1794 - Commerce

Commerce

The 450-ton ship John Jay sent out to Guangzhou (Canton) from Providence by the firm Brown & Benson (formerly Nicholas Brown & Co., later Brown & Ives) carries a cargo valued at $34,550 and will return with one worth $250,000 (see 1787). Such huge profits will encourage others to enter the China trade.

The 2-year-old Insurance Company of North America (later Cigna) issues the first U.S. life-insurance policy, insuring the life of a sea captain against death during a voyage. The policy includes a clause promising benefits in the event that Barbary Coast pirates capture the captain. The Pennsylvania state legislature approves a bill to incorporate the company, which issues its first fire-insurance policy, covering German dry goods in a house at Philadelphia.

Eli Whitney patents his 1792 cotton gin and sets up a company with Mrs. Nathanael Greene's second husband, Phineas Miller, to establish gins at central points for processing planters' green-seed cotton. But others infringe on the patent, Whitney earns nothing from his cotton gin, and Miller will lose a fortune trying in vain to fight patent infringers (see 1798).