Another company with strong ties to the United States had a vested interest in the growing conflict between Bolivia, Peru, and Chile.The Grace Company was one of Meigg's chief sources for supplies for building the railroads. In the late 1800s, the Grace Company built a wide ranging trade with Peru, in paper, chemicals, and mining and dealt in consumer goods as kerosene, furniture, lumber, lard, fish, canned goods, crackers, textiles, billiard tables, and Singer sewing machines.
At 19 years old, William Russell Grace arrived in Peru in 1851 on the Louisa with his father and 180 other passengers. Seeking relief from the Irish potato famine, many of them had been brought from Ireland to be laborers on a sugar plantation. Soon after arrival, W.R. Grace found work as a clerk for John Bryce, a merchant in Callao.
Grace built a profitable business supplying goods to the guano fleet anchored off the Chincha Islands, 100 miles south of Callao. He stocked an old barge and lived aboard the vessel, thus providing the guano miners convenient access to needed items. In 1859, he married the daughter of Captain George Gilchrest.
Grace left Peru in 1860, settling in New York in 1865, where he later served two terms as Mayor of New York. He maintained his business interests in the western coast of South America. By then he had formed a partnership with Bryce called Bryce, Grace and Company. The company made transportation arrangements and secured ships, mainly between Peru and Europe.
The partnership between the families Bryce and Grace ended in 1876, to be replaced in Peru with the Grace Brothers Company, or Casa Grace. Michael Grace, his brother, handled company affairs in Peru, along with other agents, Charles R. Flint and W.R. Graces's nephew, Ned Eyre. W.R. Grace expanded his company's business into the ownership of Peruvian sugar plantations, as well as the shipping and distribution of nitrates in the United States. Grace Brothers transported 75 Chinese laborers from California to work in his grape and cotton plantations.
In New York, Grace set up an allied company, W.R. Grace and Company, from capital built during his short time in Peru. Some of his business clients included Henry Meiggs and the major French trader in guano, Dreyfus Brothers. Grace's company helped stock the Dreyfus ships before their trips to Europe.
In 1953, Peter Grace would describe his grandfather, William R. Grace, thusly:
"His was the business philosphy of optimism, and faith in fair dealings; of the
joy and satisfaction of constructive work; of courage in adversity and zest for
the game. It was the philosophy of business diversification, of constantly
thinking decades ahead, yet not hobbling foresight with mere dreaming; it was
belief in the men on his team and backing them to the hilt, with supreme
confidence that a job well done would win the day. He believed in
boundless industry but never to the point where work was not fun. He was
dedicated to practical Pan-Americanism. He firmly acknowledged his duty to serve
and love his God and Country." (Grace, 1953, p. 9)
Financing of the company moved from Peru to New York, in part due to the participation of the British firm, Baring Brothers. With the growth of railroads in the U.S., W. R. Grace was able to take advantage of shipping from either coast to build his supply routes to both coasts of Latin America.
As of 1953, the W.R. Grace company operated shipping services along South America's west coast, owned Peruvian textile mills, Chilean nitrate businesses, sugar plantations, and Brazilian rubber industries. His company continued to ship agricultural and electrical equipment to South America, and built a banking capability. W.R. Grace promoted the building of the Panama Canal, and was a close associate of key leaders in Peru and the United States. (Grace, 1953)
Resources:
Clayton, Lawrence. 1985. Grace: W.R. Grace & Co. The formative years 1850-1930. Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson. 403 pp.
Grace, J. Peter Jr. 1953. W. R. Grace (1932-1904) and the enterprises he created. New York, Newcomen Society, 1953. 28 pp.
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