Report on the California sea otter pelt trade, 1786 September 14.

1 item (26 p.) ; 31 cm

Spanish

In Spanish.

Purchased from William Reese Co. on the Frederick W. and Carrie S. Beinecke Fund for Western Americana, 2007.

This material is open for research.

Vicente Basadre y Vega (1750-1828), Mexico City merchant, received royal approval in 1784 to hunt sea otter pelts on the California coast.

Report, manuscript copy in an unidentified contemporary hand, made to Spanish officials by Vincente Basadre y Vega regarding his project to harvest sea otter pelts on the California coast and trade them for quicksilver in Mexico, the Philippines, and Macau. Basadre y Vega describes his effort to train Native Californians in the Spanish missions to hunt sea otters on the Princesa Real, supervised by the missionaries, and send the pelts to the trading port in the San Blas Islands. Basadre y Vega also petitions the governor of California, Pedro Fages, for additional boats to use in the hunt.

August 23, 2016

Vincente Basadre y Vega, Report on the California Sea Otter Pelt Trade. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Vincente Basadre y Vega, Report on the California Sea Otter Pelt Trade. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Merchants Mexico 19th century.