Page 245 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

231.

were predominately Parsees in Bombay and Calcutta, although

he still received opium consignments from Wilcocks and other
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merchants in Philadelphia. Latimer and Wilcocks had copied

Cushing's use of a receiving ship in their opium trade.

Owned by Latimer, Wilcocks, Matthew C. Ralston (a Philadelphia

merchant who speculated in ginseng and opium) and Capt. Phillipps

(who managed the vessel), the bark "Samarang" stored opium

not only consigned to Latimer but also to Thomas Beale and

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Magniac & Co. Both of the latter were English merchants in
the opium trade at Canton. They found it cheaper to rent space

for their opium aboard a receiving ship than own one themselves.
1
By the early 1830 s Latimer's opium business had grown beyond

the space of his own receiving ship. He himself rented space

aboard the "LiDtin, 11 owned by Robert Bennet Forbes, and the

11 11
Jamesina, owned by the English herchant William Jardine.
Latimer gained such a reputation in the Indian opium trade that

his main competitor Russell & Co. offered him a full partner­
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ship in 1833. He refused on account of his declining health

and returned to the United States in 1834 with a fortune.

By 1834 Russell & Co. had become the leading American

consignee in the opium trade (as well as in all other trade to

37 1
Latimer s major correspondents in India were in Bombay:
Mottichand Armechand, Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy & Co. and Hormuzee
Dorabjee (all wealthy Parsees). Letterbook to India, Latimer
Family MSS.
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Letter, T. Beale to J.R. Latimer, Nov. 17, 1818,
Latimer Family MSS.
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Letter, S. Russell to J.R. Latimer, Apr. 14, 1833,
Latimer Family MSS.