Page 156 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

142.

Low steadily deteriorated at Macao and so he decided to leave

with his family to return home. Hoping to recover at sea, he

died at the Cape of Good Hope. At Canton Beard's health also

faltered from overwork. In 1834 new partners did enter the

house, relieving Heard. Joseph C. Coolidge came from Boston to

join John C. Green, a former master and agent for New York

merchants at Canton. The other partner was John Murray Forbes.

Coolidge's erratic personality often invited criticism of his

abilities as a merchant. John Forbes described him as ''too
73
wishy-washy, wild p & untactful.11 Green was his opposite but

lacked personability. He was an excellent organizer and adminis­

trator, however, and a stern taskmaster. The former master now

became chief of the house and instilled order into its opera­

tion, which had suffered from an overload of work and a lack

of adequage personnel to keep good records, etc. Business was

now conducted on a more impersonal level with decisions based

on profit and loss. Under Green's stewardship the house became

more efficient and garnered an even larger share of the trade.

At the beginning of the 183 5 season John Forbes bragged that

only one house, namely Jardine, Matheson & Co., had more vessels

in port than Russell & Co. Green continued to head the house
and insisted on the continuation of his methods, even chiding

73
Letter, J.�. Forbes to A. Heard, Dec. 26, 1834, Heard
MSS. Coolidge, married to a granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson,
was never liked at Russell & Co. The partners despatched him
to drum in India and Europe and then forced him out in 1839.
He left with $120,000 in profits. Although he was a charter
partner of A. Heard & Co., he was soon forced out of that house
also.