Exhibitions George White, Barings’ Troubleshooter

George Henry White (1817-1889) was a Barings' clerk from 1834 to 1872 when he retired. By the mid-nineteenth century White had become one of the most senior clerks at Barings and was appointed the firm's trouble-shooter. When a difficult transaction needed to be negotiated or some bad debts collected, White was the man who was sent abroad to do the job.

White was sent to sort out matters in Argentina, France and Italy. His major mission was to Mexico in 1862 and 1863 in order to negotiate with the Mexican government for the resumption of payments to bondholders in London. The mission was unsuccessful, however, during his stay White wrote frequently to Barings in London and his letters survive today in The Baring Archive. They give vivid details of the politics, economy and society of Mexico at a time when France was endeavouring to place Mexico under the control of the Emperor Maximillian. In addition, White, who was a talented artist, painted a series of eighty water-colours of the Mexican landscape. This written and pictorial record provides a remarkable insight into Mexico in the middle of the nineteenth century.

White survived his time in Mexico and returned to Barings' Bishopgate office. He carried out a further mission to Italy but these adventures had taken their toll on his health. He retired in 1873 aged 56 at a time when clerks often worked into their seventies. In this exhibition you can learn more about his adventures and read his own eye-witness accounts of his experiences abroad.

Born in 1817 at Tolleshunt d'Arcy in Essex, George White was the son of a farmer. George moved to London with his sister Elizabeth and brother, Richard. Their father, who died in 1854 aged 83, and their eldest brother, a shopkeeper, remained in Essex.

In 1844 the White household comprising of George, Elizabeth and Richard was resident at 41 Cumming Street near King’s Cross, an area undergoing rapid development. It was not a fashionable area and in 1845 the Whites moved to the smarter climes of Peckham where they could rely on the Brighton and South Coast and South Eastern Railway to take them to their work in the City via London Bridge Station. They lived at 15 Hanover Street and then at Lyndhurst Road. Later they moved to Clapham Park.

George White found his way to Barings in 1834. He seized the opportunities offered to him at Barings and progressed swiftly through the ranks. By 1850 White was working closely with Thomas Baring, the senior partner, doing detailed analysis, planning and due diligence for bond issues. By the time of his retirement he was senior confidential clerk, number two in the hierarchy.

In 1852 White's gifts were first recognised when the partners picked him out to accompany Major Ferdinand White (no relation) to Buenos Aires.

I find him an agreeable companion and a most useful assistant

Major Ferdinand White comments on George White

White sent Bishopsgate commercial reports on leading houses and on the economy and government of Buenos Aires.

It was on this mission that White proved his calibre. Three years later in 1856 he was travelling to and from Paris as Barings’ emissary in order to persuade the French government to pay up for huge wheat purchases (12 million francs) that Barings had made on its behalf. "The whole machinery is very cumbrous and excruciatingly slow" he complained in his letter back to the Barings' office at 8 Bishopsgate. The French Treasury man with whom he dealt was "very awkward" to manage and made "large demands on my patience… but I have fortunately kept on excellent terms with him". For several months White’s only concrete achievement was to purchase china fish dishes for Thomas Baring but on New Year’s Eve the money came to hand and George had triumphed.

White had little time to glory in his triumph. In his last letter from Paris on Boxing Day 1856 he wrote of his readiness to go out to undertake another mission "although I should be glad to have learnt that you had found a better diplomatist for the business." The business was in Argentina and Barings' partners could think of no better man for the job than White.

On 7 January 1857 White received his formal instructions to proceed to Buenos Aires in on the ship Tamar. White was being sent to grapple again with that vexed 25-year old problem of the still unpaid 1824 Buenos Aires bonds.

You must exercise your discretion in urging upon the minister such improvements in the original proposals as may be put forward with hopes of success and without endangering the chance of a definite conclusion.

Barings to White, August 1857

Following an eventful voyage to Argentina White arrived in Buenos Aires to find that more formal diplomacy had already been completed and a solution seemed at hand. The country’s financial position had been transformed since his 1852/53 visit and was now ‘very favourable’ with a ‘handsome balance in the treasury’ and the revenue for 1857 ‘likely to be very large’.

For White, Buenos Aires was a brilliant success. He threw himself in to the negotiations taking a low profile as possible as the Buenos Aires government would have preferred to have sorted out matters by correspondence. By October, he was triumphant: "I have come to an arrangement which is certainly better than I had expected to make and which certainly ought to satisfy all parties interested. The government were certainly pleased that the improvement of the terms should appear to come spontaneously from themselves and take the form of a graceful concession rather than of a constrained compliance with demands from the bondholders…". White returned a hero and was rewarded with a £1,000 bonus, ten times his usual bonus amount.

The first inkling of White's next adventure came in a letter from David Robertson, chairman of the Spanish American bondholders to Thomas Baring. Robertson had been hugely impressed by White's performance in Buenos Aires. He hoped White's "so very modest and unassuming" manner would not have stood in the way of him recounting to the partners their recent conversation "about a very important point. Could we not have him appointed English commissioner in Mexico for the statement of British claims?" Of course Barings' partners were happy to oblige and White was off on his travels again.

