John Leamy (merchant)

In a time where Spanish mercantilist policy was the primary obstacle to trade, Leamy established relationships with Spanish officials to gain preferred access to trade licenses. Beginning during the Spanish involvement in the American Revolution, he performed personal favors, such as making deliveries for Francisco Rendón and providing a house for ambassador Josef de Jáudenes. He strengthened these bonds through shared Roman Catholicism and patronage of the City Tavern.[4][5]

Merchants like Leamy "exhibited extreme flexibility in business dealings, including the willingness to ship provisions by indirect routes, to pay off corrupt bureaucrats, and even to transport slaves to gain admittance to ports that were officially closed." After 1792 he achieved a "commanding presence" in the Spanish trade, while "those who acted differently simply did not succeed."[6]

Rather than competing with other North American merchants, he cooperated strongly with New Yorkers John and Thomas Stoughton. They were never formal partners, but Leamy acted as their insurance broker while the Stoughtons chartered and provisioned his ships.[7] They worked together to exploit the opportunities offered by Spanish officials.[8] As agent he used his brother James Leamy, who lived in Havana until his death in 1798,[9] while other merchants suffered from using unreliable correspondents.[10]

In March 1788 an advertisement showed "Leamy and Elliot", but by December Leamy was in business on his own account.[1] In the late 1780s Leamy traded with peninsular Spain, Spanish Louisiana, and the Spanish and French Caribbean. He was the first to advertise licorice in a Philadelphia newspaper, and in 1789 he was a very heavy advertiser of raw cotton imported from Cartagena in New Granada (modern-day Colombia); he may have been the first American to import goods from that area.[11] The City Directory of 1791 lists him as "Agent for His Catholic Majesty", Charles IV of Spain, but it remains unclear what this entailed.[12] By passing on secret information from peninsular Spain to the colonies, Leamy acted similarly to a consul, though he held no diplomatic title.[2]

By 1793 he was more focused on peninsular Spain and Cuba. Primarily he exported flour, bringing on average 2,000 barrels per voyage to Cuba, and returning to the United States with gold and silver specie. He was responsible for transporting over $100,000 worth of specie from Havana to Philadelphia in 1794 alone.[13] The volume of this trade was such that the Cuban economy regularly became drained of specie and suffered food shortages as a result.[14]

After a temporary lifting of trade restrictions, on November 28, 1798, Leamy's frigate John arrived at Montevideo carrying lumber, becoming the first United States vessel to enter the Río de la Plata.[15] It probably returned with wool, hides and beef.[16]

Some of the ships Leamy owned or insured were captured in the Quasi-War, contributing to the French spoliation claims.[17]

To reduce the risk of his operations Leamy helped found the Insurance Company of North America in 1792. He was a director and at first its best customer, with the company archives offering extensive evidence of his insured ventures, but he left it in late 1806 to found the Marine and Fire Insurance Company.[18]

Compared to the early years of success, Leamy's business was stymied from 1802 to 1807, the time Valentín de Foronda spent as Spain's consul-general in Philadelphia. Foronda was much more interested than his predecessors in strict enforcement of Spanish law, at the expense of Leamy's trade.[19] U.S.–Spanish trade was becoming more accessible, but after 1807 Leamy shifted toward domestic business,[20] especially marine insurance.[21]