Financial History 25th Anniversary Special Edition (104, Fall 2012) | Page 16

EDUCATORS’ PERSPECTIVE

Turning a Yankee Liability into an Asset:
Selling New England Ice in India, 1833–1880
By Dan Cooper and Brian Grinder
During an MBA oral exam this past
summer, I (Brian) asked the student under
fire to imagine himself in Boston in 1833
where he meets an individual who wants
to load a ship with ice cut from local
ponds, transport it to Calcutta, India, and
sell it. “What advice would you give this
person?” I asked. The student thought for
a moment, surmised that the ship would
have to be wind powered, and asked how
long it would take to travel from Boston to
Calcutta in a ship under sail. “About four
months,” I replied, “and remember, since
there was no Suez Canal in 1833, the ice
would have to be transported across the
equator and around the southern tip of
Africa.” The student responded, “I would
advise him not to do it because the ice
would melt before it got there.”1
As others in the room listened in astonishment, I told the student how Fredric
Tudor successfully sent New England ice
to India in 1833 on an unrefrigerated sailing vessel. The success of his Indian venture came at a fortuitous time for Tudor,
who owed over $200,000 to his creditors
and was in danger of being sent to debtor’s
prison again.2
Tudor’s first ice trading venture in 1806
was met with derision by a reporter from
the Boston Gazette, who wrote, “No joke.
A vessel with a cargo of 180 tons of ice has
cleared out from this port for Martinique.
We hope this will not prove to be a slippery speculation.”
Although Tudor’s ice survived the
trip, poor planning resulted in a loss of
between $3,000 and $4,000. Undaunted,
Tudor began experimenting with ice house
designs, had an ice house built in Havana,
Cuba, and sent his first shipment of ice
there in January of 1807. In late 1807, he
decided to go to Cuba himself and build
an improved ice house, but before the ice
house was completed, the Embargo Act
of 1807 went into effect putting a halt to
Tudor’s ice business for the next two years.

“He who gives back at the first repulse and without striking
the second blow, despairs of success, has never been, is not,
and never will be, a hero in war, love, or business.”
— Frederic Tudor, 1805
The War of 1812 interrupted business
again, but Tudor pressed on in spite of
constant harassment from his creditors.
After the war, he expanded into Charleston, SC; Savannah, GA; and New Orleans,
LA. The New Orleans expansion was especially successful. Tudor, hoping to sell an
average of $10 of ice a day during his first
season in New Orleans, was overjoyed
when his brother Harry reported daily
sales averaging $40 a day. After 15 years of
setbacks, disappointments and frustration,
the business had finally reached a turning
point.
Shortly after receiving the good news
from New Orleans, Tudor suffered a nervous breakdown. The signs of increasing
stress were evident in Tudor’s daily diary
entries, which often included the word
“ANXIETY” written in bold capital letters. Fortunately, Tudor’s brother-in-law,
Robert Gardiner, stepped in and skillfully managed the business while Tudor
recovered. The ice business also received a
much-needed shot in the arm when Tudor
hired Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth in 1826.
Wyeth single-handedly changed the
production side of the ice industry with
his invention of a horse-drawn ice plow
in 1825. Before the ice plow, ice harvesters simply hacked ice out of ponds as best
they could. The irregular shapes of ice produced by this inefficient method caused
problems at sea because the ice would shift
during the voyage.
Wyeth’s plow produced uniform blocks
of ice that not only stayed put during
transport bu [