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Photographer: Joseph Alvarado
Taken: April 26, 2022
Caption: Custom House Interior
Additional Description: Monterey in 1823

Nineteenth century visitors approaching Monterey from the ocean often described the attractive scene – red-roofed, white adobe houses scattered “like so many bullocks” on the green hills near the presidio. Mexican California’s capital and main port for 25 years, the tiny hamlet was the center of the territory’s civil, military, and commercial life.

Spain’s vast empire in the Americas was slipping from the imperial grasp, and in 1821 Mexico declared its independence. But the unstable new nation offered no funds to administer California, sent no regular supply ships, and provided few leaders acceptable to Californios. In one five-year period, the province had 11 different territorial administrators.

Mexico eased Spain’s restrictive trade policy and opened Monterey to foreign commerce. English merchant William Hartnell hurried north from Peru and secured a contract to buy cattle hides and tallow from many California missions. Within a month, Boston’s Bryant & Sturgis Company had an agent in Monterey. Boston won out, and the hide trade led to California’s economic annexation be New England, and in time, to the American political takeover.
Submitted: June 28, 2022, by Joseph Alvarado of Livermore, California.
Database Locator Identification Number: p664088
File Size: 7.193 Megabytes

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