Oliver Wolcott (1760-1833), was U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1795 to 1800; U.S. Circuit Court judge, Second Circuit, from 1800-1802; and governor of Connecticut from 1817 to 1827. Wolcott also served as comptroller of the state and presided over the 1818 constitutional convention which formulated the constitution for Connecticut. He was deeply involved in mercantile and banking affairs in New York City during his hiatus from public service. In 1803 Wolcott established the firm of Oliver Wolcott & Company, commission merchants, in partnership with James Watson, Moses Rogers, Archibald Gracie, and William W. Woolsey, in New York City. The firm dissolved in 1805, and Wolcott continued as an independent merchant, primarily in the China trade. Letterbook of Oliver Wolcott & Company, 1803-1805, and of Oliver Wolcott, 1805-1808, contains copies of outgoing letters, some in the hand of Oliver Wolcott, documenting mercantile, real property, and other domestic and foreign commercial transactions. Letters concern the trade in fur and tea with Canton, China; importation of coffee and sugar from Batavia, Java; importation of pepper, salt petre and other commodities from Calcutta, India; exportation of tobacco to Holland and France; trade with Portugal and Barbados; prices and methods of doing business; voyages of the ships Triton and Trident; and the impact of the Napoleonic wars and the Embargo Act on American shipping and commerce. Recipients include, among others, Theodore Dwight, William P. Cleveland, Asa and Daniel Hopkins, David Humphreys, Baring Brothers & Company, and Canton hong merchants Cheonqua and Houqua.
