Sign up to receive email notices of recent acquisitions.

Cádiz, Spain, July 8, 1732; February 20, 1733; October 15, 1733. Group of three letters, one 3.15 pp. and one 1.85 pp., in ink on a single leaf, 14.75” x 9”; one letter, 1.75 pp. in ink on a single leaf, 14.5” x 9”. The first two letters are copies that Jourdain made and sent with the third letter (he notes including them at the beginning of the letter). The second letter includes three tables of goods and prices. CONDITION: Overall good, one sheet reinforced on one side with transparent tissue, a few losses to words along margins, some damp-stains, a few minor punctures, small separations along old folds, losses to some words along the margins, but sense generally intact.

An interesting group of letters from an English merchant based in Cádiz, Spain to a Philadelphia merchant and shipbuilder, touching on a variety of trans-Atlantic business matters, European politics, and the ill-fated 1733 Spanish flotilla (in which the author had a stake but was insured) wrecked by a hurricane off the coast of Florida. 

These letters offer a detailed record of the trade relationship between John Jourdain of Cádiz and the Philadelphia merchant Alexander Wooddrop. Cádiz was the preeminent Spanish trading city of the eighteenth-century and these letters reflect the lively business being conducted there. Jourdain identifies the most successful items (flower, wheat, pipe staves, rice, timber, fish), and frequently notes the importance of timing for realizing profitable sales. The letters provide many prices for the construction of merchant ships (ranging from $50,000 to $70,000); address the repercussions in Cádiz and Spain more generally of the loss of the 1733 Spanish fleet, in which Jourdain had a stake; and discuss the political conflict between France and Germany. 

In the earliest of the three letters, dated July 8th, 1732, Jourdain notes that in his last letter, written in February 1732, he advised Wooddrop to dispatch a ship carrying wheat, flour, and pipe staves. He specifies that if Wooddrop has yet to dispatch the ship, it should not include wheat or flour after all, as Spain has enjoyed a good harvest of corn and fruit. Instead, he asks him to send rice, white beans, peas, and pipe staves, and requests that the vessel arrive in Cádiz by January or February 1733 (“for these are commoditys cheefly used in Lent”). He notes that “if you dispatch in du[e] time and are well served in ye buying may reasonably expect 20 to 25% profit on this cargo cleer of all charges & you may easily have ye return via London or Amsterdam in 6 or 7 month.” He answers Wooddrop’s ship-building proposal by enumerating “three difficulties” that currently prevent him for pursuing the project (“ye third difficulty is yt ye Spaniards never advance their money to build ships but buy them in this bay [i.e., Cádiz]”). He notes that he has spoken “to two rich Spanish merchts yt all waise [always] send shipes with ye galleon to Cartagen [Colombia] & Carraques [Venezuela] & they tell me yt they shall want several ships of 560 tunn each next March & yt if I should have such a ship in ye bay at that time they’ll prefer ye buying from me sooner then any other person.” He advises Wooddrop as follows: “put such a vessell on ye stocks without delay for she can’t want buyers because all that time we shall have a dispatch of galleons. Such a shipe as this will fech from 50 to 70 thousand dollars according to her built & aparell. She must be sheathed with slit deck frigot built to mount 30 gunns notte aft yt largest shipes selles best here.” He concludes the letter by discussing the shipping activities of Capt. Samuel Payton, whom Jourdain employed to ship goods, as well as various personal matters. 

