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A Glasgow Firm in the Indian Market: John Lean and Sons, Muslin Weavers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Anthony Slaven
Anthony Slaven
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Economic History, University of Glasgow
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Abstract

This paper sketches the formation and expansion of a Scottish company engaged in the Indian trade, and follows its attempts to formulate policies to meet the changing demands of an overseas market known only through long delayed and often conflicting reports from abroad.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , Winter 1969 , pp. 496 - 522
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1969

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References

1 This article is based on the early ledgers and letter books of the company. I would like to thank Mr. W. G. P. Fraser of Mavor & Coulson, Ltd., who gave generously of his time and knowledge, and made the reconstruction of the accounts possible. I would also like to thank my colleague Professor Peter L. Payne for his constructive criticism of an earlier draft.

2 Private summary of the firm's history written by the manager, 1904, 1. Subsequently referred to as Private History.

3 The eldest son, John Lean junior, had lived in Glasgow for some years. He was involved in the setting up of the business in 1840, but had withdrawn by 1844.

4 Private History, 3.

5 Consignments were dispatched and sales made throughout the year, but the most active season for Glasgow goods in India lay between early November and late May; that is in the dry season between the waning of the winter and onset of the summer monsoons. The movement of “Up-Country” dealers was restricted during the monsoon.

6 Private History, 4.

7 Lean to Ritchie, Stewart & Co., Bombay, November 7, 1853.

8 Private History, 5; Lean to John Lawson, Camlachie, June 23, 1857.

9 Private History, 5.

10 Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Calcutta, May 25, 1857.

11 For a discussion of typical accounting practices, see Pollard, S., The Genesis of Modern Management: A Study of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain (London, 1965), 209–249Google Scholar; with reference to profit and interest, ibid., 233n.

12 Ibid., 235.

13 Ibid., 236.

14 Ibid., 242.

15 Lean to Lawson, Norton & Co., London, re agents, Leach, Diggles & Co., Calcutta, April 21, 1852.

16 Lean to Ritchie, Stewart & Co., Bombay, April 23, 1852.

17 Ibid.

18 Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Calcutta, May 21, 1852.

19 Ibid., September 24, 1858.

20 Ibid., May 21, 1852.

21 Ibid.

22 Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Rangoon, June 9, 1856.

23 Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Calcutta, June 9, 1856.

24 Ibid., November 8, 1856.

25 Lean to Finlay, Scott & Co., Bombay, August 9, 1856.

26 Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Calcutta, March 25, 1857.

27 Ibid., June 9, 1856.

28 Ibid.

29 Ibid., January 25, 1855.

30 Ibid., January 8, 1856.

31 For a discussion of the economics of an agency system see Peter Payne, L., Rubber and Railways in the Nineteenth Century (Liverpool, 1961), 72–73.Google Scholar

32 “The mail of 2nd June has this morning come to hand.” Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Calcutta, July 19, 1852. For the importance of time in the American trade see, Cole, Arthur H., “The Tempo of Mercantile Life in Colonial America,” Business History Review, XXXIII (Autumn, 1959), 277–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 “Your letter of 3rd June has just come to hand.” Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Calcutta, July 9, 1861.

34 “Telegrams received in Glasgow today dated 12 January….” ibid., February 2, 1863.

35 Lean to Finlay, Scott & Co., Bombay, December 17, 1863.

36 Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Calcutta, April 22, 1852.

37 Ibid.

38 Ibid., May 23, 1853.

39 Ibid., March 23, 1853.

40 Ibid., April 9, 1856.

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid.

43 Lean to Arbuthnot & Co., Madras, May 9, 1856.

44 Ibid.

45 Ibid.

46 Times of India, Viceroy Supplement, February 8, 1922. A survey of Gladstone & Co.'s, interests in the East is published in a private history by Gladstone, John S., History of Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co., and Ogilvy, Gillanders & Co. (London 1910).Google Scholar I am indebted to Professor S. G. Checkland for this reference.

47 Lean to Finlay, Scott & Co., Bombay, September 25, 1857.

48 Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Calcutta, September 25, 1857.

49 Ibid.

50 Ibid., November 9, 1857.

51 Ibid., November 25, 1857.

52 Ibid.

53 Ibid., August 24, 1858.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid., September 8, 1858.

56 Ibid., January 25, 1859.

57 Ibid., April 25, 1859. For a detailed account of the tariff see Parshad, I. D., Some Aspects of India's Foreign Trade (London, 1932).Google Scholar See also, Redford, A., Manchester Merchants and Foreign Trade (Manchester, 1956), II, 21n.Google Scholar

58 Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Calcutta, April 25, 1859.

59 Lean to Finlay, Scott & Co., Bombay, May 17, 1859.

60 Ibid., August 2, 1859.

61 Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Calcutta, August 25, 1859.

62 Ibid., March 24, 1860.

63 Lean to Finlay, Scott & Co., Bombay, January 17, 1861.

64 Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Calcutta, March 9, 1861.

65 Ibid., September 25, 1861. The following firms agreed on short-time working. The Lancefield Spinning Co., J. H. Young & Co., J. & K. Cogan, Forest, Frew & Co., J. & K. Cochran & Co., John Lean & Sons, and all the “large factories engaged in the manufacture of Printing Cloths.” For the social impact of the cotton famine see, Henderson, W. O., “The Cotton Famine in Scotland and the Relief of Distress,” Scottish Historical Review, XXX (1951).Google Scholar

66 Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Calcutta, November 9, 1861.

67 Ibid., November 16, 1861.

68 Ibid., November 25, 1861.

69 Ibid.

70 Ibid., December 2, 1861.

71 Ibid., January 9, 1862.

72 Ibid., April 25, 1862.

73 Lean to Wallace & Co., Bombay, May 2, 1862.

74 Ibid., July 2, 1862.

75 Lean to Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., Calcutta, July 25, 1862.

76 Ibid.

77 Ibid., February 9, 1863.

78 Ibid., February 25, 1864. For an account of the quality of British cotton exports to India, see Sandberg, Lars G., “Movements in the Quality of British Cotton Textile Exports, 1815–1913,” Journal of Economic History, XXVII (Spring 1968), 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

79 Lean to Durham, Sons & Co., Rio De Janeiro, June 8, 1852. Lean to Rodgers Bros. & Co., Monte Video, June 23, 1852.