CHARTERS, JOHN [SSNE 4952]
Text source
John Charteris was an Edinburgh based merchant who travelled widely in the North Sea and Baltic countries. On 28 September/8 October 1686, he wrote to Andrew Russell [SSNE 143] from Aken [Achen?] telling him that he had received letters from David Melville Lord Leven [SSNE 5000]. However, he complained that he had received none from Russell in a while and requested a duplicate of a previous bill of exchange. He wished his letters to be sent to Mr Cunningham's house in Wesel. His accounts show that he had a healthy trade with Riga in 1687, and his Baltic trade grew from then on. Charteris acted as a merchant factor in Stockholm from about 1691. He certainly helped to ship goods to Leith in that year and negotiated the sale of the Swedish ship Maria of Stockholm, owned by a Scot and some Dutchmen, to a Glasgow firm. He became a burgess of Stockholm on 14 September 1697. Charteris usually imported wine from France or Spain. However, in Swedish sources John Charters is specifically listed as a trader dealing in herring from Glasgow in 1701 while he imported Swedish iron back into Scotland. There was a discussion in a letter from the commercial college to the king anent the price of Scottish, Norwegian and Dutch herring and as to why the Scots were getting a lower price. There was also a discussion as to the quality of the herring from the Glasgow side of Scotland being of better quality and bigger than that from Montrose or Bergen. At that time Charters is mentioned as an associate of Robert Forrest [SSNE 4889].Swedish Riksarkiv, Kommerskollegium till Kungl. Majt. 6 December 1701; Stadsarkiv Stockholm: Handelskollegium Borgarbok, 1689-1750; National Archives of Scotland, Russell Papers, RH15/106/609/8. John Charteris to Andrew Russell, 28/September 1689; National Archives of Scotland, Charteris, Miscellaneous Papers, RH15/59/3. Including Riga accounts, 1687; T. C. Smout 'Scottish Commercial Factors in the Baltic at the end of the Seventeenth Century' in Scottish Historical Review, XXXIX, 1960, p.127; T. C. Smout, Scottish Trade on the Eve of Union (Edinburgh & London, 1963), p.81.
Service record
- SCOTLAND, ACHEN, FLANDERS
- Arrived 1686-09-28
- Capacity MERCHANT, purpose TRADE, COMMERCE
- SCOTLAND, WESEL
- Arrived 1686-11-01
- Capacity MERCHANT, purpose TRADE, COMMERCE
- SCOTLAND, SWEDEN, STOCKHOLM
- Arrived 1691-03-17
- Departed 1701-12-31
- Capacity WINE MERCHANT, BURGESS, MERCHANT FACTOR, IRON IMPORTER, purpose TRADE, CIVIC, MERCANTILE