House Correspondence [HC]
Overview
This comprises the most important part of the firm’s nineteenth century archives [although the ledgers and other account books occupy more space]. In the late-1820s record keeping procedures were reorganised and from 1830 each year a deed box was opened to hold the most important letters received by the firm in the previous year. Most were received by partners and therefore relate to the most important transactions; there is relatively little material relating to routine business. The letters were bundled up according to their geographical area of origin and not by name of correspondent. Storing the letters in such an organised and secure way doubtless ensured their survival, an assertion supported by the non-survival of virtually all the pre-1830 correspondence.
In most cases House Correspondence has been catalogued according to geographical location of the correspondent. Thus there are sections in the catalogue for most countries in Western Europe, North and South America and the Far East as well as Russia and India. The exceptions to this are ‘commercial intelligence’, ‘proposals for business’ and ‘ship management papers’ where geographical location is irrelevant.