Cotton Trade

A group of letters addressed to Peter Whitehead of Rawtenstall, Manchester, a cotton mill owner and trader and partner with his brothers in Thomas Whitehead Bros, most sent from agents detailing the current cotton market in New York, Liverpool and Manchester, talking of trans-Atlantic shipments, price fluctuations (“We received a letter from Montreal on Saturday which contains nothing new except the following: The news of Great Western and British Queen has caused a considerable depression in stocks and cotton in the New York Market; specie is going out of the country very fast and we are fearful of another suspension of specie payments”, two pages, Rawtenstall, 4 September 1839; “There is little doing in the American cotton markets and prices at New York have declined 1/4c@1/2c... There had been a fair demand for cotton here to day, and cotton is offered freely; but the steadiness of holders and the consciousness of buyers, who only operate in small quantities, keep the business very moderate at former prices”, one page, Liverpool, 18 September 1854), the state of the domestic and international trade (“Munn’s say in their circular, that the commercial intelligence from the East by Overland Mail was favourable and gave an impetus to goods and yarns suitable for the Indian market. In domestics, the attention of buyers is rather more directed to heavy cloths, but there is no favourable change in prices”, three pages, Rawtenstall, 9 June 1849) and the introduction of new engines; also including a letter from a sister to another sister talking about her domestic arrangements having moved from Manchester to Romney in Hampshire, via London and Southampton, with various observations on all those places, all with postage stamps, some with red wax seal residue, folding marks, some soiling, a couple of letters with tears to margins and small losses, v.s. 1839-1854 (10)