In the second letter, composed from February 20th to the 27th, 1733, Jourdain discusses his two last proposals for Wooddrop to “send a cuple of shipes loden with wheat flower & ye other long pipe staves.” He notes that “we dayly expect our flotta [flotilla] home from Veracruz yt registered shipes from Havana in March or April next & by ye time we hope ye above mentioned shipes will be here with flower, etc. for then they’ll stand a very good chance for freights either for Italy, Holland or England.” Responding to a letter Wooddrop sent him in July 1732, he writes: “we rejoice to find you intend to send Capn John Willcock here with a cargo of fish & rice.” Expressing his regret that Wooddrop has not yet dispatched vessels containing flower and pipe staves, Jourdain then gives Wooddrop liberty to draw on the funds of his friend Mr. Tolet of London (“he all waise has money of ours in his hands don’t doubt”)—stating that henceforth “every thing will now run in a fresh chanell.” After discussing the project of building ships and a contact in Jamaica that was recommended by Wooddrop, he writes that Wooddrop’s vessel is bound for Pethamboy (Perth Amboy) and is 

freighted by Mr. Wm. Ferrill who intends directly back for [this] place but as he carries nothing but a cargo of salt horses [i.e., salted meat] you are able to dispatch your vessells so yt may [be] here before him, not yt that can spile [spoil?] ye markit but we all waise chuse to be first at markit, we hear y[e] [?] flotta [h]as meet with a storm at ye entrance of ye Gulf of Florida coming from Havana, & let that be as it will Go[d] be pleased our friends & selves have insured all except 450 dollars, ye King of France & ye Emperor of Ge[rmany] are still at variance, but we are proswaded yt England will have nothing to say to them till they find Ger[many] too weak for France.  

After providing a table of dimensions, assortments, and common prices of pitch pine timber (which he invites him to join him in purchasing), Jourdain offers commentary on the table and prices. He gives an update on sales of Wooddrop’s cargo of wheat (including Sicily, Levant, and other wheat) that was shipped via the vessel Mary Bright, and he details the money Wooddrop has earned. Next, he provides a table of “charges here” as well as Wooddrop’s net proceeds. Jourdain observes that corn prices will “continue rising upwards of 8 months to come for several reasons,” one of them being the wreck of the Spanish flotilla. He outlines these reasons as follows:

First ye scarcity of ye two last years harvests, secondly 4 large shipes yt are to lode with flower wine & bound for ye Havana to bring ye ruens of our missforten’d flotta home, thirdly, when all those people comes into this place—wch are about 12 to 15000 t’will create a famine if we are not well suplyed from ye north for ye Grand Turk will not suffer any more corn to be shipped off from his dominions at presnt. Here is constantly about a hundred & fifty thousand souls in this place [i.e., Cádiz] & when 12 or 15000 are ad’d pray consider what quantity of bread is consumed dayly which is computed to be about 2000 quintals a day for you very well know yt no people in ye universe eats more bread then ye Spaniards.    

Jourdain concludes the letter by asking Wooddrop to dispatch a cargo of flour; providing him with a second table of charges and Wooddrop’s net proceeds, and discussing commodity prices. 

In the third letter, dated October 15th, 1733, Jourdain briefly touches on a previous shipping order before addressing recent political events in Europe as well as the wrecked Spanish flotilla: 

Stanisch [Leszczy ski] father in law to ye King of France is crowned King of Poland & ye Emperor has retired his troops from thence, so yt its thought every thing will be made up amorusly for ye tranquility of Europ[e], England is now arming by reason France & Spain have each an army abroad, therefore tis believed they carrie about 25 ships for ye better of settling of articules between the Emperor & ye King of France. Doubtless you have heard of ye lose of our flotta on the Co[a]st of Florida this missforten will be great to many yt are not insured.

While he praises God that “we had all our interest safely insured,” he notes that “our commissioner has not made us all ye returns we expected he would, so yt this will reather be a profit then a lose to us on ye sales of twenty serrans of cochenille & 20 serrans of indigo yt we have in London or[?] sold in ye hands of Mr. John Tolet.” After noting that “the lose of our flotta will cause large shipes to rise considerably in value here for they will be wanted much both for flottas & galleons,” he advises Wooddrop “to put ye shipe we formerly mention’d to you of 450 Spanish tunns on ye stocks for you may depende she’ll sell very advantageously here any time within two years.” He relates that Capt. Nutte has told him of a “new ship between 7 or 800 tunns yt lies in Virgine to be sold cheep,” and further advises Wooddrop to “joyn with some friends & buy her, feet [fit] her out well espechally carpenters work, lode her parts with pipe staves part hogghead staves & ye remainder with pich pine timber…let ye stave be as long as this & as green as possible, if you do this may reasonably expect to make a golden voyage.”

