[Collection of Business Correspondence Documenting the International Commercial Activities of Corner & Robinson, a West Virginia Company Operating Through Baltimore and Hence to Brazil and Argentina]

[Various locations, including Baltimore, Bahia, 1839. Very good.. Fourteen autograph letters, signed and twenty-three manuscript receipts, totaling approximately forty-four pages. Occasional minor chipping, wear, browning, or staining, but overall a well-preserved and highly legible group. A collection of manuscript letters and receipts documenting the commercial activities of Corner & Robinson, based in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia) and Baltimore, and doing business in Brazil and Argentina. The merchant firm Corner & Robinson was owned and operated by Solomon Corner, his brother James Corner, and various associates, some of whom write letters present here. Most of the documents were written to Solomon Corner (with one letter written by him), who served as the supercargo for the Brig Globe, a merchant ship based in Baltimore and engaged in commerce in South America. The letters are sent from various locations, mostly Baltimore, but also southern ports in Bahia, Porto Alegre, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro.

The manuscript letters include letters of introduction for Solomon Corner written by associates in Bahia and Baltimore to merchants in Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires; letters of instruction for operating in Rio de Janeiro and other locations, with instructions for disposing of various goods; letters delineating quantities of products being sent to South America; a letter reporting on the current state of various goods and the movements of other ships in Solomon's sphere, a letter asking Solomon to place a standing order for products his brother might concentrate on finding in Baltimore, and other business matters. The products being shipped for sale in South America include rosin, flour, mackerel, whale oil, sugar, butter ("scarce"), sherry, coffee, chocolate, dried apples, and more. One of the longer letters includes detailed instructions for Solomon on offloading quantities of straw paper.

The receipts document the commercial activities of Corner & Robinson through a stable of wholesale merchants with whom they dealt, and document the types of goods the company acquired from these wholesalers. The goods include many of the products mentioned above, plus others such as hides, raisins, tea, cloves, Epson salts, pepper, twine, and more. One particularly interesting document, entitled "Statement of Shipment of Hides from Rio Grande to Baltimore, per Brig Globe in co. with John Gardner & co.," includes a line item cost in which Solomon's associate Gardner "Paid Negroes for beating Hides at Rio Grande" in Argentina. Most of the receipts indicate the goods were being sent to Solomon in Wheeling.