1809 | Commerce
Commerce
The St. Louis Fur Company is founded early in the year by fur traders and explorers who include René Auguste Chouteau, now 59; his son Pierre, 20; William Clark, now 38, Pennsylvania-born Andrew Henry, 33; and New Orleans-born fur trader Manuel Lisa, 36. The company sends an expedition of 350 men up the Missouri River and will continue to operate for the next 5 years.
The British minister to Washington assures President Madison that Britain will repeal her 1807 Orders in Council, Madison withdraws the 15-month-old U.S. embargo on trade with Britain imposed late in 1807, 1,200 ships sail for British ports, but London says its ambassador has exceeded his authority and trade halts once again (see 1811).
Britain repeals her 1563 Statute of Apprentices in the name of "economic freedom." Parliament also repeals other measures that have protected British workers.
Robert Owen proposes to his partners that they stop employing children under age 10 in their cotton mills and build nurseries, schools, playgrounds, and lecture halls for the people of New Lanark (see 1806). His partners reject the proposals, Owen finds new partners to buy out the old ones, but they "objected to the building of the schools, and said they were cotton-spinners and commercial men carrying on business for profit, and had nothing to do with educating children; nobody did it in the manufactories." Owen finds a London group that will go into business with him on the promise of a reasonable return on capital rather than of exorbitant profits; the group includes Jeremy Bentham (see 1789), Quakers William Allen and James Walker, and the future lord mayor Michael Gibbs (see 1814).
A pamphlet entitled "The High Price of Bullion a Proof of the Depreciation of Bank-Notes" by London broker David Ricardo, 37, will be influential in determining British economic policy. It establishes Ricardo as a major economic theorist (see 1811; 1817).
Bank Bill Test by inventor Jacob Perkins is published at Newburyport, Massachusetts. Hoping to eliminate some of the confusion arising from the circulation of counterfeit as well as genuine bank notes, Perkins includes illustrations of "original impressions from the permanent stereotype steel plates of Massachusetts paper currency [Perkins patented a stereotype steel plate printing process in 1799 that the Massachusetts legislature adopted 6 years ago] together with the standard check plate, which will apply equally to every bank in the United States."