's accounts as requested, sailed to Callao for a meeting with McCulloch and Begg. The statement showed the partnership had a total deficit of $29,069 with Begg being liable for the largest share but McCulloch and Hartnell also liable individually for substantial amounts. Following discussions between the three partners it was agreed to dissolve the partnership and a notice to this effect dated 1 May 1828 was sent to the Mission Fathers in California:
 |
| The signature "Luis Macala" on this document is that of Hugh McCulloch. He was known by that name in Peru and California and the partnership was often referred to as "Macala y Arnel". |
Hartnell then returned to California and for a while he tried to continue in the Hide trade on his own account but without success and he found himself in financial difficulty and unable to pay off his share of the partnership debts. McCulloch writes to him in August 1829:
"Since I last had this pleasure I am favored with yours of the 22nd January per Funchal and am very sorry or I may rather say displeased to observe that you have made no remittance either to Mr Begg or myself but I hope that long ere this reach you, you will have made a bold effort to make up your leeway and to give that satisfaction to Mr B and myself which, in my candid opinion, we are so justly entitled to; were it only the small amount which you are due to myself personally that was interested I should not consider it of much importance, but after emerging out of so many difficulties as I have lately done, and to find myself all at once thrown back into the same state once more, by the claims which J B & Co make upon me, is too much for mortal to bear, without grumbling at the hardness of his fate, but my confidence in you is too firm as not to believe that you will put forth your every exertion to fulfil the promises which you made us before leaving this even altho' it should inconvenience yourself and that not a little."
And in June 1831 McCulloch writes:
"I have also endorsed over to Mr Anderson your private Act Current which you signed before your departure from this, and the greater part of it being money advanced when I was in the utmost difficulties I fully expect that you will use every endeavour to accomplish it's cancellation; as regards the Company account, I have paid Mr Begg my full proportion of all losses and hope that some day or other you will be able to reimburse me if not for all at least part of said Acct."
Hartnell by this time is in quite desperate financial straits and in November 1831 he writes to one of his creditors saying he has great difficulty in even maintaining his family with common decency:
 |
| I have now my Dear Sir confessed to you ingenuously how I am situated, and hope you will have the generosity to wait patiently until providence shall enable me to satisfy you as I most earnestly desire. |
Finally in 1833 through the medium of the Mr Anderson referred to above, who took over his business, Hartnell received his discharge from the partnership liability. There had been much negotiation preceding this event in which Anderson played a large part and when the discharge was finally agreed Anderson told Hartnell that "throughout the whole transaction McCulloch had proved himself a good friend."
So by the early 1830's the original founders of the Californian Hide and Tallow Trade were no longer involved in it but the trade continued mainly with ships from the Boston firm of Bryant & Sturgis who in 1822 had failed by a few weeks to be the first on the "Coast". In 1841 Bryant & Sturgis was itself dissolved and whilst the hide trade was continued for a few more years by other Boston based merchants it finally came to an end in 1848 as a result of the California Gold Rush which created an entirely new and profitable market for the rancheros, who had largely taken over cattle breeding from the Missions, supplying beef to the influx of miners and other immigrants.