Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Fri, 30 Dec 2005 02:05:51 -0500 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Paul,
While I have no official information, I have read that Spanish sailors
carried slop chests full of trade goods to the Americas in the 16th and 17th
centuries. Also, both sailors and soldiers set up shop here in San Diego during
the mid 19th century selling goods they either brought with them or traded from
ships to be resold. The "Bleeker Store" at La Playa in San Diego operated
from about 1848 until 1862 and was still mentioned in the tax rolls up to the
1880s. Bleeker was an American soldier from the Mexican War who bought land,
built a store over the shallows on stilts and sold goods in his off hours to
the many visitors. Sailors seemed to be the source for his goods, which
included clay smoking pipes and table ware. Although no archaeology has been done
down there, utility trenches bought up 60% of a Chinese Trade Porcelain plate
with hand-painted birds that matches a pattern reported from the Diaz Adobe up
in Monterey from the 1820s-1840s vintage.
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.
|
|
|