General Store and Merchant Daybook, 1837

Processed by Ken Fones-Wolf, September 1988.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The daybook of this trader/merchant in Bridgewater, Massachusetts reveals the quickening pace of economic activity connected to the burgeoning Plymouth County iron industry. While many of the transactions at the store are small purchases of flour, fabric, sugar, tobacco, meats, molasses, etc., interspersed are substantial purchases of bar iron, nails, metal plates, and other manufactured metal items accounting for an increasingly large share of the business. For instance, on September 23, 1837, Horatio Leonard bought 49 bars of iron for $229, an amount that dwarfed most purchases on that day. Four days later, the firm of French and Coffin bought a hydrostatic press for $1400. This was obviously a transaction where the storeowner was the purchasing agent, probably reflecting his ability to control large amounts of cash or credit.

Evidence of the important role played by the local merchant in the expansion of manufacturing is scattered throughout the daybook. On September 29th, for instance, the merchant recorded notes payable to Bristol County Bank of $1349, to Thos. Coggeshall of $970, and to J. Lund of $114. That same day, he recorded notes receivable from A. Mason & Co. of $726, from the Taunton Bank of $884, from Cushing and Ames of $2000, and from the Bristol County Bank of $1,478.

Among the businesses which were included in this merchant's transactions were: the Marshfield Manufacturing Co.; the Fall River Iron Works; Stickney & Noyes; Stetson Cobb & Co.; Weymouth Iron Co.; Kingman & Small; Fobes, Cole & Thayer; Witherell Arms; Eddy & Hathaway; and Calvin Washburn & Co. The daybook thus reflects the geographic as well as the economic expansion of the merchant's trade due to his involvement in marketing manufactures.

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