On July 13th, 1733 the Spanish flotilla cited here, which consisted of four galleons and eighteen smaller merchant vessels, left Havana, Cuba, loaded with some twenty million Mexican pesos worth of silver, gold, tobacco and other valuables. The ships ran into a massive hurricane a day later, and while there were many survivors, most of the ships were irreparably damaged. Over the following two years, the Spanish ran salvage operations which successfully retrieved most of the valuable items. Later, in the 1960s, a group of divers located the wreckage, which they found scattered over eighty miles of shorefront. The doomed ships had formed a successful reef for marine creatures, and today the “1733 Fleet” is popular among diving enthusiasts as part of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Alexander Wooddrop (1685–1742) was a wealthy Philadelphia merchant and plantation owner who dealt in imported and domestic goods, including spices, building material, silks, and fabrics. Contemporary newspaper advertisements record him selling the enslaved as well. In 1725, he along with a group of prominent Pennsylvanians established the Poole forge in Amity township, Berks County. In business, Wooddrop was an associate of Thomas Rutter (d. 1730), the “father of the iron industry in Pennsylvania.” His business operated near Carpenter’s Wharf, where hundreds of ships would dock daily. An ad from the September 18th, 1729, issue of the American Weekly Mercury reports that Wooddrop provided goods including “ginger, nutmegs, black-pepper, rum…nailes [sic]…super-fine bohea-tea,” in addition to “a Servant Woman’s time…and likewise three Negroes.” Not only do period newspapers indicate that Wooddrop sold enslaved people, but articles from the American Weekly Mercury indicate that Wooddrop owned slaves on his plantation (located in Passyunk, south of Philadelphia). A report published in the Mercury two years after Wooddrop’s death shows that his plantation was quite an operation, measuring “one hundred forty-three acres, the greater part being mowable, with a Brick house and Kitchen, a large Barn & Stable, and sundry other Conveniences.” An earlier article, from July 12th, 1739, reported that an enslaved man under Wooddrop’s employ had “ran-away (or was taken away) on the 23 of June at Night.” The man was identified as “a new Negro…named Tom, about 24 or 25 Years old, speaks little or no English, and is a well set fellow. It is supposed he is gone away in a Canoe…He had on a coarse Oznabrigs [sic.] Shirt and Drawers, [and] a Kersey jacket.” Evidently capturing Tom was not merely a matter of reclaiming a runaway slave, but the chase was also motivated by regaining “a Bever Hat…four China Cups, a Quart White Mug… and some Glasses”—all of which Tom had taken on his journey. The Library of Congress has Wooddrop account books for 1719–24 and 1728–34 (OCLC: 79455378) recording his “business interests on the island of St. Kitts and his expanded interests in Philadelphia following his move in 1721.” 

While we have been unable to locate any record of John Jordain, he may have been descended from John Jourdain (?–1619), a British Captain who worked in the East India Company, was sent to India as factora in 1607, did much to increase trade there, and served as president of the council of India until his death during a seafight with the Dutch in 1619. 

A revealing group of detailed business letters on the American-Spanish trade during the 1730s, touching on the sunken 1733 Spanish flotilla, the market in Spain for American ships and other goods, European politics, and more.

REFERENCES: American Weekly Mercury (Philadelphia) September 18, 1729 and July 12, 1739; The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 26, 1931, p. 83; Stiefel, Jay Robert. “Philadelphia Cabinetmaking and Commerce, 1718-1753: The Account Book of John Head, Joiner,” APS Library Bulletin Vol. I, No. I (2001) at American Philosophical Society online; OCLC: 79455378.

Item #9132

Price: $2,500.00