In March 1862 George White, acting as Agent of the Committee of Mexican Bondholders arrived off Vera Cruz with a junior clerk, Carey Bowden, to negotiate with the government for settlement of its sterling debt in default.

One thing is certain that the country is entirely exhausted by the long state of anarchy under which it has been labouring, that business is almost wholly suspended, and the government without resources.

White to Barings, March 1862

Their arrival coincided with the shabby military and naval expedition to Mexico by France, Britain and Spain which ended up with France placing Mexico under its puppet, the Emperor Maximillian. White was an observant witness to the to-ing and fro-ing of the French army across the Mexican landscape.

On the 20th April, the French established their control over Orizaba and issued a ‘pronunciamento’ in favour of their puppet, General Almonte. It was the first real manifestation of their desire to control Mexico and White found himself unwittingly in the midst of it. ‘I witnessed… [the pronunciamento] as it occurred in the hotel in which I am living,’ he reported ‘A crowd of people ran into the General’s room and went through a series of “vivas”, let off two or three rockets on the balcony and then retired. Some three or four hundred people then marched down the street repeating the “vivas” and the ceremony was complete’.

Despite the political situation White was doggedly determined to carry out his mission. He kept the partners well informed with his colourful accounts of Mexico's turmoil.

White's first contact with the Mexican government came in late April 1862 when an interview with the new Finance Minister, General Doblado was granted him.

I lost my watch and all the money I had with me, only a few dollars, and received several wounds to the head.

White to Barings, April 1863

The bondholders' case was listened to with patience but the minister responded that "the government was now without resources, not having even the Customs House at Vera Cruz in its hands"; from May it had been controlled by the French. Matters did not improve and late May found White pursuing Doblado to Puebla - having a narrow escape from death at the hands of a drunken Mexican soldier and becoming embroiled in a general French retreat that sent White hotfoot to Mexico City.

Doblado did sterling work in holding the Mexican government together until his resignation in August, but there was nothing to be done for the bondholders.

On the face of it there was little point in remaining in Mexico. White freely admitted, except to prevent "mischief" in the absence of a British force to counterbalance the other powers. So he remained, watching the defences of Mexico City being erected and learning of the terrible atrocities inflicted as the French finally captured Puebla after a bloody siege lasting two months. White had his own safety to consider: in early April 1863, when walking outside Mexico City, ruffians set upon him. A month later he was still confined to his quarters, not, he said, "from inability to go out, but from the necessity of still wearing complicated bandages". Only on the 22 May could he report that "the wounds in my head are now healed".

White's recovery came not a moment too soon. The French were about to invade Mexico City.

With Puebla fallen the French marched on Mexico City. The Mexican government, recognising their overwhelming weakness, decided to evacuate and White witnessed the public archives and "considerable sums of money" being sent in wagons from the city, followed by the government, its bureaucracy and its troops.

I do not think my presence here can be of any essential service and I shall probably return to England towards the end of the year.

White to Baring Brothers

Mexico City was now entirely without defence or police. White was part of a guard formed of 400 Spaniards, 80 Germans and 40 English and Belgians to keep order in the city. By mid June 1863, the occupation of the capital by the French was entirely secure.

From then on White was a careful and patient observer as the French schemed to place the Austrian Archduke Maximilian on to the throne of the Mexican Empire. There was little else to do. He was getting nowhere in settling bondholders claims and in August was quite sure that "the time has not arrived for taking a sufficiently accurate and complete account of the resources and liabilities of the country and is, I fear, still remote. White returned on the November packet, his task not achieved but through no fault of his own, and correctly prophesising that disaster lay ahead for France. The French, he was sure, had gravely misjudged not just Mexican wealth and the spirit of the Mexican people, but the guerrilla war which was about to break out and for which the French army would be so hopelessly unprepared.

In December 1863 he arrived home, safe and sound but the mission had taken its toll on his health

White carried out other missions, notably to Italy, before his health broke down in 1872. Early retirement put an end to his reign over the General Office. It was an age when a clerk could expect to continue at his desk until his seventies, White was only 55 years old.

My poor friend Mr George White of whom I have long had so high an opinion and sincere regard is I fear very unwell at Ventnor.

David Robertson to Baring Brothers, November 1872

David Robertson, Chairman of the Spanish American Bondholders wrote to the partners in November 1872: "Do you think that he will ever be able again for the heavy detail work which he did not hesitate to undertake in Bishopsgate Street, and after a faithful service of I believe upwards of 40 years and his having accomplished the great and good work at Buenos Ayres, and done what he could in Mexico, you might think it proper of handsomely allowing him to retire with his salary for life which might be prolonged by some quieter occupation".

And so it was that George White, still a bachelor, retired to Torquay where he lived with his sister for a further 20 years, throwing himself energetically into the town's burgeoning cultural life. He was a member of the Torquay Natural History Society gifting his library to the Society's reading rooms, now at Torquay Museum.

White's letters to Bishopsgate form some of the most fascinating parts of The Baring Archive. His hundred or so highly competent watercolours of Mexico and Italy, painted on his foreign missions, form the more indelible mark of a clerk who is gone but certainly not forgotten.