Statewide County HI Archives News.....Wiki Mo’olelo – Part 21 - C. –Early commercial Trade – Including whaling. January 3, 2009
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Darlene E. Kelley donkeyskid@msn.com January 6, 2009, 6:52 pm

Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands January 3, 2009

Contributed for use in USGenWeb 

by Darlene E. Kelley
donkeyskid@msn.com
January 3, 2009.
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Historical Collections of Hawaii
Keepers of the Culture. A Study in time of the Hawaiian Islands
Wiki Mo’olelo – Part 21 -#3 –Early commercial Trade – Including whaling.

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Wiki Mo’olelo – Part 21 - # 3.
Despite the feverish activity associated with the sandalwood business during the
1820’s, new commercial interests entered the field and foraged rapidly to the
front. Indeed it may be said that, during the later year of the decade, the
Hawaiian mercantile structure was being shifted to a new basis. This was due
partially to the exhaustion of the sandalwood, partially to political and other
changes along the American Coast, but far more to the extension of the whaling
industry into the north Pacific ocean.
The changes in the internaqtional situation along the American coast in
particular the independence of the Spanish American States, consummated in the
early part of the decade and accompanied by the abundance of the exclusive
Spanish policy, opened new opportunities for trade in that direction. A
comparison of California and Hawaiian shipping lists of this period and a study
of commercial correspondance disclose a growing intercourse between the two
regions. Of vessels arriving at Honolulu in 1824, seven was from California
ports. In 1826, the Waverley and two consorts introduced the Hawaiian flag into
those ports and opened to the people of California “ a new branch of territorial
trade.” Besides the Hawaiian vessels, several bearing the British and American
flag engaged in this trade. Honolulu had become a distributing point; cargoes
brought from the United States , China, or Europe were broken up, a part sold
locally in the domestic market or to vessels stopping at the islands, and a part
reshipped to California and other places in the Pacific. Conseverally,
commodities from different places were brought together at Honolulu and combined
into cargoes for shipment to China, the United States, and Europe. Horses
constituted one of the most important items in the export trade from California
to Hawaii during the 1820.s.
Whaling ships made their appearance in Hawaiian waters in 1819, and after thye
discovery of the sperm whaling grounds off the coast of Japan about the same
time, the Hawaiian islands became the principal rendezvous, refreshing, and
recruiting point for vessels working in that region, Japanese ports being
tightly closed to foreign ships. The number of such ships touching at island
ports increased with great rapidity; in the year 1822 there are reported to have
been no fewer than sixty andf in the last four years of the decade the arrivals
at Honolulu averaged more than one hundred and forty annually. A characterstic
of the industry was the fact that bthe visits of the whaling ships to Hawaii
were not scattered through the year but were concentrated in two seasons, of
about two or three months each, in the spring and in the fall. At such seasons
Honolulu harbor and Lahaina “ roads” were crowded with vessels and the dusty or
muddy streets and byways of the towns were filled with sailors crusing about in
search of recreation, which many of them meant only drunkeness and debauchery.
Street brawls were frequent and there were some serious clashes between the
sailors and local authorities.
The increase in the number of ships, whalers and others, natuarlly resulted in a
greater demand for supplies not alone of domestic produce but of foreign goods.
In addition, the purely local demand for foreign goods was growing steadily as
the number of foreign residents increased and as contact with foreigners the
work of the missionaries elevated the standard of living and diversified the
wants of the natives. We find therefore, two elements, local trade and wider
north Pacific trade, operating together to build up a substancial business
community in the islands, centered at Honolulu. The rudimentary beginnings of
this community were seen in those chiefs and foreign residents who in the
earlier years made something of a business of supplying ships. After 1812 one or
more agents were regularly stationed in Honolulu as representatives of various
trading houses. James Hunnewell was one of these agents, and conducted a regular
retail store. This seems tro have been the only venture of the sort before 1820,
but in 1823 there were four American mercantile establishments in Honolulu.
Their storehouses were abundantly furnished with goods in demand by the
islanders, and at them, most articles contained in common retail shops and
groceries in America could be purchased. The whole trade of the four probably
amounted to one hundred thousand dollars a year- sandalwood princpally, and
specie, being the returns for imported manufactures.
In 1826, Hunnewell came to Honolulu for the third time and opened his business
house which has continued, having by successive changes evolved into the
corporation C. Brewer and Company, Limited. William French, Stephen Reynolds,
and others were brought into existence a number of boarding houses or hotels and
a pestilential crop of grog shops. A bakery in Honolulu in 1829 sold a small
loaf of bread for the sum of 12 ½ cents. Port facilities required by aq seaborne
commercerce, such as wharves and a shipyard, was built in Honolulu harbor.
Growth of the mercantile community and increase in the volume of business
brought changes in the character of the trading operations. While a large part
of the local trade continued to be by barter, money came into a more extensive
use, and bills of exchange began to figure largely in commercial transactions.
It is not exactly known when bills of exchange were first used in Hawaii, but
there is a definate record of bills drawn by a secular agent of the Sandwich
Island Mission, Levi Chamberlain, as early as 1823 to pay for goods purchased
from local merchants. With the growth of the whaling interest. Whaler’s bills
came to be a common means of making remittances to the United States and
elsewhere. Auction sales were of comparatively frequent occurance during the 1820s.

