The Patrick White letterbook contains copies of 235 business letters of the Virginia mercantile firm of White, Whittle, & Co., written between August 20, 1791 and July 18, 1794, and 462 letters of Patrick White & Co., July 27, 1794 through August 14, 1797. Both firms engaged in the trans-Atlantic trade in staple goods, particularly grain and flour, and the letterbook contains valuable information on prices, the networks of trade, and other aspects of the mercantile culture of late 18th century Virginia.
Patrick White was a major merchant in Petersburg, Va. From at least August, 1791 through July, 1794, White was in partnership with Conway Whittle of Norfolk, specializing in the trade in grain and flour, but dabbling as well in corn, bread, tobacco, sugar, rum, nails, iron, Irish linen, hemp, and a profusion of other goods that came to hand. In 1794, White, Whittle & Co. dissolved when Whittle established Conway Whittle & Co., in Norfolk. Patrick White continued in trade as Patrick White & Co.
The scope of both of White's operations is impressive, not only in the breadth of goods marketed, but in the numbers of ports with which he traded. Both firms marketed goods not only throughout the state and up and down the eastern seaboard, but in Britain and, to a lesser degree, in other European nations.
