Charles Bulfinch and the other financial backers…
September 1787 CE
Charles Bulfinch and the other financial backers have come up with the idea of trading pelts from the northwest coast of North America and taking them directly to China after Bulfinch had read about Captain Cook’s success doing the same.
Bulfinch had read Cook’s Journals, published in 1784, that in part discuss his success selling sea otter pelts in Canton, and thus the American merchants think they can copy that success.
Prior to this, other America traders, such as Robert Morris, had sent ships to trade with China, notably the Empress of China in 1784, but had had trouble finding goods for which the Chinese would trade.
Bulfinch’s learning of Cook's pelt-trading solves this problem, so that New England sea merchants can trade with China profitably.
On September 30, 1787, Captain Robert Gray and John Kendrick leave Boston in two ships, to trade along the north Pacific coast on behalf of a syndicate of Boston merchants, including Charles Bulfinch.