NATIVE PARTICIPATION IN TRADE
Shipping and commercial enterprise in Hawaii was not exclusively in foreign
hands. The natives participated in several ways. They served as seaman on
sailing vessels; some of them learned the art of navigation and became masters
of small vessels engaged in inter-island voyages. Golovnin noted in 1818,” that
the natives possess no inconsiderable share of maritime and commercial
enterprise. The king and chiefs own fifteen or sixteen vessels, several of which
……. Are brigs of ninty or a hundred tons burden. The greater part of them,
however, are schooners of a smaller size. The larger ones on a long voyage are
commanded by a foreigner, but among the islands, they were manned and navigated
by the natives themselves. A native Captain and supercargo is appointed to each;
the former navigates the vessel, while the latter attends to the cargo. The
natives in general make good sailors; and although their vessels have greatly
multiplied within the last few years, they find themselves in constant employ
for them, particularly the small craft, which are continually plying from one
island to another, while their larger ones are either chartered to foreign
merchants, or make distant voyages on their own account.”
In 1817, Kamehameha sent a ship under his own flag with a cargo of sandalwood to
China. The voyage was financially unprofitable, but gave the King a valuable
insight into the practice of foreign governmants in the matter of port charges (
harbor and tonnage dues and pilot fees ) and led him to fix a schedule of such
charges for the Port of Honolulu. From 1821 onward, several ships were sent by
Kalanimoku, Kaumualii, and Boki on trading voyages to islands of the Coast of
America. The evidence indicates that some of these voyages were moderately
successful.
The sandalwood trade exacted a heavy price in human life and health to the
native Hawaiian. Lacking food and suffering from an excessive workload, many of
the laborers died, contributing to the general decline in the Hawaiian
population. As the labor force was drawn away from the fields and fish ponds;
less time and energy were devoted to subsistence crops, Society began turning to
the market economy, and the new foreign trade articles and luxery goods became
necessities, particularly for Hawaiian leaders. The whaling industry had a major
effect upon Hawaiian commerce and trade. Frozen out of traditional hunting areas
by the Europeans, American whaling ships began to sail farther and farther into
the Pacific. In the autumn of 1819 the first whalers ( the Balena, also known as
the Bellina or Balaena ) of New Bedford and the Equator of Nantucket, dropped
anchor in the Hawaiian Islands. A year later, Captain Joseph Allen discovered
large concentrations of sperm whales off the coast of Japan. His find was widely
publicized in New England, setting off an exodus of whalers to this area. These
ships might have sought provisions in Japan, except that Japanese ports were
closed to foreign ships. So when Captain Allen befriended the missionaries at
Honolulu and Lahaina, he helped establish these areas as the major ports of call
for whalers.
Within a few years, dozens of whaling ships were calling at the Sandwich
Islands. Because the islands were centrally located --- close to summer whaling
in the north and winter hunting near the equator –they were  logical choice for
the Pacific base of operations. The friendly natives and mild climate of the
islands especially appealed to the whalers after long voyages aboard cramped,
dirty, evil-smelling ships. Twice a year ( spring and fall ) the northern
Pacific whalers put ashore at Honolulu and Lahaina for up to three months at a
time, taking on large quanities of fresh provisions, fruit, and vegetables.
Supplies of clothing, sail, and other items were stocked for the ships’ stores.
Several hundred sailors from the ships went ashore during each visit, demanding
additional supplies and entertainment.
The number of American whalers and trading ships in Hawaii reached its zenith in
the 1840s and 1850s. By that time many of the larger mercantile houses of the
American East Coast were operating in the Pacific, and a whole range of service
and commercial industries began to flourish in the major port towns to serve the
whalers and traders. Many of these commercial agents and traders had purchased
land at Honolulu and Lahaina with profits from the Sandalwood trade. The traders
purchased the whaler’s bills of exchange and stored their whale oil. Because
local supplies were inadequate to service whaling ships, the traders imported
goods from Boston and shipped whale oil and whalebone there in return. By 1831
stores belonging to “several respectable American merchants” on O’ahu contained
“ all the necessary articles of American manufacture; the productions of the
China market, wines, and almost every article of sea store.
The income from these retail outlets amounted to perhaps $100,000 per year.
There were also numerous other businesses in Honolulu, including two hotels, two
billiard rooms, and ten or twleve publis houses selling spirits. Ships
chandlers, shipyards, and warehouses took in large profits. The shipyards at
Honolulu were especially important to the whalers, for their ships coulkd unload
their cargoes and be repaired and refitted for another six months of whaling.
The whalers’ voyages could be prolonged for as many as four years without having
to return to home port.
The 1840 discovery of another whaling ground off the coast of Siberia caused a
dramatic increase in whaling ship visits to the island ports. Many of the firms
established during that period continued in business into the twentieth century.
The whaling industry had another aspect as whaling was the first capitalistic
venture which truly involved the Hawaiian people. Increased revenue came from
fees and import duties charged on whale products. Many Hawaiians worked in the
shipyards and warehouses. In addition, thousands of Hawaiians shipped out as
seamen aboard the whaling ships, so many that the crews were often half
Hawaiian. Many of these sailors, through death or emigration, failed to return
to the islands, profoundly changing the face of Hawaiian society. 
The American Civil War, the discovery of petroleum at Titusville, and the
discimation of the whales ended the reign of the whalers in the Pacific by about
1876. Whaling had been an economic force of awesome proportions in the islands
for more than forty years, enabling King Kamehameha III to finally pay off the
national debts accumulated in earlier years.

NOTE: The Bishop Museum contains a listing of Hawaiian Seaman who were on
Whaling ships, their rate of pay, names of the ships, and Captains from Honolulu.
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Wiki Mo’olelo part 22 next.


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